Book Reviewed: The Divine World of the Alvars by Pravrajika Shuddhatmamata

The Tamil saints who championed bhakti yoga The Alvars were the Tamil poet-saints of South India who espoused bhakti and intense devotion to Lord Vishnu and his avatars in their songs of longing, ecstasy, and service. They were completely immersed in their devotion to Vishnu as the Ultimate Reality who were known to have lived between the 6th and 9th century CE. According to the legends the Alvars lived much earlier, between 4200 BCE and 2700 BCE. There were twelve Alvars including one female named Andal. Their hymns compiled as the Naalayira Divya Prabandham contained four-thousand verses, and 108 temples are revered in their hymns, which are called Divya Desams. The songs of the Prabandham are sung daily, and during many festivals in the Vishnu temples of South India. This is the first time in India where the devotees of God were establishing a human relationship with God; a relationship of a servant to a Master, of a friend to a Friend, of a mother to her Child, and of a lover to the Beloved. Though the Lord was transcendent and beyond all comprehension, He was also the Lord who resided in the nearby temple, Divya Desam. The poetry of the Alvars expresses ecstasy embodies the depth of feeling and the felicity of expressions. This form of worship was revolutionary for Hindu religion since this is the first time the Vedic traditions of performing rituals were sidelined. Hinduism was being transformed to a different level, the practice of bhakti as the only path for true freedom from the cycle of life, birth, death, and rebirth. According to the teachings of Bhagavadgita, the practice of Bhakti yoga is one of the principal methods to reach unity with Lord Krishna, one of the avatars of Vishnu. What was Alvars philosophy? It was pure ecstatic love of God, and they were not philosophers, but theologians, men and women from all classes and castes. During these historic times, the southern part of the country saw the 'folk' religion emerging more strongly than the rituals of the Vedic traditions. Part of this historical “uprising” may also be due to the challenges Hinduism faced as a religion from Buddhism and Jainism. These two faiths did not admit to the existence of a Personal God; however, they were very influential in South India during the first to the fifth centuries CE. Kanchipuram alone had three great Buddhist scholars; Dignaga, Bodhidharma, and Dharmapala. The relationships among followers of the three faiths were initially cordial, but as the kingdoms began to favor and patronize one religion over the others, rivalries emerged. Hinduism is a theistic religion that believes in God, and its followers longed for a God who symbolized love. The temples became the center of life for people in a literal sense. For instance, the whole city of Madurai was built around the Minakshi temple, and other places such as Srirangan and Tirupati became the cities of bhakti and for the ecstatic love of God. The emphasis is given to prapatti (self-surrender), unlike the Gaudiya Vaishnavas whose worship centers almost exclusively on Krishna, the Alvars worship Vishnu and his avatars. The Periyalvar and Andal's works remind of the love of gopis for Krishna in Vrindavan described in the Srimad Bhagavatam. It is likely that much of this material was adapted from Alvar songs. Srimad Bhagavatam is known to have been written in about the 10th century CE. Andal describes a ritual similar to one described in the Bhagavatam, where the gopis' vow to worship Goddess Katyayani to wed Krishna. Andal's poetry has a similar purpose to wed Lord of Srirangam and it was in his image that she is said to have merged. This is a short book of 127 pages that significantly condenses the extensive work of Alvars. The temples and the deities that so inspired Alvar poets should have been printed in the book so that the reader could connect with Alvar’s manifestation of ecstatic love for Lord Vishnu.