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 ﻿THE VISHNUVITE SAINTS

3:7

He did not recognise caste distinctions and held that divine knowledge alone could make a man high or low in the social scale :

குலந்தாங்கு சாதிகள் நாலிலும் கீழிழிந்து எத்தனை நலந்தா னிலாத சண்டாள சண்டாளர் களாகிலும் வலந் தாங்கு சக்கர த்தண்ணல் மணிவண்ணற் காளென்றுள் கலந் தார் அடியார் தம்மடியா ரெம்மடிகளே.

The question of the age of this Saint is very much disputed. Diverse opinions are current. The Vaishnava Acharyas take him to the beginning of the Kaliyug or B. C. 3102 and attempt to bridge over the wide guif of time between him and his disciple Nathamuni (tenth century A. D.) by asserting that the Alvar was his teacher in his archavatar or 'the idolic incarnation'; while some of the English, educated Vaishnavas would ascribe to him the opening vears of the Christian era as his probable age. As we have in the writings of Tirumangai Alvar there are no allusions to any king or political events in the works of Nammalvar to determine his date. There are, however, several other indications to prove that he flourished about the beginning of the tenth century A. D., and that he was the last of the Vaishnava Saints. We shall briefly give them below and leave the reader to judge for himself whether the above conclusions are logical or otherwise

(1) The Tamil language of Nammalvar differs from the Tamil of the poets of the Sangam or academic period. Our Alvar makes a free use of Sanskrit words and phrases like கிருமி, வாசகம், கன்மம், உப