The Tiruvaimoli of Nammalvar: Rendered in English (An Old and Rare Book)

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The inexplicable wonder of the advent of Nammalvar, and the faithful Madhurakavi's association with him, are eternal reminders of an unseen element shaping great lives and works. Yet from the human angle, the Tiruvaimoli stands out as the life-story of a forsaken child, abandoned by parents in the hole of a tamarind tree, growing up alone and unattended, weeping to be heard and loved, not for charity or for pity, but for the exalted principle.

The poem is an Andadi, a garland of 1102 Tamil verses, arranged into a hundred decads. It unfolds a drama of love, but couched in those terms is an allegory on the ascent of the soul. Like the Prabodha Candrodayam of Krishna Misra and Sankalapa Suryodayam of Vedanta Desika, works which the Tiruvaimoli anticipates by at least six centuries, the several layers of a unified consciousness Prakriti, Mahat, Ahankara and Manas enveloping the Atman take on roles and become the dramatis personae. Manas the heart of every man, is a maiden in love, the Nayika. Ahankara, the rational self or the intellect, becomes the Nayika's chaperoning mother. The Gunas of Mahat Sattva, Rajas and Tamas appear in the roles of the Acarya, the Sakhis, and the Bairagis. Even the unretorting pets, the garden bees, and the clouds in the sky, play their parts, as Prakriti. The Atman is the Sutradhara and the lord, the supreme oversoul, the Nayaka.