Thirumalisai Alwar

The saints who played a key role in promoting Vaishnavism by being the supreme devotees of Lord Vishnu were named the "Alvars." During the 5th-8th century A.D, twelve devotees came together and willingly devoted their lives to Lord Vishnu and performed various religious activities, wrote Tamil devotional songs praising their god. Those songs were named Nalayira Divya Prabandham, containing 4000 verses in total. These songs are being cherished in 108 temples which are classified as "Divya desam."

All the 12 alvars were originated from different castes; the first three devotees Poigai, Bhutha, and Pey, were born supernaturally. Tirumazhisai was the son of a sage, Thondaradi, Mathurakavi, Periyalvar, and Andal were from the brahmin community, Kulasekhara from Kshatriya community, Nammalvar was from a cultivator family, Tirupanalvar from panar community, and Tirumangaiyalvar from kallar community.

All these alvars are considered as the incarnations of various weapons of Lord Vishnu. Poigai is considered an incarnation of Panchajanya (Krishna's conch), Bhoothath of Kaumodakee (Vishnu's Mace/Club), Pey of Nandaka (Vishnu's sword), Thirumalisai of Sudarshanam (Vishnu's discus), Nammalvar of Vishvaksena (Vishnu's commander), Madhurakavi of Vainatheya (Vishnu's eagle, Garuda), Kulasekhara of Kaustubha (Vishnu's necklace), Periy of Garuda (Vishnu's eagle), Andal of Bhoodevi (Vishnu's wife, Lakshmi, in her form as Bhudevi), Thondaradippodi of Vanamaalai (Vishnu's garland), Thiruppaanalvar of Srivatsa (An auspicious mark on Vishnu's chest) and Thirumangaiyalvar of Saranga (Rama's bow).

It is said that the song Prabandham is always sung in all the Vishnu temples that are present in the southern part of India.

It is believed that most of these alvars lived between 4200-2700 BCE. They also controlled the ruling of Pallava kings by joining the Saiva nayanmaras resulting in the occurrence of the Bhakti movement for bringing a change in the religious geography from Buddhism and Jainism to these two sects of Hinduism in the region. Alvars also promoted Ramayana, Mahabharata, and the Bhagavatha cult in their regions. They also wrote "Tamil veda," a compilation of all the verses of alvars compiled by Nathamuni in the 10th century.

Thirumalisai Alvar

Thirumalisai Alvar was named after his birthplace called Thirumalisai, in Jagannatha Perumal temple. He was born to Bhargava maharishi and his wife Kanakangi after being in the womb for 12 months. On his birth, kanakangi, his mother, gave birth to shapeless flesh without any human features. So the couple left the flesh in a bamboo bush and started their spiritual journey.

Later, lord Vishnu appeared to bless the lifeless lump of flesh with his "Kataksham" to transform it into a human baby, and then the tribal couple named Tiruvalan and Pankajavalli adopted the baby with all joy to grow him as their own. This child became one of the alvars after getting the life lesson from Pey Alwar.

The Early Life of Thirumalisai

Thirumalisai grew as a normal child in a hamlet in Pirayampathu with his tribal parents for up to 10 years. It is said that thriumalisai had an eye on his right leg, which made everyone believe that he is the son of the god. In the later years, he started learning different religions like Buddhism, Jainism, and other literature. After all his spiritual learnings, he became a great devotee of Lord Siva and then changed his name to Siva vakya.

One day Siva vakya came across an older man who was planting his plant upside down and was watering it with a broken pot. When he started noticing him more, he also noticed that he was fetching water from an empty well with a tattered rope tied to that broken pot. Siva vakya was confused and then approached the old man by asking about the foolish act that he was performing.

The old man replied by saying that this was a less foolish act than following lord Siva even after knowing that Vishnu is the supreme deity. Siva vakya was offended, and he started arguing with the old man. At the end of the argument, the old man turned out to be Pey Alvar, and Siva vakya also inclined to believe that Vishnu was the supreme deity of all.

He later went to Sri Vaishnavism school, which is present in Thondai Nadu of South India, and changed his name back to Thirumalisai. Then Thirumalisai became one of the alvars, and now he is believed to be the incarnation of Sudarsana chakra, which is the divine disc present at the hand of Lord Vishnu.