திருநாமமும் அடியார் உறவும்: தொண்டரடிப்பொடியாழ்வாரின் திருமாலையில் வைணவச் சமூக அறம்: The Divine Name and the Fellowship of Devotees: Vaishnava Social Ethics in Tondaradippodi Alvar's Tirumalai

Abstract

The central thesis of this article is that Tondaradippodi Alvar's Tirumalai is a work of Vaishnava social ethics which, resting on the two pillars of the divine name and the fellowship of devotees, establishes devotion rather than birth as the measure of human worth. Comprising forty-five pasurams in the First Thousand of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, the work is sung with the Lord of Arangam (Srirangam) at its centre. The article examines four themes: (1) the greatness of the divine name, the idea that uttering the Lord's name is itself protection in this life and the next; (2) humility, the Alvar's path of naichyanusandhanam, in which he finds fault with himself; (3) the worth of devotees, the position that service to the Bhagavatas is higher than service to Bhagavan; and (4) birth-based hierarchy, the social critique that devotion rather than birth into a lineage determines eminence. The study combines three approaches: close reading of the pasurams, interpretation in the line of Periyavachan Pillai's commentary (vyakhyana) tradition, and socio-historical contextualisation. It concludes that the Tirumalai is not a revolutionary text that entirely dismantles the caste system; yet by creating the new social identity of the 'adiyar' (devotee), it puts forward a standard of moral evaluation that is an alternative to birth-based hierarchy. This conception later became the literary foundation for the Vaishnava social practices of Ramanuja's time.

Keywords

• Tondaradippodi Alvar
• Tirumalai
• divine name
• Bhagavata Seshatvam
• naichyanusandhanam
• Vaishnava social ethics
• caste critique
• bhakti movement
• Srirangam