Arunagirinathar

Tamil Shaivite saint poet

the film

Arunagirinathar (, ) was a Tamil Shaiva saint poet who lived during the 14th century in Tamil Nadu, India. In his treatise A History of Indian Literature (1974), Czech Indologist Kamil Zvelebil places Arunagirinathar's period between circa 1370 CE and circa 1450 CE. He was the creator of Tiruppukal (, , meaning "Holy Praise" or "Divine Glory"), a book of poems in Tamil in praise of Murugan. His poems are known for their lyricism coupled with complex rhymes and rhythmic structures. In the Tiruppukal, the literature and devotion has been blended harmoniously. Tiruppukal is one of the major works of medieval Tamil literature, known for its poetical and musical qualities, as well as for its religious, moral and philosophical content.

Arunagirinathar was born in Senguntha Kaikolar family during the 14th century in Tiruvannamalai, a town in the Vijayanagara empire. His father died soon after his birth and his pious mother and sister instilled in him, their cultural and religious traditions. Legends claim that Arunagirinathar was attracted to the pleasures of the flesh and spent his youth in pursuing a life of debauchery. His sister always gave whatever she earned to make her brother happy, and he frequently visited the devadasis. It was said that since he was enjoying his life in dissipation, he started to suffer from leprosy and because of it people started to avoid him. There came a time when his sister had no money to meet his demands for dissipation. Arunagirinathar said he was going to kill himself because of this. To prevent Arunagirinathar from committing suicide, his sister said that he should sell her in order to have money, upon hearing which Arunagirinathar realised how selfish he had been. He decided to end his life, went to a temple and hit his head against the pillars and steps, begging for forgiveness. He considered jumping to his death from the temple tower but according to legends, the deity Murugan himself prevented him from committing suicide, cured his leprosy, showed him a path of reform and piety, initiated him to create devotional songs for the benefit of mankind.

The above story, though popular contradicts the poet's own version of his story. In the Tiruppukal, Manaiaval nahaikka, Arunagirinather speaks of how his wife, parents and relatives were utterly disgusted with him and ridicule from friends and others in town impelled him to try to end his life. He thanks the deity for saving him at this time. This not only shows that his father was alive much longer than what myths suggest but also that he was married. Arunagirinathar sang his first devotional song thereafter and decided to spend the rest of his life in piety, writing devotional poetry and singing in the praise of God. He was a devotee of Murugan and worshipped him at the sacred Vedapureeswarar temple in the town of Cheyyar. His fame drew the jealousy of the chief minister of the Kingdom. He accused Arunagirinathar of espousing false beliefs. The king arranged a public gathering of thousands and commanded Arunagirinathar to prove the existence of Murugan to others. According to Tamil Hindu tradition, it is recorded that Arunagirinathar began performing his devotional songs for Murugan and soon after, the form of child Murugan miraculously appeared before those gathered, thus saving his life.

There is no doubt that Arunagirinathar possessed a deep knowledge of music and rhythms. His compositions contain references to various ragas (known as panns in Tamil) such as Varali, Lalita, Bhairavi, Malahari, Bowli, Gowla, Kuranji etc. Though he has himself not employed them, he mentioned the fundamental five Marga talas Shashatputam, ShashapuTam, Shatpitaputrikam, Sampatveshtakam and Udghattam as well as three others Utsava, Darpana and Charchari talas. His compositions are set in complex meters and form an alternate system of talas called Chanda (meter based) talas. The original music of Arunagirinathar has unfortunately not survived which has necessitated them to be re tuned in recent times. Early musicians who set Tiruppukal to music included Carnatic musical giant, Kancheepuram Naina Pillai (1888 1934) and his disciple, Chittoor Subramaniam Pillai (1898 1975). Several musicians including G N Balasubramaniam, Alathur Brothers and M M Dandapani Deshikar used to render many of these prominently in their concerts and soon there was not a single musician who had not learnt at least a few of these. A great number of these were also set to music by noted Tiruppukal exponent A. S. Raghavan which enabled these masterful creations to gain mass popularity. He set to tune more than 500 of these songs in over 100 Ragas and several of these are being rendered by his large following of Tiruppukal devotees ("Tiruppukal Anbargal"). Thanks to him, Tiruppukal classes sprung up both in cities and rural areas, and Tiruppukal Anbargal started performing in various forums including Temples, Music Sabhas and homes of devotees where they attracted large audiences. Some of these students who settled in countries outside India started Tiruppukal classes in their new communities, thus extending the reach of his movement to other continents, and giving the movement an international footing. Other musicians who have set music to Tiruppukal include Chitravina N. Ravikiran.

In 1964, a biopic Tamil film, starring popular playback singer, T. M. Soundararajan in the title role, was released.