A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c20.12

c20.12

The Vaishnava wing of the movement is represented by twelve ālvārs (‘divers’ into the qualities of God) for whom orthodox tradition gives an impossible chronology. Three of them—Poygai, Pūdam, Pēy, born respectively at Kāñchī, Mallai and Mylapore—are believed to have come earliest. A beautiful legend tells how these three saints sheltered from the rain in a narrow room which could only just hold them standing, when Vishnu himself came seeking their company. The bhakti of these early saints is a gentle, simple devotion, altogether free from a sectarian outlook. This fact, and their employment of the veṇbā metre in their songs, points to a really early date for them—not later than the fifth or the sixth century A.D.