Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.1247

c8.1247

There are four thousand songs in four parts in the Divine composition and hence it the name Nāḷāyira Prabandham ‘Four thousand composition’. The theme of the 1st and 2nd thousands is a secret known as ‘Tirumantra’ (the divine spell). The third thousand is concerned with the ‘‘Caramaśloka’’ (the verse of death) and in the fourth ‘‘Dvayamantra’’ is dealt with. The Tirumantra (the divine spell) is the collection of three words Om, namaḥ and Nārāyaṇāya.