| It has eighteen
sacred places, the more famous ones being Tirukkurungudi,
Tirumalirumsolai and Tirukkottiyur. Tirumalisai alvar (one
of the early alvars from Tondaimandalam) visited Tirukkurungudi
and Tirukkotiyur but not Tirumalirumsolai probably because
the last named had not become prominent in his days. Nor did
Kulasekhara visit the shirne.¹ But it has been visited
by the later alvars (four). It will also be noticed from the
chart that except in tyhe case of Triumalirumsolai and Tirukkurungudi
the shrines which were visited by Sri Nammalvar were omitted
by Sri Periya Alvar and Sri Andal. Apart from the circumstance
that the two alvars belonged to different castes there may
have been some other reason also for his noticeable attitude.
There is also the fact that they did not visit the place by
a vist the place of birth of each other as they seem to have
been contemporaries. If they were not contemporaries we would
except the one who was born later to honour the older's birth
place by a vist. The Deities in their birth places (Alvar
Tirunagari and Srivilliputtur) were not visited or sung by
any other alvars excepting themselves. This leads to the suspicion
that the greatness of Sri Nammalvar and Sri Periya Alvar was
recognised only after their death and perhaps due to the publicity
given by Sri Nathamuni and some of the later acharyas. |
