AZHWARS:
====================================================================== ===================================================================== Monday, June 06, 2022. 06:00. AZHWARS: The Mystic Vaishnavite Saints of the South Bharatham ====================================================================== Azhwars (or Alvar) are the Vaishnavite saints who had composed a collection of 4000 hymns, called Nalayira Divya Prabhandham (4000 divine verses) in praise of Lord Vishnu and His many avatars. These verses are called “Dravida Veda” that is Vedas in the Tamil language! The word Azhwar, in Tamil, means “one who is immersed”. Since the azhwars were immersed in their devotion and love for the Lord, they were called so. The azhwars are twelve in number: 11 men and 1 woman, and they belonged to various castes, by birth. The only common thread amongst them all was their unwavering devotion to Lord Vishnu. The traditional view of the beginning of the timeline for the azhwars has been from t