DUAL PERSONALITY

"In his swaroopa (essential nature) he was supremely independent, but through his endearing qualities he made himself subject to me".

Tirumalisai Alvar declares in Nanmukan Tiruvandadi (7): "O Lord! I have no existence without you, you being my sole protector; and you have no existence without me as the person to be protected." His appearance symbolized these two truths. Our love for each other was also such that the existence of the one without the other was unthinkable.

In the works of other Alvars also we come across this phenomenon of dichotomy in the same person. For instance, in the commentary on Tiruppavai it has been stated that Andal contemplated on Srivilliputtur as Gokula, the girls residing therein as cowherd girls, ‘herself as one of them, the temple of the local deity as the mansion of Nandagopa, the deity of Vataperum koyil udaiyan residing therein as Sri Krishna. Her mind thus being completely absorbed in Gokula, her gait, her hairstyle, her speec etc, all acquired the nature of those of the cowherd maidens". Having sung Tiruppavai in these circumstances, Andal concludes the composition transcending her condition as a gopi and becoming her normal self, for she declares that Tiruppavai is the "classic composition of Goda, the daughter of Bhattar piran of beautiful Srivilliputtur who is adorned with fresh garlands of lotuses".

Nammalvar’s Tiruvaimoli has poems of four kinds, those uttered by him as himself, those containing the outpouring of (himself as) a love lorn lass, those representing the words of her mother, and those conveying the sentiments of her confidante.