(9th century) One of
the Alvars, a group of twelve poet-saints who flourished during the seventh and
tenth centuries in southern India.
The Alvars were all worshippers of Vishnu, and their
emphasis on ardent devotion (bhakti) to a personal deity, expressed via hymns
sung in Tamil, revolutionized and reinvigorated Hindu religious life.
Tondaradippodi was born as Vipra Narayana, a brahmin whose
family's hereditary labor was to arrange the flow ers for the worship of
Ranganatha, a manifestation of Vishnu who is the principal deity at the
Shrirangam temple, according to legend.
He was smitten with a prostitute who cast her spell on him,
and he paid no heed to anything else for a while.
In the end, Ranganatha rescued him, and Vipra Narayana
dedicated the rest of his life to him, adopting his new name ("Dust of the
Feet of the Slaves [of God]") as a sign.
See Kamil Zvelebil, Tamil Literature, 1975, and John
Stirling Morley Hooper, Hymns of the Alvars, 1929, for further information.
