KIRAN ATMA: Tirumangai

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Hinduism - Who Was Tirumangai?

(9th c.) The Alvars, a group of twelve poet-saints who lived in southern India during the seventh and tenth centuries, are by far the most picturesque.

The Alvars were all worshippers of the deity Vishnu, and their emphasis on ardent devotion (bhakti) to a particular god, expressed via hymns sung in Tamil, revolutionized Hindu religious life.

Tirumangai was born into a thieving caste, according to legend, and stealing, robbery, and deception play a prominent part in the stories related with him.

According to one narrative, after accepting a vow to feed 1,008 Vaishnavas for a year, he resorted to highway robbery to collect the necessary finances; another time, he resorted to robbery to raise funds to expand the Shrirangam temple.

He enjoyed the constant assistance of Vishnu, his favorite god, in these and other works; regardless of their veracity or untruth, these legends indicate a great deal about the fervent devout dedication of his day.

See Kamil Zvelebil, Tamil Literature, 1975, and John Stirling Morley Hooper, Hymns of the Alvars, 1929, for further details.

~Kiran Atma

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Hinduism - What Are Thief Castes In A Hindu Society?

Traditional Indian society was modeled around a collection of endogamous subgroups known as jatis ("birth").

These were endogamous subgroups (i.e., groupings in which marriages happened exclusively between members of the same group).

The group's hereditary occupation, over which each group held a monopoly, was how these jatis were structured (and how their social rank was decided).

Although it may seem strange, this specialization applied to all jobs, and there were hereditary occupational groupings dedicated to stealing and banditry.

Tirumangai (9th century), by far the most picturesque of the Alvars, a group of twelve poet-saints who lived in southern India during the seventh and tenth centuries, was the most renowned of them.