23 Facts About Arunagirinathar

Arunagirinathar was the creator of Tiruppukal, a book of poems in Tamil in praise of Murugan.

Arunagirinathar's poems are known for their lyricism coupled with complex rhymes and rhythmic structures.

Arunagirinathar was born in Senguntha Kaikolar family during the 14th century in Tiruvannamalai, a town in the Vijayanagara empire.

Arunagirinathar's father died soon after his birth and his pious mother and sister instilled in him, their cultural and religious traditions.

Legends claim that Arunagirinathar was attracted to the pleasures of the flesh and spent his youth in pursuing a life of debauchery.

Arunagirinathar said he was going to kill himself because of this.

Arunagirinathar decided to end his life, went to a temple and hit his head against the pillars and steps, begging for forgiveness.

Arunagirinathar considered jumping to his death from the temple tower but according to legends, the deity Murugan himself prevented him from committing suicide, cured his leprosy, showed him a path of reform and piety, initiated him to create devotional songs for the benefit of mankind.

Arunagirinathar sang his first devotional song thereafter and decided to spend the rest of his life in piety, writing devotional poetry and singing in the praise of God.

Arunagirinathar was a devotee of Murugan and worshipped him at the sacred Vedapureeswarar temple in the town of Cheyyar.

Arunagirinathar's fame drew the jealousy of the chief minister of the Kingdom.

The king arranged a public gathering of thousands and commanded Arunagirinathar to prove the existence of Murugan to others.

Arunagirinathar, rendered his first song 'Mutthai tharu' after the miraculous rescue from suicide, at Tiruvannamalai.

Arunagirinathar visited temples all over South India and composed 16,000 songs - at present about 1,334 alone were found.

Arunagirinathar's songs show the way to a life of virtue and righteousness and set the tone for a new form of worship, the musical worship.

Arunagirinathar believed that Devi had incarnated on the pusam nakshatra day for the benefit of mankind, in many places, extolling the sanctity of these places, 'She' had a green coloured complexion, and 'She' was the personification of the Vedas.

Arunagirinathar toured all over South India, collected manuscripts, including palm leaves, assembled the texts and published them in two volumes, the first in 1894 and the second in 1901.

Arunagirinathar went to so many shrines such as Shiva temple and Murugan temples, Melakadambur is one of them.

Arunagirinathar wrote a song about this shrine's Muruga "kaviri seerumon seeraru soozh kadambooril" - means Muruga is blessing us from the place where the tributary of the river Cauvery is the Vadavaaru.

Arunagirinathar's compositions contain references to various ragas such as Varali, Lalita, Bhairavi, Malahari, Bowli, Gowla, Kuranji etc.

Arunagirinathar's compositions are set in complex meters and form an alternate system of talas called Chanda talas.

The original music of Arunagirinathar has unfortunately not survived which has necessitated them to be re-tuned in recent times.

Arunagirinathar set to tune more than 500 of these songs in over 100 Ragas and several of these are being rendered by his large following of Tiruppukal devotees.