| Tirunetuntantakam | |
|---|---|
 Painting of the Samudra Manthana, the British Museum. | |
| Information | |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Author | Tirumangai Alvar |
| Language | Tamil |
| Period | 9th–10th century CE |
| Verses | 30 |
TheTirunetuntantakam (Tamil:திருநெடுந்தாண்டகம்,romanized: Tirunetuntāṇṭakam,lit. 'The sacred and long verse') is aTamilHindu work of literature authored byTirumangai Alvar,[1][2] one of the twelvepoet-saints ofSri Vaishnavism.[3] The work is a part of a compendium of hymns called theNalayira Divya Prabandham.[4] TheTirunetuntantakam consists of 30 hymns dedicated to the deityVishnu. It is written in aTamil poetic meter known as thetāṇṭakam, in which each line of a stanza consists of more than 26 syllables, composed of quatrains of equal length.[5][6]
Tirumangai Alvar takes the role of anayaki (a female consort) who pines for thenayaka (God) in the hymns of this work.[7]
In hymns 13 and 14, the poet-saint teaches a parrot to hail the epithets of Vishnu, and honours the bird by offering herfolded palms in veneration.[8]
The third hymn of theTirunetuntantakam describes theKurma incarnation of Vishnu during theSamudra Manthana:[9]
The dark blue-hued lord is a picture of auspiciousness. In each age he takes a different form, suited to that age. In the Tretayuga he took the huge form of a tortoise to churn ambrosia from the ocean. Other than praising him as the fair lord of dark hue and lotus eyes, can any one describe him in totality?
— Tirunetuntantakam, Hymn 3
The fourth hymn proclaims Vishnu's supremacy over other deities, celestial objects, and thefive elements:[10]
The lord who is master of Indra and Brahma appears as the five elements earth, water, fire, air and space, the poetry of Tamil and the Sanskrit Vedas. He is the four Quarters, Moon and Sun, the gods in the sky, the invisible Veda-purusha, the secret of the Upanishads. O Heart! If you can remember him through the Mantra, we can live in eternity.
— Tirunetuntantakam, Hymn 4
The hymns of theTirunetuntantakam have been interpreted to describe the three key principles of theVishishtadvaita philosophy:tattva (knowledge of the entities ofjiva,ajiva, andishvara),hita (achieving realisation throughbhakti andprapatti), andpurushartha (the goal ofmoksha). It also references the fiveAgamic forms of Vishnu that are featured in thePancharatra Agama: Para, the form of Vishnu inVaikuntha, the fourVyuhas and the Upavyuhas,Vibhava, Antaryami, the form of the deity who pervades all of existence, and Archa, the form of the deity venerated asmurtis.[11][12]
