CDS (II) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 52 of 120

Correct — C, Andal. Andal is not a Nayanar at all — she is an Alvar, and the two groups face opposite ways. The Nayanars, sixty-three in number, were Tamil devotees of Shiva whose hymns were gathered into the Tirumurai; the Alvars, twelve in number, were devotees of Vishnu whose compositions make up the Nalayira Divyaprabandham. NCERT states the point plainly, calling Andal a woman Alvar and Karaikkal Ammaiyar a devotee of Shiva in the very next sentence. Andal is the only woman among the twelve Alvars; she grew up at Srivilliputhur in the Pandya country in about the eighth century and composed the Tiruppavai and the Nachiyar Tirumoli, poems in which she speaks as the beloved of Vishnu. The other three names on the list are precisely the three women counted among the sixty-three Nayanars.

• (a)Karaikkal Ammaiyar — She is a Nayanar, and the most celebrated of the three women in that list — a sixth-century devotee of Shiva who took the path of extreme asceticism and is depicted in Chola bronze as an emaciated figure at Nataraja's dance.
• (b)Mangayarkkarasiyar — Also a Nayanar. She was a Pandya queen, consort of Nedumaran, and is remembered for her part in the Shaiva revival in the Pandya country.
• (d)Isaignaniyar — The third woman Nayanar, and the mother of the Nayanar Sundarar. Her inclusion in the sixty-three is not in doubt.

The earliest bhakti movements in the Tamil country, from about the sixth century, were led by two sets of travelling poet-saints. The Alvars sang of Vishnu, the Nayanars of Shiva; both moved from shrine to shrine composing hymns in Tamil, and the places they sang about often grew into major temples and pilgrimage centres. Their compositions were later treated as scripture — the Alvars' anthology was even described as the Tamil Veda.

The item is a one-word discrimination dressed up as a list. Three of the four names are obscure enough that a candidate is unlikely to know them individually, so the question is really asking whether you can place Andal — and Andal is among the most widely known names in Tamil devotional literature, precisely because she is the single woman among the twelve Alvars. The saving reflex is to remember which god each group belonged to. Alvar goes with Vishnu, Nayanar with Shiva; Andal's poems are addressed to Krishna and to Vishnu, so she cannot be in the Shaiva list. Both groups did include women, which is why the stem's phrase 'woman Nayanar saint' does not by itself rule anyone out.

• There are sixty-three Nayanars, devotees of Shiva; their hymns are collected in the Tirumurai.
• There are twelve Alvars, devotees of Vishnu; their compositions form the Nalayira Divyaprabandham.
• The three women among the Nayanars are Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Mangayarkkarasiyar and Isaignaniyar.
• Andal, the only woman among the Alvars, is associated with Srivilliputhur in Tamil Nadu and composed the Tiruppavai and the Nachiyar Tirumoli.
• Appar, Sambandar, Sundarar and Manikkavachakar are the Nayanars whose names recur most often in the syllabus; Nammalvar and Periyalvar do the same duty on the Vaishnava side.

• Assuming a woman saint from the Tamil country must be a Nayanar. Both groups had women, and Andal is on the Vaishnava side.
• Reversing the two names — Alvars are for Vishnu, Nayanars for Shiva.
• Reading a 'not correctly matched' or 'is not' stem as if it asked for the correct match. Here you are being asked for the odd one out.

Either as an odd-one-out over saint names, or as a pairing item that asks which deity the Alvars or the Nayanars were devoted to.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Nalayira Divyaprabandham is the anthology of the compositions of which group of Tamil saints?

  • (a)The Nayanars
  • (b)The Alvars
  • (c)The Siddhars
  • (d)The Virashaivas

  Answer(b) The Alvars — the twelve Vaishnava poet-saints, whose anthology was often described as the Tamil Veda.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Karaikkal Ammaiyar, remembered for an ascetic path and depicted in Chola bronze, was a devotee of which deity?

  • (a)Vishnu
  • (b)Murugan
  • (c)Shiva
  • (d)Devi in her Shakti form

  Answer(c) Shiva — she is one of the sixty-three Nayanars and the earliest of the three women among them.