The Tiruvacagam

This has always been considered the first of MAnikka-vACagar's poems, and it has all the characteristics of a preface, as enumerated in the NannUl; but its very technical completeness makes its genuineness doubtful; and it rather apperars to have been added by the Tillai assembly when the lyrics of the Saint were first collected. In the VAthavUrar purANam(V II) it is said that after the divine Master had returned to Kailacam, the sage with the 999 devotees remained under the Kurunthu tree at Perunn-turrai, where the God had first appeared to him; erected a shrine there, and spent this time in adoration and praise, until his fellow-worshippers passed through the fire to Civan, leaving him alone. To this, the first period of his religious history, the following three poems belong; and also according to tradition, lyrics 19, 20, 23-29, 32-34, 36, 38, 39, 41-48, and perhaps a few others. Here all the Tamil lines are of four feet, except the last, which has three only. The connection is VeNTaLai. The metre is veng-kalipA.