Question

Who were the Nayanars and Alvars? Write about them in brief.

Answer 1

Hint:
The Nayanars and Alvars were the Tamil poet-saints.
They played a crucial role between the 5th-10th Centuries in propagating the Bhakti Movement in Southern India.
The Nayanars were a group of 63 saints who lived between the 6th to 8th centuries CE, dedicated to Lord Shiva.

Complete answer:
New religious movements led by Nayanars (saints devoted to Shiva) and Alvars (saints devoted to Vishnu), who came from all castes, including those deemed 'untouchables,' such as the Pulaiyar and the Panars, originated between the 7th and 9th centuries. They detested Buddhists and Jains and preached that the way to salvation was reverence for Shiva and Vishnu. In Sangam literature, they believed in the virtues of devotion and heroism and combined them with bhakti beliefs. Nayanars and Alvars wandered from place to place and wrote special poetry and music in honour of their deities. The Chola and Pandya kings constructed magnificent temples around the shrines visited by these saint-poets between the tenth and the twelfth centuries. Their poems were collected and their hagiographies (religious biographies) were written, and for contemporary historians, still, now they are sources of history.

Note:
In Nayanaras, Nambiyandar Nambi, the high priest of Raja Raja Chola I, collected the hymns into a collection of volumes called the Tirumurai.
A combined volume known as Divya Prabandha was made into the hymns of the Alvars.
The Nayanars, like the Brahmins, Harijan, and nobles, were from diverse backgrounds. They are considered, along with the twelve Vaishnava Alvars, to be the major Hindu saints of South India.
The Bhakti literature that emerged in Alvars led to the development and maintenance of a society that broke away from the ritual-oriented Vedic faith and was rooted in dedication as the only route to salvation.