October 5, 2023, will mark the bicentenary of Vallalar, aka Ramalinga Swamigal/Adigal. A saintly personage, he was far ahead of his time, advocating a way of life from which we as a people seem to be moving away from. He dismissed the caste system, advocated universal brotherhood, compassion to all living beings, free feeding, and the worship of the divine as light. This worship was to be done with the mind, sans any of the usual apparatus associated with puja.
Known as Vallalar, because of his charity, Ramalinga Swamigal, as he came to be known, spent much of his growing years in Chennai. He was born in the South Arcot district but following the demise of his father, he was brought to the city by his mother, where they lived with his older brother and family. This was at Veeraswami Street in George Town and the building still stands. The young Ramalingam was more interested in spiritual rather than conventional education, much to the distress of his older brother. But that he was destined for greater things became soon manifest when he stood in for his indisposed older brother at a discourse and held the audience spellbound.
To Ramalingar, the temple of Kandaswami at Rasappa Chetty Street in George Town was a second home, and it is said he spent hours there meditating. It was there that he composed his famous piece, Orumaiyudan Ninadu Malaradi, the song in which he famously describes our city as “Dharmamigu” (Charitable) Chennai. Ramalinga Swamigal would later migrate to Vadalur and then Mettukuppam from where he mysteriously vanished/dematerialised in 1874, a happening that is still unexplained. But his teachings live on as do his delectable verses, known as Arutpa, of which there are supposedly 5,818. While his erudition was welcomed by several scholars and patrons in Madras city who collected his works and had them published, opposition too came from here. That was from Arumuga Navalar of Jaffna who had come to Madras in connection with printing some of his own works. He strongly objected to the use of the term, Arutpa, for Ramalinga Swamigal’s work. The controversy, and the subsequent litigation, is the subject of a fabulous study by Pa Saravanan. The book, Arutpa Marutpa, written by him, makes for compulsive reading.
A quick perusal of the collected Arutpas reveal that Ramalinga Swamigal was deeply influenced by the historic temples in and around Chennai. The Tiruvottriyur shrine was clearly his favourite and in its cavernous sanctums and pavilions he is said to have spent several hours meditating. It is no wonder that many of his verses are in praise of the principal deities here — Adipuriswarar and Vadivudai Ammai. A personal favourite for me is his ‘Tiruvulaperu’ where he describes the deity being brought out in procession. Two other hallowed temples, now well within the city limits — Masilamaniswarar at Tirumullaivayil and Thiruvalleeswarar at Thiruvalidhayam (Padi) — received songs in their praise too. Interestingly, while his biography states that he visited the Mylapore Kapaliswarar Temple on the fifth night of its annual festival when the deity is brought out on a magnificent silver bull, there is no verse that survives from Ramalinga Swamigal’s oeuvre.
Two hundred years after his birth, though his teachings remain above most of us, his verses unfailingly move, with their structure, their lyrics and the adoration of the divine. Chennai in its long history has had many savants, but Ramalinga Swamigal remains unique. To me, he will always be the city’s saint. I hope his bicentenary will be fittingly observed.
(V. Sriram is a writer and historian.)
