How is Thiruvaimozhi structured ?

|| AUM NAMAHA NARAYANAYA ||

Velukkudi Sri Krishnan has explained beautifully in one of the discourses which is titled "Thiruvaimozhi Saaram" (essense of Thiruvaimozhi). You can download from youtube and is worth listening. I have taken the contents from this discourse and also from other sources.

Sri Nammalwar's Thiruvaimozhi has 1102 poems or songs (paasurams) which is 99 x 11 + 13. It can be called songs , as Thiruvaimozhi is set to a rhythm and metre and is sung in temples. Saamaveda (Thiruvaimozhi is the Dravidian equivalent of Saamaveda) is a collection of hymns of Rgveda that is set to a rhythmic metre, enabled for singing.

There are 100 decads (a decad is also called "thiruvaimozhi" as per tradition). Out of this 100 there is one decad that has 13 poems which is - panniru thirunamam - the 12 names of the Lord. The remaining 99 decads have 11 poems each , adding up to 1089 + 13 = 1102.

The essence of Thiruvaimozhi is to convey Artha panchakam. Artha Panchakam means the five things (or nature) that we need to understand in order to realise God, namely :

1. Paramatma svarUpa – Nature of God
2. Jeevatma svarUpa – Nature of Soul
3. UpAya-svarUpa – Nature of Means to reach Him
4. VirOdhi-svarUpa – Nature of obstacles
5. Prabhya SvarUpa - Nature of Goal 

Thiruvaimozhi can be grouped to fall under these five categories. The following have been identified by great scholars to cover these five natures.

Note: The Tamil pasurams can be downloaded in pdf format from projectmadurai.org. in this pdf, the songs are clearly numbered and it will be easy to correlate what is mentioned below.

1. Nature of God - Paramathma Svarupa
      Uyarvara uyar nalam    (1.1.1 to 1.1.11)
      Tinnan Veedu                (2.2.1 to 2.2.11)
      Anaivadu aravanaimel (2.8.1 to 2.8.11)
      Ondrum devum             (4.10.1 to 4.10.11)

2. Nature of the Soul -  Atma Svarupa
      Payilum Sudaroliyum   (3.7.1 to 3.7.11)
      Eralum   Iraiyonum      (4.8.1 to 4.8.11)
      Kangal Sivandhu          (8.8.1 to 8.8.11)
      Karumanika malai       (8.9.1 to 8.9.11)

3. Nature of Means - Upaya Svarupa
      Norranombilen          (5.7.1 to 5.7.11)
      Aravamude                (5.8.1 to 5.8.11)
      Maney nokku             (5.9.1 to 5.9.11)
      Pirandavarum           (5.10.1 to 5.10.11)

4. Nature of Obstacles - Virodhi Svarupa
       Veedumin murravum     (1.2.1 to 1.2.11)
       Sonnal virodhamidhu (3.9.1 to 3.9.11)
       Orunayakam                (4.1.1 to 4.1.11)
       Kondapendir                (9.1.1 to 9.1.11)

5. Nature of Goal -  Prabhya Svarupa
       Emmaveedu             (2.9.1 to 2.9.11)
       Olivil Kaalamellam (2.3.1 to  2.3.11)
       Nedumaradimai      (8.10.1 to  8.10.11)
       Vey marutolinai      (10.3.1 to  10.3.11)

More to come...