Meena, a history student from Madurai, visits a large temple where priests sing old Tamil hymns during the daily worship, and the image of a poet-saint stands near the main deity. Her guide tells her that the poet-saint once walked from place to place, singing in praise of his god. In the temple library she finds a large anthology of poems by the Alvars and the verses of a Tamil woman poet who calls herself the beloved of her god. She also reads a scholar's note on quarrels between groups who followed different paths of worship in early medieval India.
Meena learns that the anthology of Alvar poems she found was often described as the Tamil Veda. What did this description claim?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → That the text was as significant as the four Vedas in Sanskrit cherished by the Brahmanas.
Option (1) That the text was as significant as the four Vedas in Sanskrit cherished by the Brahmanas. — Correct. The name showed the <strong>importance of the Alvar tradition</strong>. Calling the Nalayira Divyaprabandham the Tamil Veda claimed it was <strong>as significant as the four Vedas</strong> in Sanskrit.
Option (2) That the text was a Tamil translation of the four Vedas in Sanskrit made for the Brahmanas. — Incorrect. The anthology was a collection of the Alvars' own Tamil compositions, put together from their hymns.
Option (3) That the text replaced the four Vedas, which the Alvars rejected as books of the Brahmanas. — Incorrect. The name claimed equal standing with the Vedas, which kept their place as revered texts. Some historians see a protest against caste in these saints, which makes this tempting.
Option (4) That the text was to be recited by Brahmanas, in the same way as the four Vedas. — Incorrect. The Alvar tradition welcomed bhaktas from many castes, so the claim was about the text's standing, with no rule keeping it for Brahmanas.
NCERT (2026-27): “2.2 Attitudes towards caste … |