Bhūthath Āzhwār

On the shore of the sea in Tondai Nāḍu lies the town of Kaḍal Mallai, a kshethram where devotees who praise Emperumān have always gathered in great numbers.

Kaḍal Mallai is also known as Māmallapuram, and over the years it has come to be called Mahābalipuram. It was named Māmallapuram after Māmallan, a great king of the Pallava dynasty who ruled it. It is called Mahābalipuram after Mahābali Chakravarthi. When Sriman Nārāyaṇa came to him as Vāmana and asked for three paces of land, Mahābali, unable to offer the third, surrendered his own head to receive it. For this complete surrender to Emperumān, Mahābali was blessed with moksham, and the town still carries his name.

Emperumān reveals Himself in different postures in different kshethrams: standing in some (nindra thirukkōlam), seated in others (vīṭrirundha thirukkōlam), and reclining in yet others (kiḍantha thirukkōlam). Kaḍal Mallai is one of the greatest of the kshethrams where the Lord, as Sthala Shayana Perumāl, reclines in kiḍantha thirukkōlam.

To all these glories, the kshethram adds one more. In the year Siddhārthi, in the month of Aippasi, on Navami, under the Aviṭṭam nakshatram, Bhūthath Āzhwār was born in a small mādhavi flower, as an amsham of the Kaumodakī, the mace of Emperumān and another of His five divine weapons.

From childhood his heart and every thought were turned towards Sriman Nārāyaṇa, and he spent his life singing the Lord's glory.