Māran of Tirukkurugūr

Nam Āzhwār was born to Kāriyār and Uḍaiyanangaiyār, of the Vellāḷar community, at Tirukkurugūr near Tirunelvēli in the Pandya land. He was born on the forty-third day of the Kali Yuga, a Friday, under the Vishākha nakshatram, on Shukla Chaturdashi, in the Kaṭaka lagnam, in the month of Vrishabha, in Vasanta ritu, in the year Pramādi.

The child was extraordinary. For many days he lived in perfect health with his eyes closed, taking no food at all, neither his mother's milk nor anything else. For days together he made no sound. Distressed, his parents laid the child at the shrine of Ādinātha, the Lord of Kurugūr, surrendering to Him the whole burden of the child's upbringing.

Because the child was so unlike other children, he was named Māran. He was also called Saṭhagōpan, for, unlike other infants, he did not allow worldly ignorance to envelop him.

For sixteen long years, Māran sat motionless beneath the tamarind tree in the Ādinātha temple, without food or drink, his eyes closed, seated in padmāsanam, in utter silence. He was a sun in human form, with a radiance that embraced the universe. He is believed to be an avatāram of Vishvaksena, the commander of the hosts of Sriman Nārāyaṇa in Vaikuṇṭham.