life and writings deserve, therefore, to be considered at some length
He was born of a Vellala family at Tirukkurukur or Alvar-Tirunagari in the district of Tinnevelly, to one Kari of that place and Udaiya Nangai of Tiruvanparisaram in the Chera country. His parents gave him the name of Maran ; and Satagopan was the Sanskrit title probably given to him by his spiritual Guru. Moreover, it was customary, as now, to have two names—one Tamil and the other Sanskrit. His Tiruvoyinoli, Tiruvasiriam, Tiruviruttam and Tiruvandadi, all of which written with a definite purpose on a pre-conceived plan in the antadi form and amounting to 1296 stanzas, are included in the Nalayiraprabandam. His songs or hymns relate to the deities of some thirty places, oi which twenty-four are in the Pandya and the Chera kingdoms. He was an ascetic or yogi and would seem to have retired from the world in his 35th year to perform Yoga or meditation under a tamarind tree, which exists to this day in Alvar-Tirunagari. Ultimately he is said to have attained eternal bliss or beatitude, about which he himself says :—
அவாவறச்சூழரியையயனையானை யலற்றி
அவாவற்று வீடுபெற்ற குருகூர்ச் சடகோபன.
He had two disciples—Sri Nathamuni and Madhurakavi—to whom he taught his Tiruvoymoli and other prabandams. The first heads the list of the Vaishnava Acharyas while the second has been elevated to the rank of a Saint.
