Thirumangaiyazhvar

Thirumangai Azhvar the last of second to last of the 12 Azhars . He was the incarnation of lord Sriman Narayana divine bow.

Thiruvalinadu was the army general to the chola Empire, he earned the trust and respesct from him with his capabilty of taking care of his kingdom. He and his wife Vallitthiru were blessed with a baby son named neelan . he was born on the year nala. Even as a young boy he was smart witty . he learned tamil and sanskrit and mastered them very well. As the child of an army general he versed in sword fighting ,horse and elephant riding, and others.He grew up to be a intelligent, healthy, handsome boy , witha modest religious mind .

When his father got old ,neelam took in charge of his fathers role at an agile, dynamic general.since he was good at battle feilds he captured the neighboring states for the chola king . the king being immensly happy presented him a small portion of his kingdom and made neelan king . from then on he was called Thirumangai mannan. though this was being his first sucess, this was the cause for him slipping from his devotion and religion toward Bhagawan. He was deeply in enjoying worldy seeking sensual pleasures . his parents getting very worried prayed to sriman Narayana to help correct theier son and lead him to the right path. Hearing this sriman narayana did help them . he made a plan by asking a dasi named sumangali to appear as the most beautiful daughter of the local daughter. soon enough thirumangai mannan got to know of this and requested her father for his daughter for marraige. the docter asked for two favors from him which were

1.he should become proper sri vaishnava and wear thirumankappu on his forehead daily.

2. he should feed daily 1000 vaishnava bhakthals daily.

Mannan being intoxinated by her looks and charms agreed her coniditions without second thought . Immediately they got married and thirumangai mannan kept his promise and was always bright witha thirumankappu, thulasi malai, and visited sriman Narayana every day. He also started devoting all his money and time to words the anandhanam .Day by dat the gajana (treasury) was spent on the Anadhanam kainkaryam. this caused mannan to be unable to send tax to the chola king.so the Chola king sent a message asking mannan to pay the tax ,but since he could not thriumangai replyed back saying it would not be able for me to pay tax. The chola king beccame very angry and came with a large army to attack thirumangai mannan. even thought thirumangai manna's army was small with great amount of skill and talent he won. When he came near the king in person. he told the king this ''i did not send the tax im not lying but i didnt spend my monrey on unimportant things . i spent it to feed a thousand bhagavathas daily. how can i continue when your soilders came to imprison me. The chola king was hurt due to mannan defeating him and did not listen and instead replied 'i made you a king , i gave u a part of my land, i gave you many riches and still you are grateful or satisfied." Thirumangai feeling very sad hearing what the king had to say and replyed back " Oh chola king did you forget all the kingdoms that i captured for you. Well if that is not enough do what ever you want with me." The chola king was moved by what he said he hugged thirumangai and said since we have to pay respects to perarasar-chitrarsar relation and hence you have to send your tax within three days till then you will be imprisoned in perumal temple. thirumangai manna knew therre was no way were he could get the tax so fell upon sriman narayana's feet. that night sriman narayana came in his dream and told him that nearby the vedhavanti river there was a treasure of gold jewels and coins waiting for you. immeadietly he called his ministers and asked them to go see if there was treasure at the vedhvanti river. To there great amazement they found the treasure and payed of the tax. When the tax was taken by the king he realised his mistake of taxing a great bhaktha of the lord for a small tax issue. he said "plese take all this gold and treasure back. let me send you with full royal honors.you no longer have to take the pain of sending tax anymore!!" thirumangai mannan came back with great honours and praise.

they continued their kainkaryam for 1000 srivaishnavas more richly and found satisfaction and happiness as usal.After a while he again found themselves without enough money to keep up his promise to his wife . His onl resulted option was to highway robbery from rich people. with this stolen wealth he continued. ONe day Sriman Narayana and MahaLakshmi wanted to teach him a listen and decided to come as a newly married couple . Mannan immediately heard of this and decided to find out .He was happy to see that they were very rich and that they had another bag of riches with him . he immediately demanded them to remove all their jewelry . The great couple did exactly so . at the end when he he was about to leave with all his new wealth . something caught the corner of his eye. when he turned around to see he saw that the wife of the couple still had her toe ring on. he immediately demanded it. She calmly replied for him to take it himself. the moment he touched her feet he felt an electric shock and realised that it was mahalakshmi and Sriman Narayana. Instantly his body, mind and heart became pure. manna became indescribably blissfully happy. Thirumangai Mannan at once started pouring out tamil pasurams of the lord. Thirumangai came back galloping on his horse and narrated the whole story to Kumadhavalli. At the end he told her he found the purpose of his manushya janmam. i have seen Narayana . then Kumudhavalli then told him that she had also completed her purpose of her life like Sriman Narayana had told her to. Afterwards they visted there 80 temples out of the 108 Divya desams.