The canonisation of the Āḻvār hymns as the Nālāyira Divya Prabandham preserved an extraordinary body of Tamil devotional poetry, sustained its temple life, and generated the sophisticated bilingual tradition of Maṇipravāḷam.
Yet the same process also placed the hymns within a specialised theological interpretive grammar, limiting their wider circulation as literature.
This essay examines that double-edged legacy and asks how the Divya Prabandham might be restored to the broader Tamil literary imagination without diminishing its Śrīvaiṣṇava identity.