The story of origin of Nalayira Divya Prabandham is associated with the Mudal Azhwars. It is a collection of 4,000 Tamil verses (Nalayiram in Tamil means 'four thousand') composed by the 12 Azhwars. Mudal Azhwars are divine beings as they were not born in a womb. Once, Poigai Azhwar was going on a pilgrimage to Tirukkovalur. It was night time and it started raining profusely. He took shelter at the Ashram of Mrigandu Maharishi. The shelter he found was very small. A couple of hours later the second of the Mudal Azhwars, Bhutatt Azhwar also arrived there seeking shelter from heavy rain. Soon the third Alwar, Peyazhwar also came and stood with the other two Alwars. The small space could only hardly accommodate the three of them. Suddenly they felt the presence of someone else. In order to see the fourth invisible person, Poigai Azhwar lit a light by singing his divine song (prabandham) starting with ‘Vaiyam Thagalia’. The second Azhwar lit second light