Tirukkuṟaḷ — The Sacred Couplets of Tiruvaḷḷuvar
The Tirukkuṟaḷ is the most celebrated work of classical Tamil literature, composed by the poet-sage Tiruvaḷḷuvar, traditionally associated with the city of Mylapore (Mailapūr). The text consists of 1,330 couplets (kuṟaḷs), organized into 133 chapters (atikārams) of 10 couplets each. Each couplet is composed in kuṟaḷ veṇpā with seven metrical units (cīr)—four in the first line and three in the second—not necessarily seven separate lexical words. The three books are: Aṟattuppāl (Aram, the book of Virtue), Poruṭpāl (Poruḷ, the book of Wealth and Polity), and Kāmattuppāl (Inbam/Kāmam, the book of Love).
The Tirukkuṟaḷ's opening chapter, Kaṭavuḷ Vāzhttu (Praise of God), celebrates the Supreme as the source of all learning and liberation. Śrī Vaiṣṇava commentators have read this invocation as a salutation to Śrīman Nārāyaṇa. The first kuṟaḷ — "Akara mutalā ezhuttellām āti / Bhagavān mutalatē ulagu" — is interpreted as affirming that as the letter 'a' underlies all other letters, so Bhagavān underlies all existence, resonating with Viśiṣṭādvaita's vision of Brahman as the inner soul of all.
While the Tirukkuṟaḷ belongs to the broader Caṅkam-era Tamil heritage and is not a sectarian text, Śrī Vaiṣṇava Āchāryas including Periyavāccān Piḷḷai have cited it in their commentaries. The text is considered one of the "Mutal Nūlkaḷ" (primary texts) in Tamil intellectual tradition and is venerated alongside the Divya Prabandham in Tamil Śrī Vaiṣṇava households.