Araiyar Sevai - The Performers: Araiyars

The Performers: Araiyars

The art form is practiced principally by a few families of hereditary performers, called araiyar. An araiyar is attached to a temple as a priest and conducts certain prayers throughout the year but only performs the araiyar sevai during the tiruvattiyāyaṉam festivals instituted by Nathamuni. Araiyars are male and must spend several years studying the hymns of the Divya Prabandham and the traditional commentaries on the hymns, particularly the commentary known as īṭu by Vaṭakku Tiruvītippiḷḷai, in addition to studying the art form itself.

In recent years, some Vaishnavites have attempted to broaden the range of temples in which araiyar sevai is performed and to teach it to non-hereditary performers in order to arrest its decline. Srirama Bharati is a noted proponent of a new enacted and sung form of araiyar sevai, which is a revivalist, modern form with no hereditary connection to traditional araiyar sevai performed at the Srivashnava shrines.