or a group of villages called Ali Nadu in the northeastern part of the Chola country. His headquarters appear to have been Tirumangai, and from the way in which he speaks of this place (8 cor cooli மாடங்கள் சூழ்திருமங்கை ) it must have been an important town in his days, though it could not be identified with any of the existing villages in the Shiyali taluk. He married the daughter of a certain Vishnu bhakta who belonged to the Vaidya class, a caste much superior to his own. By her initiation and preaching Kaliyan became a stanch worshipper of Vishnu.
Excepting Tirumalisaiyar and Satagopan he was undoubtedly the most learned of all the Vaishnava saints. His contributions to the Nalayirapraban. dam amount to 1361 stanzas and consist of six separate poems, namely, (1) பெரிய திருமொழி, (2) திரு க்குறுந்தாண்டகம், (3) திருநெடுந் தாண்டகம், (4) சிறிய திருமடல், (5) பெரிய திருமடல் and (6) திருவெழுகூற்றிருக்கை . Even in his own life time he should have been admitted as a famous poet, successful controversialist and great donor of charities, as will be seen from the following quotation :
அங்கமலத்தடவயல் சூழாலிநாடன்
அருண்மாரியரட்டமுக்கியடையார் சீயம் கொங்கு மலர்க்குழலியர் வேள்மங்கைவேந்தன்
கொற்றவேற்பாகாலன் கலியன் சொன்ன சங்கமுகத்தமிழ்மாலை . . . At a poetical contest he was given the title of 161 கவிப்பெருமாள் or the 'Master of the four kinds of
