Arutprakasa Vallalar Chidambaram Ramalingam (5 October 1823 - 30 January 1874), whose Pre-monastic name was Ramalingam, commonly known in India and across the world as Vallalar, also known as Ramalinga Swamigal and Ramalinga Adigal, was one of the most famous Tamil Saints and also one of the greatest Tamil poets of the 19th century and belongs to a line of Tamil saints known as "gnana siddhars" (gnana means higher wisdom).The Samarasa Suddha Sanmarga Sathiya Sangam[3] was spread and passed on by him not only in theory but mainly in practice by his way of living which by itself is an inspiration for his followers. Through the notion of Suddha Sanmarga Sangam, the saint endeavoured to eliminate the caste system. According to Suddha Sanmarga, the prime aspects of human life should be love connected with charity and divine practice leading to the achievement of pure knowledge.Ramalinga advocated the concept of worshipping the flame of a lighted lamp as a symbol of the eternal Power.The ArutperunJothi Ramalinga Adigalar, popularly known as VALLALAR, the Great Munificent, may be regarded as the foremost of the saints and ages of the nineteenth century, considering the heights, widths, depths and intimacies of his integral realisation of the Divine in all the "inmost, inner, outer, and the outermost parts of his being".Of HIS six volumes of "Arutpa", the poems of divine inspiration, the last volume is unparalleled in spiritual history as it gives expression to his realisation of the vast world of Truth-knowledge and the Beyond, and touches on subjects like transformation and deathlessness of body.Besides, he was a critic, writer, publisher and commentator and also knew occultism, alchemy, astrology, and medicine particularly in the nutritional and medical values of herbs and leaves. He was a musician too with a keen musical taste for lyrical songs and he composed lyrics to express, in an easier and popular style, his highest and sublime realisations of the Divine, particularly that of Truth-consciousness (Satya Jnana).
