[2] Tiruppukal is one of the major works of medieval Tamil literature, known for its poetical and musical qualities, as well as for its religious, moral and philosophical content.

Arunagirinathar was born in Senguntha Kaikolar[3] family during the 14th century in Tiruvannamalai, a town in the Vijayanagara empire.

His father died soon after his birth and his pious mother and sister instilled in him, their cultural and religious traditions.

Legends claim that Arunagirinathar was attracted to the pleasures of the flesh and spent his youth in pursuing a life of debauchery.

He considered jumping to his death from the temple tower but according to legends, the deity Murugan himself prevented him from committing suicide,[4][5] cured his leprosy, showed him a path of reform and piety, initiated him to create devotional songs for the benefit of mankind.

In the Tiruppukal, Manaiaval nahaikka, Arunagirinather speaks of how his wife, parents and relatives were utterly disgusted with him and ridicule from friends and others in town impelled him to try to end his life.

"Tātu māmalar mutiyālē ... Vēta nūnmurai valuvāmē tinam Vēlvi yālelil punai mūvāyira mēnmai vētiyar mikavē pūcanai purikōvē.

The beauty inherent in these lines fascinated V.T.Subramania Pillai, so much that he made it his life's mission to collect and publish at least one thousand of the 16,000 songs believed to have been composed by Arunagirinathar.

He toured all over South India, collected manuscripts, including palm leaves, assembled the texts and published them in two volumes, the first in 1894 and the second in 1901.

His compositions contain references to various ragas (known as panns in Tamil) such as Varali, Lalita, Bhairavi, Malahari, Bowli, Gowla, Kuranji etc.

[citation needed] A great number of these were also set to music by noted Tiruppukal exponent A. S. Raghavan which enabled these masterful creations to gain mass popularity.

[9] In 1964, a biopic Tamil film, starring popular playback singer, T. M. Soundararajan in the title role, was released.