[1] The work is a part of the compendium of hymns called the Nalayira Divya Prabandham.

This referred to an ancient Tamil custom through which a lovesick man attempted to win the heart of his beloved by refusing food and drink, bathing, sleep, and other daily activities, and wandered the streets while singing about the woman he loved.

The custom was romanticised, and hence traditionally ended with the woman being moved by the devotion of the man, agreeing to marry him.

In this work, Tirumangai Alvar assumes the role of a gopika, a milk-maid lover of Krishna, and performs a maṭal to win the deity's heart.

[5] A stanza of the Ciriya Tirumatal describes the legend of the Gajendra Moksha, Vishnu's rescue of an elephant from the jaws of a crocodile:[6] When the huge elephant stood in thelotus tank,Battling with the consuming crocodile,And offered a lotus with his long trunkbellowing, "Narayana!