[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 wandering 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, and 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.

[4][5] A stanza of the Periya Tirumatal describes the legend of Rama, and his exile with his wife, Sita:[6] The warrior king by his father's command gave up his kingdom steadfastly,the good cityfolk followed his weeping,and left his own country as well and crossed the glaring desert with shrunken bellies,past the dry rocky mountains with hot gale winds that would split bamboos,and entered the terrible forest of death-blow rakshasas,walking over splinter rocks in the scorching sun with petal-soft feet.Behind the king Rama, did not the swan-gaited goddess called Vaidehi walk too?