dear freinds, arumuga navalar is a important person in saivite tradition. his estabilishments are still functioning in chidambaram. he was a devouted saivite scholar and zealot.
ramalinga vallalar was his contemporary(1850s). vallalar was moving away from orthodox saivam and was going towards a philosophy closer to buddhist-jain thoughts.
these two men had some healthy interactions in chidambaram. joined in this game was dheekshidhars who opposed both of them but appeared to have instigated clashes between vallalar and navalar.
matter went to the extent of cuddalore court which dismissed the case. the point is the dual between these two men resembled yet another saivite-samanar conflict well into the 19th century
samanar views are stll present today. especially in modern tamilnadu politics the atheistic parties can be viewed as rudiments of the samanar cult in southindia.