Before Proceeding into Thevaram, we should understand the Angams of Veda. Vedam and Angam
The Four Vedas have 6 Angas
Among the basic texts of Hinduism, the six Angas or limbs of the Vedas are next in importance to the Vedas themselves. The Vedapurusha has six limbs or parts- mouth, nose, eye, ear, hand, foot. These are called "Sadanga". The Tamil term "cadangu" denoting any ceremony is derived from this word.
The six Angas are Siksa (Phonetics); Vyakarana (grammar); Nirukta (lexicon, etymology); Kalpa (manual of rituals); Chandas (prosody); Jyotisa (astronomy-astrology-maths). One must be acquainted with all. That he must be well- versed in the Vedas goes without saying. He must first learn to chant them and proficiency in the six Angas will later help him to gain insights into their meaning.
Siksa is the nose of the vedapurusa, Vyakarana his mouth, Kalpa his hand, Nirukta his ear, Chandas his foot and Jyotisa his eye.
Siksa comes first among the six limbs of the Vedas, the nose of the Vedapurusa. The function of the nose here is not be taken only as that of perceiving smells. It has also the function of breathing; in fact it is one of the organs of breathing. Siksa serves as the life-breath of the Vedic mantras.
Vyakarana is the mouth. You can speak only with the help of mouth and the grammer helps to speak properly.
Chandas is the foot of the Vedapurusa. Poetry also has its foot. In tamil poetry there are "iradikkural" (stanzas with two feet), naladiar(stanzas with four feet), etc: "adi" here has the same meaning as "pada", that is foot.
irukta serves the purpose of a Vedic dictionary, or "kosa". A dictionary is also called a "nighantu", which term is used in Tamil also. Nirukta, which deals with the origin of words, their roots, that is with etymology, is the ear of the Vedapurusa.
What purpose is served by the eye? Near objects may be perceived by the sense of touch. With our eyes we learn about distant objects. Just as our eyes help us to know objects that are distant in space (that is just as we see distant object with our eyes), Jyotisa sastra help us to find out the position of the heavenly bodies that are distant in time (their configuration many years ago in the past or many years hence in future).
Kalpa is the sastra that involves you in "work". A man learns to chant the Vedas, studies Siksa, Vyakarana, Chandas, Nirukta and Jyotisa. What does he do next? He has to apply these sastras to the rites he is enjoined to perform. He has to wash away his sins, the sins earned by acting according to his whims. This he does by the performance of good works. For this he must know the appropriate mantras and how to enunciate them correctly, understanding their meaning. Also certain materials are needed and a house that is architecturally suited to the conduct of the rituals. The fruits yielded by these must be offered to the Isvara. Kalpa concerns itself with these matters.
( All the above are as quoted by Kanchi Mahaswami)
ly: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;"> There are lot of references in Thevaram - Nan Marai Aaaru Angam which clearly shows that the Marais here are Rig, Yajur, Sama, Adarvana Vedas only and not Dharma Artha Kama Moksha.
Tamilnadu had more Samavedis those days and all the 1000 divisions of Samaveda were practised.( Now only 3 reamin) The predominant was "Talavaraka Shaka" and Thiruveezhi Mizhalai had more such scholars.
Thevaram:
The first no denotes thirumurai no, second one the padigam no and the third song no. (1,10,3) mean first thirumurai, 10th Padigam and 3rd song.