The first chapter presents an examination of the sources in Tamil literature, especially the hymns of the bhakti savants, the Nāyaṇmār, particularly the Tēvāram. There are not less than 8000 hymns under vast corpus, the examination of which has inspired western scholars (e.g. Ellen Goldberg of the Queen's University, Ontario) to pay attention to the Tamil sources in the investigation of an Indian iconographic theme such as Ardhanārīśvara.