Akilathirattu Ammanai, also called Thiru Edu, is the main religious text of the Tamil belief system Ayyavazhi. The title is often abbreviated to Akilam or Akilathirattu.
Pathi is the name of the primary centres of congregational worship for the South Indian religious system of Ayyavazhi, having a relatively large structure like that of a temple. They are seven in number.
Kroni is a figure in Ayyavazhi mythology. He is the primordial manifestation of evil, and manifests in various forms of evil, such as Ravana and Duryodhana, in different ages or yugas. In order to counteract and destroy the evil of Kroni's manifestations, Mayon incarnates as Avatars such as Rama and Krishna. He shares many similarities with the demon Kali of the Mahabharata and Kalki Purana.
Dharma Yukam is the state of absolute bliss as per Ayyavazhi mythology. Dharma Yukam is described in the Akilam seventeen in Akilattirattu Ammanai. It is related to Dharmic moksha and to Abrahamic heaven.
Katuvai Sothanai, in Tamil means, Trial with Tiger. This is an important event in Ayyavazhi mythology tells us about the happenings that took place when Ayya Vaikundar was thrown before a three-days-starving tiger.
Thuvayal Thavasu, literally washing penance, was a significant religious event that took place in the 19th century. It was also called as thuvayal panthi.. By the late thirties of the nineteenth century, when the religion of Ayyavazhi had come to exist with certain excitement and euphoria, a group of people, of different age groups and genders, undertook to perform this unique exercise as directed by Ayya Vaikundar.
The following outline is provided as an overview and topic guide to Ayyavazhi:
The Ayyavazhi includes a corpus of teachings of its initiator Ayya Vaikundar in the form of instructions and slogans found in the religious book Akilattirattu.
According to the Ayyavazhi religion, the Ayyavazhi Trinity is the incarnation of God in the current stage of world development. Ayya Vaikundar, the Incarnation, is the combination of the Ultimate God, Narayana, and Human Being. In Akilam immediately after the Incarnation of Vaikundar, he was viewed simultaneously as the Ultimate God, Narayana, and as son of Narayana. As per the earlier deed Narayana had to destroy Kaliyan, but due to the boons that kaliyan claimed Narayana cannot destroy him. And as per the promise made by Kaliyan, he would only be destroyed, if he give torture to any Pantaram. To overcome all these, such a unique way of Incarnation was planned.
The Akilam one is the first among the seventeen parts of Akilattirattu Ammanai, the religious book of Ayyavazhi. This section includes the Kappu, the very first part; it tells of the Detchanam, and describes the political and sociological situation in the early world.
Ayya Vaikundar was the incarnation of Ekam according to Akilathirattu Ammanai, the religious text of Ayyavazhi and the source of Ayyavazhi mythology. As the Ekam is the supreme power in Ayyavazhi, Vaikundar was the supreme power incarnate.
The Ayyavazhi symbolism deals with the symbols which are used in or used to represent Ayyavazhi. Though Akilam the scripture of Ayyavazhi does not point out any symbol directly, there are a few symbols which are used for representing Ayyavazhi which came into practice gradually.
The purpose of this chronology is to give a detailed account of Ayyavazhi from the beginning of the incarnational events of Vaikundar to the present time. Question marks on dates indicate approximate dates. A star (*) indicates the mentioning of that particular date in Akilam or Arul Nool. All dates but a few are found in the Tamil calendar and so doesn't coincide exactly with the months of the Gregorian calendar. The dates may span over any halves of the two consecutive months (Gregorian).
The Inclusiveness and exclusivity in Ayyavazhi is the inclusive and exclusive ideology of Ayyavazhi scriptures over other religions. The formula of inclusivism and exclusivism was applied in the religio-cultural universe of Ayyavazhi is one that is not found anywhere else in the world. Though there are separate verses towards inclusivism and exclusivism as central themes in Akilam, the mixture of both is unique. The inclusivistic theory of accepting the views of different religions for a certain period of time and from then onwards exclusivistically rejecting all of them by narrating that all the previous had lost their substances is a mythical as well as religious break-through.
The Akilattirattu Ammanai the scripture of Ayyavazhi teaches Dharma on two different perspective. One in sociology as charity and truth and another under spirituality to attain the stage of Oneness, unified into Vaikundar. This state of ultimate oneness is called as Dharma Yukam or Dharma Pathi. Akilam also says that, Dharma is the only living wheel. The sociological way is asked to be followed by every one to attain the spiritual state of Dharma.
The ethics of Ayyavazhi are found scattered throughout the primary scripture, Akilattirattu Ammanai. They are also integrated with the meta-narrative mythography. However, regarding ethics, Arul Nool is considered as an accumulation and prophecy of the core concepts found in Akilam. In Akilam, the ethical abstracts are pointed out as "told by God" at several places at different situations to lesser god-heads, devas, saints etc. when asked by them.
Ayyavazhi phenomenology is the phenomenological variations found in Ayyavazhi society, worship centers etc. from their holy text Akilattirattu Ammanai.
Ayyavazhi is a belief system originating from South India, which advocates that Ayya Vaikundar is an incarnation of Narayana, based on its religious scripture Akilattirattu Ammanai. Some of its core believers advocate that Ayyavazhi is a religion in itself, whereas others believe that it is a sect within Hinduism. The path of Akilam is also viewed as a renaissance of Hinduism which regenerates and organises the ideas of all Hindu scriptures. But on the other hand it acts as an agent of reformation in the nineteenth century Tamil and Malayalam Society.
Vivekanandan Version is one among the release versions of Akilam. It was the only version released so far which includes the original source-text as well as the interpretations combainingly. It was named after the publication Vivekananada Pathippakam.
