for his victory over Surapadman in the Kanda Puranam. In the Skanda Purana, his antagonist is Tarakasura. Balarama is featured in the Dashavatara. In various Puranas, Balarama is often substituted with the Buddha. Alvars The Alvars (Tamil: ஆழ்வார், romanized: Āḻvār, lit. 'The Immersed') were Tamil poet-saints of South India who espoused bhakti (devotion) to the Hindu god Vishnu in their songs of longing, ecstasy, and service. They are venerated in Vaishnavism, which regards Vishnu as the Ultimate Reality. The devotional outpourings of the Alvars, composed during the early medieval period of Tamil history, were the catalysts behind the Bhakti movement through their hymns of worship to Vishnu and his avatars. They praised the Divya Desams, the 108 divine realms of deities affiliated to Vaishnavism. The poetry of the Alvars echoes bhakti to God through love, and in the ecstasy of such devotions they sang hundreds of songs which embodied both depth of feeling and the felicity of expressions. The collection of their hymns is known as the Naalayira Divya Prabandham. The bhakti literature that sprang from Alvars has contributed to the establishment and sustenance of a culture that deviated from the Vedic religion and rooted itself in devotion as the only path for salvation. In addition, they contributed to Tamil devotional verses independent of a knowledge of Sanskrit. As a part of the legacy of the alvars, five Vaishnava philosophical traditions (sampradayas) developed over a period of time. Siddhars Siddhars (Tamil: சித்தர்) are saints in India, mostly affiliated with the Shaiva denomination in Tamil Nadu, who professed and practised an unorthodox type of Sadhana, or spiritual practice, to attain liberation. Yogic powers referred to as Siddhis are believed to be acquired by constant practice of certain yogic disciplines. Those who acquire these Siddhis are called Siddhas. These Siddhars can be compared to mystics of the western civilization. Siddhars are people who are believed to control and transcend the barriers of time and space by meditation (yoga), after the use of substances called rasayanas that transform the body to make it potentially deathless, and a particular breathing-practice, a type of Pranayama. Through their practices, they are believed to have reached stages of insight which enabled them to tune into the powers hidden in various material substances and practices, useful for the suffering and ignorant mankind. Typically, Siddhars were saints, doctors, alchemists, and mystics all at once. They wrote their findings in