After this transition in name and form and the place of performance, Tamil isai has been developing continuously through the centuries down to 20 th century Thus they evolved themselves into what we now call melakkarar or nadaswara vidwans. The custodians of the two arts – music and dance, in the Sangam period virtually disappeared from the Pandya nadu and were reborn as the thallipendu and melakkarar in the Chola nadu. Three distinct classes of artists, though from the same family, were responsible for the development of music and dance – the dancer called the thallipenDu in the Chola inscription, the naTTuvanAr or the dance master, the meLakkArar or the nAdaswara vidwan. What was a social art earlier developed into a temple art in the times of the Chola kings who fostered the art by giving liberal grants. Muthuthandavar and Marimutha Pillai sang in praise of Lord Shiva Subbarama Iyer and a few others sang on Lord Muruga and some others on various deities and patrons. The tradition of Muthuthandavar was followed by Marimutha Pillai (1712-1787AD) who was also popular for his Nindastuti style, Kavikunjara Bharati (1810-1896 AD) and later by Vaideeswarankoil Subbarama Iyer (latter part of the 19 th century) and Ghanam Krishna Iyer, who lived during King Amarasimha’s period – 1787-1798 ) and a host of other Tamil padam composers who emulated their predecessors and their padams. Papavinasa Mudaliar (1650 – 1725) lived just after Muthuthandavar and is popular for his Nindastuti padams. 24 of his padams are available in print and notation. Arunachalam clearly states that the father of the particular type of poetry – Tamil Padam, is Muthuthandavar (1525 – 1625 AD). In his book “Musical Tradition of Tamil Nadu”, Sri M. From that time, a padam came to denote a musical monologue which resembles a kirtana in structure and propagates the sentiment of love for God through innumerable aspects of Thalaivan-Thalaivi kadhal Hundreds of literary conventions had been knitted around the theme of divine love, borrowed by poets for expressing the various moods and mental states of their love for the almighty. This originated in the Tamil Desam and spread beyond its boundaries and gave birth to Bhakti isai in various languages in India. The seeds of Bhakti margam that was sown by some of the noble souls during the 6 th century AD germinated into the Bhakti movement in the succeeding centuries. The characters Thalaivan, Thalaivi and Thozhi stand respectively for the Iraivan Paramatma, Bhaktan Jivatma and the Guru who leads the Bhakta on to the path of mukti. This concept of madura bhakti or the thalaivan-thalaivi concept is also seen in Tamil works such as Andal’s Nachiar Thirumozhi, Divyaprabandam of other Azhwars, Manickavasagar’s Thirukkovai, Thiruvasagam and other works which stressed that the path of devotion to Lord and righteous living led on to make one’s life worthwhile and ultimately to attain salvation. The songs composed in praise of the deities and kings evoked shringara rasa in all its aspects
There was a parallel development of royal romantic poetry along with Bhakti poetry. Thus the songs couched in divine love became the dominant mode of expression in music, dance and literature They used the aham variety as a vehicle to express their devotion and love for Lord Shiva, Muruga and Krishna. The aham poets of the Sangam period served as a model for the Tamil poets of the succeeding centuries.
The natural objects or things peculiar to each regional landscape and lifestyle formed the background of these poems