Arunagirinathar was a great poet, who was born in Tiruvannamalai, a town in Tamil Nadu during the reign of Praudha Devaraya II of the Sangama dynasty of Vijayanagar (1422-1446). He was born to a courtesan mother called Muttamai. This family background made him to lead a life full of sin and corruption. Lord Muruga was the family God of his ancestors. Soon after his birth his father died and his mother and sister brought him up in the rich cultural and religious traditions.

But after the death of his parents, Arunagirinathar wasted away all the inherited health. This nature of him irritated his sister `Adi` a lot and one day in absolute disgust, she told him that she had nothing else to offer him except herself. These tough words struck him like an arrow in the heart. Being ashamed of himself he left home and tried to finish his life by jumping off the Vallala Gopuram of the Arunachaleswara temple. At that time, Lord Muruga saved him and initiated him into the `Sbadakshari mantra` a six-syllabled mantra of Lord Muruga. He also helped him with the first words of a song starting with `Muttaitarnpattitiritnqgrai...`. Thus a poet was born within him, which started a new era in Tamil poetry.

Arunagirinathar then acquired the vast and deep knowledge of religious and spiritual literature. He made brilliant expression and learning in the Tamil language. His compositions have familiarity with the Tamil works such as Tevaram, Tirukkural, Kaarigai, Ula, Easal, Kalambakam, Kovai, Sindu, Madal and Maalai. He used to write the eulogy of wealthy people to gain gift of money from them. He used many Sanskrit terms in his compositions and the writings reflect his knowledge about the Itihasas, Puranas, the Gita, the Upanishads, Agamas, Mantra-Tantra Sastras, Yoga Sutras and Kama Sutra. This also proves his command over the language of Sanskrit along with Tamil. The two songs of Arunagirinathar, which he dedicated to Lord Muruga, were written mostly in Sanskrit.

Arunagirinathar led a very debaucherous life in his early years and he did not hesitate to confess it in his prayer to Lord Muruga. He said, "Will I ever get to know how to attain Your holy feet before becoming too old wasting my youth, as I am, by indulgence in sinful sexual pleasures?". This shows how truthfully he admitted all his immoral works. As he realised his fault he prayed to his ancestral deity Lord Muruga, "…To me, who seeks the company of prostitutes all the time, spending on them whatever little money I earn by bestowing lavish praises on men who lack wisdom, who never pray to Your holy feet, who are dunces, who indulge in devilish activities and who have no sense of gratitude; pray Muruga, grant me Moksha".

There is another belief about his inclination towards Lord Muruga from his cursed life of luxury. It is said that once a Mahatma sought him and spoke to him in a sweet voice with love and affection. The Mahatma advised him to meditate on the six-faced God Shanmukha but he did not care those words. Then, people started to put down him for ignoring the advice of the Mahatma. He then decided to follow the advice of the Mahatma and attempted to spend some hours in meditation facing the image of Lord Muruga installed in the Gopuram. But his wicked and immoral life did not6 allow him to persist in that attempt. Then he surrendered at the feet of Lord Muruga and tried to suicide. At that point, Lord Muruga appeared standing on a dancing peacock, halted him in the act and took possession of him.

Arunagirinathar was familiar with the tala system then prevalent. In a section of the Tiruppugazh called the Bhoota Vetala Vaguppu he mentions the name of five Margi talas namely, Chachatputa, Chachaputa and so on. The Tamil names of the seven swaras, gamakas, raga names, different musical instruments and even references to dance are also found in the Tiruppugazh.

Arunagirinathar brilliantly handled the four varieties of poetry known as Ash, Madlmra, Clritra and Vistara. The subject matter of the Tiruppugazh includes many episodes from the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas, Sura Samharam and Tripura Dahanam. One of his popular songs `Nada bindn kalndi namo nanw` has whole charanas written in Sanskrit. The Tamilians, who used to feel very proud of their poet, honoured him with several titles such as Muttamizh Arasar, Chandappavala Peruman, Thala Chelvar, Vakkirku Arunagiri and many more.

Arunagirinathar had also visited all the temples of South India and composed over 60000 songs of which only about 1330 can be found today. The life of virtue and righteousness are reflected from his songs and they set the tone for a new form of worship, the musical worship. The Thiruppugazh songs composed by Arunagirinathar remained in the manuscripts for a long period of time. They were left ignored and forgotten in this way until V T Subramania Pillai and his son V S Chengalvaraya Pillai of Tiruthani understood their value and retrieved them. Later, they published all these compositions and brought before the common people.