Expression of bhakti through Tamil language, is as ancient as the language itself. The divya prabandham composed by the Āzvārs and the devotional outpourings of the Nāyanmārs are outstanding contributions to Tamil bhakti culture and literature. Historically, one tends to conclude that there must have been some form of schism and puritanism in ancient South Indian bhakti culture. However, during the religious renaissance of Yatirāja Śrīmad Rāmānuja Āchārya, and later during the period of Swāmi Śrīmad Vêdānta Dêśika and Swāmi Śrīmad Maṇavāḷa Māmunigaḷ, great strides were made in transcending language barriers. Sanskrit and Tamil were both considered integral parts in temple worship and traditional rituals. Sanskrit texts were written in Tamil Grantham script for the benefit of those who had no formal exposure to Sanskrit. Thus the usage of Tamil script for Sanskrit Scriptures has come to be an accepted practice over several centuries. With passage of time, Tamil evolved to be what it is today, but the phonetic nuances of Sanskrit Scriptures have been preserved as a result of the Guru-Kula mode of Vêdic instructions. One has only to listen to the chanting of Vedic scholars who have no formal exposure to Sanskrit, in order to discard the reservations of the puritans, that there is no compatibility between Sanskrit and Tamil scripts. Sanskrit Scriptures have flourished in South India partly because of their transcription in Tamil and will continue to do so for centuries to come.

The impetus to prepare electronic texts of devotional hymns came out of the interest of a dedicated group of individuals of Indian origin living in St. John's in Canada, who had no previous exposure to scriptures, but were keen to learn. Facilities for producing electronic texts in Oriental languages were somewhat limited in the mid 1990s, but with the then available fonts in Telugu (Pothana) and Tamil (Mylai), a selected set of commonly chanted Stôtrā-s was initially put together for the benefit of this group. Nominal tutoring was provided and the project was very successful. This initial set of Stôtrā-s together with a few additions is catalogued now as "Stôtramālikā" in the reformatted Archives.