nammAzvAr iconography

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In her book, "Slaves of the Lord", Vidya Dehejia calls tirumaGkai AzvAr and
nammAzvAr as zUdras (pp. 183-186). But in figure 61 she presents an icon from
Tirubhuvani which is supposed to be that of nammAzvAr. Strangely, the saint
is shown with a sacred thread. Figures 59 and 60 show icons of tirumaGkai
AzvAr which do not have any sacred thread.

The questions I have are:
(1) Is Dehejia's identification of figure 61 as nammAzvAr correct?
(2) If so, is nammAzvAr usually portrayed with a sacred thread while
tirumaGkai is not and what are the traditional explanations for this
difference in treatment?

Of course, it is possible Vidya Dehejia is simply confused about the Tamil
society as shown by her use of zUdra and veLLaLa designations to different
saints.

Regards
S. Palaniappan