Stories of the Nayanmars

Siva recognises love in offerings whose outward forms can be unfamiliar, inward or unexpected.

✦Kannappar: caring for the Lord's eye

The hunter Tinnan brings meat, water carried in his mouth and flowers held in his hair to the Lord at Kalahasti. The priest Sivakosari is troubled by these offerings. Siva tells him in a dream to watch the hunter's love. When an eye of the linga bleeds, Tinnan searches for the attacker and tries medicinal plants. Then he removes his own eye with an arrow and applies it. The second eye bleeds; he places his left foot upon it to locate it after losing his sight. As he prepares the other offering, Siva stops his hand and calls him Kannappar. The priest is made a witness to the care that the unfamiliar offering contains. Ilai malinda sarukkam, Kannappar puranam, verses 155–185.

✦Pusalar: a temple built in the mind

Pusalar of Tiruninravur cannot obtain the means to build a temple. He gathers materials and craftsmen in his mind, lays the foundations according to the Agama, raises the walls and arranges the water, enclosure and consecration. Meanwhile a Kadava king has built a stone temple at Kanchi. Siva asks the king in a dream to postpone its consecration: He will first enter Pusalar's temple. The king finds no building, hears what Pusalar has done and bows to him. Inner worship has the patience and order of building; its unseen form does not make the work slight. Manniya sir sarukkam, Pusalar puranam, verses 4–17.

✦Karaikkal Ammaiyar: the mango given away

Punitavati, later Karaikkal Ammaiyar, receives two mangoes sent by her husband. When a hungry devotee arrives, she serves rice with one of them. Her husband eats the remaining fruit and asks for the other. She turns to Siva, receives a mango and serves it. Its taste prompts further questions; another fruit given in answer to her prayer disappears from her husband's hand. An ordinary act of feeding has disclosed a relation to Siva that her husband cannot understand as ordinary married life. The story begins with hunger met promptly, before anyone asks for a sign. Tiruninra sarukkam, Karaikkal Ammaiyar puranam, verses 15–31.

Serving Siva's devotees brings devotion into the work and resources of a household.

✦Iyarpakai: an offer that reaches the household

Siva arrives as a Brahmin whose appearance combines sacred ash with the bearing of a libertine. He asks Iyarpakai for his wife. Iyarpakai consents; she is initially disturbed, then assents, and her husband bows to her. The guest asks him to escort them away, leading to the conflict told under Hard stories. The poem presents a devotion that withholds no possession, but the request involves another person's life and a marriage. Her response belongs to the episode alongside his willingness. Tillai vazh antanar sarukkam, Iyarpakai puranam, verses 4–16.

✦Ilayankudi Mara: food from a flooded field

Mara and his wife continue feeding devotees as their wealth diminishes. On a rainy night a guest comes when the house has no food. His wife proposes retrieving the rice seed sown that day from the flooded field. Mara brings it back; she prepares the rice while he takes wood from the roof for fuel and gathers young greens. When they call the guest to eat, a light reveals Siva with Uma. The meal has been made through their shared labour: her resourcefulness and his willingness give hospitality a form even in poverty. Tillai vazh antanar sarukkam, Ilayankudi Mara puranam, verses 7–26.

✦Appudhi Adigal: love carried through a name

Appudhi names his charitable works after Appar, whom he has not yet met. When Appar arrives, the family prepares a meal. The elder son goes to cut a plantain leaf, suffers a snakebite, brings back the leaf and dies. His parents conceal the death to continue serving their guest. Appar asks for the boy and learns what has happened; through his prayer the child rises, and the family shares the meal. Devotion to a devotee has shaped their household, yet Appar's care brings the hidden grief back into view. Tiruninra sarukkam, Appudhi Adigal puranam, verses 7–44.

✦Nesa Nayanar: the work of mind, speech and hands

Nesa is a weaver at Kampeeli. His mind rests upon Siva's feet, his speech upon the five letters, and his hands make garments, waistbands and loincloths for devotees. His brief puranam contains no dramatic interruption of that work. The repeated activity is itself the account of his devotion: a livelihood becomes service through what he makes and to whom he gives it. Manniya sir sarukkam, Nesa Nayanar puranam, verses 2–4.

The saints hold to devotion when power, deception or an old failure places them under strain.

✦Appar: the king's punishments

After Appar returns to Saiva worship, his former Jain associates urge the Pallava king to punish him. A lime kiln becomes cool; poison does not kill him. An elephant sent against him bows, then turns upon those who have driven it, killing some of them. Finally he is bound to a stone and cast into the sea; the bonds fall away and the stone floats. Sekkizhar tells a Saiva account of religious conflict, in which the king's coercion cannot sever Appar's reliance upon Siva. Tiruninra sarukkam, Tirunavukkarasu Nayanar puranam, verses 95–128.

✦Meiporul: the disguise he refuses to dishonour

Muttanathan, an enemy of King Meiporul, enters wearing a devotee's guise and carrying a concealed weapon. Claiming to bring an Agama, he obtains a private audience and stabs the king. The guard Tattan moves to strike him. Meiporul stops the guard and orders him to escort the assailant safely beyond the town. Only after hearing that the escort has succeeded does the king give his final counsel and receive Siva's grace. The murderer exploits reverence; the wounded king refuses to let that betrayal undo the reverence by which he has lived. Tillai vazh antanar sarukkam, Meiporul Nayanar puranam, verses 9–24.

✦Tirunilakantha: a vow kept within marriage

The potter Tirunilakantha visits a prostitute. Hurt by this, his wife forbids him to touch her, invoking the Lord Tirunilakantha. He takes her plural wording as a vow to touch no woman, and they keep living together without physical contact. Years later Siva, disguised as an ascetic, entrusts him with a bowl and makes it disappear. To prove his innocence, the potter must enter a pond with his wife. He discloses their vow; holding opposite ends of a bamboo staff, they enter without touching and emerge young. The divine appearance honours a fidelity maintained after wrongdoing, with the wife's grief and resolve still part of its beginning. Tillai vazh antanar sarukkam, Tirunilakantha Nayanar puranam, verses 5–10 and 30–43.

Siva enters a person's life before that person has understood where devotion will lead.

✦Sundarar: claimed at his wedding

At Sundarar's wedding, an old Brahmin claims that the young man belongs to him under an agreement made by his grandfather. Sundarar disputes the claim and tears the document. At Tiruvennainallur, the claimant produces the original; the assembly compares its handwriting and accepts it. He then enters the temple at Arutturai. Siva appears with Uma and tells Sundarar that He has come to claim His servant and release him from worldly entanglement. He asks for worship in Tamil song. The dispute becomes recognition: the Lord has sought the singer before the singer knows Him. Tirumalai sarukkam, Taduttatkonda puranam, verses 28–72.

✦Sakkiya Nayanar: a stone received as an offering

Sakkiya studies Buddhist teaching at Kanchi and comes to recognise Siva as the giver of the fruits of action. He retains his Buddhist dress while his heart turns to Siva. Seeing a linga, he throws a stone in an impulse of love; he continues this offering daily before eating. One day he nearly begins his meal without it, remembers, and runs back. Siva and Uma appear. Sekkizhar compares the offering to a child's rough gesture welcomed by a loving parent: its meaning rests in the relationship that Siva recognises. Varkonda vanamulaiyal sarukkam, Sakkiya Nayanar puranam, verses 5–17.

✦Tirumular: compassion becomes Tamil teaching

A yogi travelling south finds cattle grieving beside their dead cowherd, Mulan. Moved by their distress, he leaves his own body safely and enters Mulan's, bringing the animals home. Mulan's wife discovers that the person in her husband's body no longer lives as her husband. When the yogi seeks his former body, it has disappeared. He understands this as Siva's purpose: the Agamic teaching is to be given in Tamil. As Tirumular, he settles at Tiruvavaduthurai. The beginning of the teaching lies in compassion for animals; the transformation also changes a woman's household, which the poem pauses to describe. Vambara varivandu sarukkam, Tirumular Nayanar puranam, verses 10–27.

The poem locates devotion in different occupations and makes access to the temple a visible question.

✦Nandanar: the longing to enter

Tirunalaippovar, also called Nandanar, belongs to the Pulaya community at Adanur. He supplies materials for temple music and worship while standing outside to sing. At Tiruppunkur, Siva moves Nandi so that he can see the linga. His longing for Chidambaram grows, but he repeatedly says that he will go tomorrow. When he reaches Tillai, the caste boundary remains. Siva directs him in a dream to pass through fire and directs the temple Brahmins to prepare it. He emerges with matted hair and a sacred thread, enters the temple and disappears into union with Siva's feet. The poem honours his longing, while narrating admission through a change into Brahmin form; its caste ordering remains visible. Mummaiyal ulaganda sarukkam, Tirunalaippovar Nayanar puranam, verses 11–35.

The landlord who makes Nandanar cultivate fields before departure belongs to later retellings, not to this puranam.

✦Tirunilakanta Yazhpanar: room made for music

Yazhpanar travels with his instrument and sings of Siva. At Madurai he first plays at the temple entrance. The Lord tells devotees in a dream to bring him inside, and a divine voice calls for a board beneath him so that damp ground will not affect the instrument. At Tiruvarur a northern entrance is made for him. He later accompanies Sambandar. The poem does not leave the musician at the threshold: temple space is opened and arranged so that his service can continue. Manniya sir sarukkam, Tirunilakanta Yazhpanar puranam, verses 1–11.

✦Adipattar: an offering from the day's catch

Adipattar leads a fishing community at Nagappattinam. Each day he returns a fish to the sea as an offering to Siva. When the catch dwindles to a single fish, he continues, although his household lacks food. A fish made of gold and gems is then caught. He offers that too, and receives Siva's appearance and grace. His occupation supplies the act of worship: the gift is made at the moment when the catch could become his food or wealth. His story widens the company of devotees without describing the same barrier that Nandanar faces. Poyyadimai illada pulavar sarukkam, Adipatta Nayanar puranam, verses 9–19.

Ammaiyar, Mangaiyarkkarasiyar and Isaignaniyar enter the poem through different kinds of presence and remembrance.

✦Karaikkal Ammaiyar: choosing the form of a devotee

When Punitavati's husband recognises her divine relation, he bows before her with his second wife and child. She asks Siva to remove the bodily beauty she had maintained for her husband and to grant her a pey form, stripped of flesh. She goes to Kailasa on her head, unwilling to tread upon it. Siva calls her “Ammai”, mother. She asks for unending loving bliss, freedom from rebirth, remembrance if born again, and a place beneath His dancing feet where she may sing. He sends her to Tiruvalankatu. Ammaiyar's changed form is requested by her; it expresses the life she chooses before Siva. Tiruninra sarukkam, Karaikkal Ammaiyar puranam, verses 39–62.

✦Mangaiyarkkarasiyar: keeping worship alive

The Chola-born queen of the Pandya king remains devoted to Siva while her husband follows Jain teachers. With the minister Kulachirai, she sends messengers to Sambandar, describing the condition of Saiva worship and asking him to come. Her own brief puranam remembers her part in restoring the wearing of sacred ash and the spread of Saiva worship through his Tamil. Royal position becomes a means of sustaining the religious community; her initiative precedes the public encounter at Madurai. Vambara varivandu sarukkam, Tirugnanasambanda Nayanar puranam, verses 610–615; Manniya sir sarukkam, Mangaiyarkkarasiyar puranam, verses 1–2.

✦Isaignaniyar: a name given its place

Isaignaniyar's puranam is one verse. It remembers her as Sadaiyan's wife and the mother of the Sundarar whom Siva claimed. Sekkizhar does not give her an extended sequence of deeds or speeches. Yet he names and honours her within the company of the saints. Her place in the poem is a concise act of remembrance, bringing the mother into the account of a life through which Tamil devotion will be sung. Manniya sir sarukkam, Isaignaniyar puranam, verse 1.

Some episodes take surrender through violence and then place the harmed lives within a divine ending.

✦Siruthondar: the child demanded as food

Siva comes in a Bhairava guise and asks Siruthondar for the flesh of an unblemished five-year-old only son, whose mother must hold him while his father kills him. Siruthondar brings Siraladevan home from school. His wife holds the child; he kills him, and they prepare the meal. Their attendant also takes part in its preparation. Before eating, the guest insists that the boy be called. The parents call, and he returns alive as though coming from school. The guest and prepared food disappear; Siva appears with Uma and Murugan and receives the parents, child and attendant into His abode. The poem takes relinquishment of possessiveness to this terrible demand, then restores the child's life through the Lord who made it. Varkonda vanamulaiyal sarukkam, Siruthonda Nayanar puranam, verses 50–64 and 74–87.

✦Chandesvara: the father who interrupts worship

The young Vicharasarman cares for cattle and worships a sand linga with the milk they freely give. His father, Echadattan, comes to stop him, beats him and kicks the vessel of milk. The boy's staff becomes an axe, and he cuts off his father's feet. Siva appears with Uma, names Himself the boy's father and gives him the office of Chandesvara, guardian of what has been offered to the Lord. The poem also grants Echadattan Sivaloka. Its claim is that service to Siva has displaced the claims of kinship; the father's injury is part of that claim, and the divine ending includes him. Mummaiyal ulaganda sarukkam, Chandesvara Nayanar puranam, verses 23–30 and 46–59.

✦Iyarpakai: the cost of the escort

After Iyarpakai and his wife assent to the guest's request, their relatives take up arms to prevent her departure. Iyarpakai fights them and kills those who oppose the escort. At Saykkadu the guest dismisses him; he walks away without looking back. Called again, he returns to find his wife and then sees Siva with Uma. The couple are received into the divine abode, while the dead relatives are granted heavenly happiness. Sekkizhar presents unwavering service to the devotee, even against family allegiance. That interpretation does not remove the wife's initial disturbance or the deaths through which the escort proceeds. Tillai vazh antanar sarukkam, Iyarpakai puranam, verses 8–9 and 17–35.

Return from a selected episode to the full puranam, then hear the saints in their own hymns.

✦The poem in Tamil

• Periya Puranam: the whole work, its saintly company and the place of these episodes within it.
• Project Madurai's numbered Tamil text: Tirumalai and Tillai vazh antanar, Ilai malinda, Mummaiyal ulaganda and Tiruninra, Sambandar, first portion, Sambandar, continuation, the following lives, including Tirumular, and Sakkiya through the closing divisions. Follow the sarukkam and puranam headings to the local verse numbers given above.
• Shaivam's Periya Puranam collection: a route through the poem's divisions and individual lives.

✦Lives beside their words

• Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar: meet the singing devotees through their Tevaram as well as their biographies.
• Tirumular and Karaikkal Ammaiyar in Tirumurai 11: read teaching and poetry beside the transformations Sekkizhar narrates.
• Tirukkalirruppadiyar, verse 52: why Kannappar's inward love exceeds what an onlooker can measure.
• Sivagnana Bodham, sutra 12: the devotees and temple within the life of the freed soul.
• Stories in film: return from a screen retelling to the sequence and ending in the poem.