Dr. S. Sundarabalu Visiting Professor ,ICCR’s Tamil Chair Institute of Oriental Studies, Dept. of Indology Jagiellonian University, Krakow-Poland sunder_balu@yahoo.co.in India-9715769995

1. Panniru Thirumurai – Introduction
(panniru = "twelve"; thirumurai = "holy books")
Dr. S. Sundarabalu
Visiting Professor ,ICCR’s Tamil Chair
Institute of Oriental Studies, Dept. of Indology
Jagiellonian University, Krakow-Poland
Sunder_balu@yahoo.co.in
India-9715769995

2. Between Me & Lord Shiva:
Lord Shiva: What is ur wishes my dear child?
Me: I don't want to reborn My Lord, Lord Shiva: But if u reborn
again...what will be ur wishes?
Me: My Lord, just give me the heart that never forgets u.. it's enough.
Happiness two srrinpam and peerinpam

3. • This is a list of popular Hindu temples in the Indian
state of Tamil Nadu, known as Land of Temples. Nearly
34,000 ancient temples, many at least 800 to 1200
years old, are found scattered all over the state. Most
of the largest Hindu Temples reside here.
• Studded with complex architecture, variety of
sculptures, and rich inscriptions, the temples remain
the very essence of the culture and heritage of Tamil
land, with historical records dating back to at least
3,000 years.

4. Panniru Thirumurai (panniru = "twelve"; thirumurai =
"holy books") refers to the twelve-book collection of
hymns and writings of South Indian Saivite Saints,
compiled by Saint Nambi-Andar-Nambi .
One of the greatest movements of the world — the
Saiva bakthi movement — took place in Tamil Nadu
between the seventh and tenth centuries. The
movement surrounded the entire land and the
inspiration for this was the writings of the Saiva
Saints, which formed the canonical literature of
Saivism.

5. • Saivism is a pan-Indian phenomenon. But it was
these saints who took it to the common man
through their hymns. For the first time, hymns were
composed in the regional language, namely Tamil,
instead of Sanskrit.
• The Panniru Thimurai is a canonical literature that is
unique in more than one sense. It was written in
Tamil and formed the fountain head of Saiva
Siddhanta philosophy. It was also divine and
attracted people. The outpourings were superbly
devotional and it was this that sparked off the
bakthi movement.

6. • The sincerity and depth of the poems of the Panniru
Thirumurai captured the head and heart of the
common people. The result was that the popular
and powerful faiths of Buddhism and Jainism
slowly faded away.
• The Tamil Panniru Thirumurai Saivite literature
covered the way for devotional literature in other
regions to appear in their regional languages
instead of Sanskrit. The Bakthi movement spread all
over the country. We find that this canonical
literature occupies a special place in Indian religious
literature. A study of Saivism in India is incomplete
if the contribution of Tamil saints is not
understood.

7. • The canonical literature, as mentioned earlier,
comprises of the poetry of Tamil Saivite Saints like
1. Thiru-jnana sambanthar,
2. Thiru-navukk-arasar (Appar),
3. Sundarar,
4. Manikkavasagar, and others. The corpus of
devotional literature is collectively called Panniru
Thirumurai. As the name reveals, it consists of
twelve major titles.

9. • These 12 Thirumurais are arranged into four
categories. They are:
• sthothiram (stothram)
- hymns in praise (thirumuRais 1-9)
• chaaththiram (shaastram)
- guidelines or philosophical treatises (10th
thirumuRai)
• prabhantam (assorted)
- songs composed of various language
constructs (11th thirumuRai)
• puraaNam (history)
- historical recount (12th thirumuRai)

10. The Thirumurais (holy books) have been named
numerically as the
• 1st Thirumurai (Book 1), 2nd Thirumurai (Book 2), etc.
Of these, the spiritual outpourings of Thiru-jnana
sambanthar (ca 600) are divided into the first three
books (Thirumurai 1-3).
• Thirumurais 4-6 are the hymns of Thiru-navukk-arasar
(Appar) — (a contemporary of Sambanthar).
• Thirumurai 7 contains the hymns of Saint Sundarar (ca
800). All these seven books are collectively called
Thevaaram.
• The 8 th Thirumurai is by Manikkavasagar (ca 850) and
contains two works, namely Thiruvaasagam and
Thirukkovaiyaar.

11. • The 9 th Thirumurai, known as Thiruvisaippaa and
Thiruppallaandu, which together comprise an
anthology of hymns by nine saints (described in
table below).
• Thirumanthiram, a unique book by Saint
Thirumular (ca 200 BCE) forms the 10th Thirumurai.
• The 11th Thirumurai contains the hymns of ten
saints, including Saint Nakkeerar and Nambi-Andar-
Nambi (the compiler), called Prabhantams.
• The 12th Thirumurai is the Periyapuraanam by Saint
Sekkilaar (11th century), narrating the life story of
the 63 Nayanar (Saivite) saints.

12. Thirumurai Name Author Verses
1
Thevaaram (thirukkadaikkaappu) Thiru-jnana sambanthar 41472
3
4
Thevaaram Thiru-navukk-arasar (Appar) 30675
6
7 Thevaaram (thiruppaattu) Sundarar 1026
8 Thiruvasaagam & ThirukkOvaiyaar Manikkavasagar 1056
9 Thiruvisaippaa & Thiruppallaandu
Composed by nine authors:
thirumALigaiththEvar, chEndhanAr,
karuvUrththEvar, pUnthuruththi kADanambi,
kaNDarAdhiththar, vENATTaDikaL,
thiruvAliyamudhanAr, puruDoththama
nambi, chEdhirAyar
301
10 Thirumanthiram Thiru-Mular 3047
11 Prabanthams
Composed by twelve authors (consisting of
41 prabhantams):
thiru-AlavAyuDaiyAr, kAraikkAl ammaiyAr,
aiyaDikaL kADavarkOn, chEramAn perumAL,
nakkIrar, kallADar, kapilar, paraNar,
iLamperumAn aDikal, adhirAvaDikaL,
paTTinaththup piLLaiyAr, nambi-ANDAr-
nambi
1419
12 Periya-Puraanam Sekkilaar 4286
Total (Number of verses available): 18349
The Panniru (twelve) Thirumurais are summarized in the following table:

13. • Being a popular and favourite faith of Tamil Nadu,
Saivism has attracted the attention of scholars of
other religions too. This fact is exemplified by the
efforts Dr. Rev. G.U. Pope, who took to translate
Thiruvasagam and Tiruvarutpayan (one of the
philosophical treatises of Saiva Siddhanta) into
English.
• Thus, Panniru Thirumurai has proven to be a subject for translation
and research. More importantly, it is a subject to be studied in depth
to understand Saivism, its people, and the culture of Tamil Nadu.
• http://www.skandagurunatha.org/deities/siva/thirumurai/

14. Life of the Sixty three Nayanmar - Periyapuraanam
12 Periya-Puraanam Sekkilaar

16. Nayanars
• The Nayanars or Nayanmars (Tamil: நாயன்மார்கள்) were
devotional saint poets of vishnu in Tamil Nadu, who
were active between the 5th and 10th centuries CE.
The Tamil Śhaiva (related to Shiva)
hagiography(Biography of saints) Periya Puranam (a volume of the
Tirumurai written during the 13th century CE) narrates the history of
each of 63 Nayanars and 9 Thokai Adiyars.

17. • Sundarar's 8th century work, Thiruthoṇdar thogai, lists
60 Shaiva saints but does not describe any of the
legends associated with them.
• In the 10th century CE Nambiyandar Nambi composed
the Tirutoṇṭar Antādi, a sequence of interlocking
verses, whose title can be rendered as the Necklace of
Verses on the Lord's Servants. In this work, Nambi adds
Sundarar and his parents to the sequence, creating
what is now the canonical list of 63 saints, each with a
brief sketch of his legend.

18. • Nayanars were from varied backgrounds, ranging
from kings and soldiers to Dalits. The foremost
Nayanmars were Appar, Sundarar , Thirughana
Sambandar and Manikka vasagar.
• Together with the twelve Vaishnava Alvars, the
Nayanars are sometimes considered South India's
75 Apostles of Bhakti because of their importance
to the rise of the Hindu Bhakti movement.
• They praised 275 of this deity's most holy temple
residence as the Paadal Petra Sthalams of the Shiva
Sthalams on the continent

19. GROUP Nayanmars Alwars
Brahmins 16 4
Kshatriyas 12 2
Vaishyas 5 -
Farmers 14 1
Shepherds 2 -
Fisherman 1 -
Oil monger 1 -
Hunter 1 -
Washer man 1 -
Potter 1 -
Weaver 1 -
Untouchables 2 1
Caste not Known 6 4
Total 63 12
http://www.academia.edu/310962/The_Early_Bhakti_Poets_of_Tamil_Nadu_Exploring_the_Bhakti_Movement_Literature_and_Iconography

20. http://www.inbaminge.com/t/devotional/Panniru%20Thirumurai/

22. • Tirunavukkarasar (Tamil: திருநாவுக்கரசர்
Tirunāvukkaracar "King of the Tongue, Lord of
Language"), also known as Appar "Father", was a
seventh-century Śaiva Tamil poet-saint, one of the
most prominent of the sixty-three Nayanars. He was
an older contemporary of Sambandar. His birth-
name was Marulneekkiyar: he was called "father"
by Sambandhar, hence the name Appar.

23. • During boyhood, Appar was very much interested in
Jainism and started studying its scriptures. He went
away from home and stayed in their monastery and
was renamed Darmasena.
• Appar had travelled to Patalipura in bihar to join a
Jain monastery where he was given the name
Dharmasena. "Seeing the transient, ephemeral world he decided to probe into truth
through renunciation."

24. • After a while, afflicted by a painful illness,
Dharmasena returned home. He prayed for relief at
the Siva temple where his sister served and was
cured. He was also involved in converting the
Pallava king, Mahendravarman to Saivaism. This
was also the period of resurrection of the smaller
Shiva temples.
• Appar sanctified (holy) all these temples by his verses
and was also involved in cleaning of the dilapidated
temples called uzhavarapadai. He was called
Tirunavukkarasu, meaning the "King of divine
speech". He extolled Siva in 49,000 stanzas out of
which 3130 are now available and compiled in
Tirumurais 4-7.

25. sundarar
• Sundarar or Sundaramurthi (Tamil சுந்தரர், 8th century
CE), also known affectionately as Tampiran Tōzhan
(Comrade of the Master (Shiva))was one of the most
prominent among the Nayanars, the Shaiva bhakti
(devotional) poets of Tamil Nadu. He was a
contemporary of Cheraman Perumal and Kotpuli
Nayanar who also figure in the 63 Nayanmars.
• The songs of praise are called Thiruthondathogai and is
the original nucleus around which the Periyapuranam is
based. The Periya Puranam, which collects the legends
of the Nayanars, starts and ends with him. The hymns of
seventh volume of the Tirumurai, the twelve-volume compendium of the poetry of
Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta, were composed by him.

26. Sambandar
• Sambandar (also called Thirugyana Sambandar,
Tirugnana Sambanthar, Campantar, Champantar,
Jnanasambandar, Gnanasambandar) was a young
Saiva poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who lived around the
7th century CE.
• He is one of the most prominent of the sixty-three
Nayanars, Tamil Saiva bhakti saints who lived
between the sixth and the tenth centuries CE.
Sambandar's hymns to Shiva were later collected to
form the first three volumes of the Tirumurai, the
religious canon of Tamil Saiva Siddhanta. He was a
contemporary of Appar, another Saiva saint.

27. • The first volumes of the Tirumurai contain three
hundred and eighty-four poems of Sambandar, all
that survive out of a reputed more than 10,000
hymns.
• According to the ancient texts, Sambandar was born to Sivapada
Hrudiyar and his wife Bhagavathiar who lived in Sirkazhi in what is
now Tamil Nadu. They were Saivite brahmins. When
Sambandar was three years old his parents took
him to the Shiva temple where Shiva and his
consort Parvati appeared before the child. His
father saw drops of milk on the child's mouth and
asked who had fed him, whereupon the boy
pointed to the sky and responded with the song
Todudaya Seviyan, the first verse of the Tevaram.

30. • Manikkavacakar was a Tamil poet who wrote
Tiruvasakam, a book of Shaiva hymns.
Manikkavasakar was one of the main authors of
saivite tirumurai: his work forms one volume of the
Tirumurai, the key religious text of Tamil Shaiva
Siddhanta. A minister to the Pandya king
Varagunavarman II (c. 862 C.E. – 885 C.E.) (also
called Arimarthana Pandiyan), he lived in Madurai.
His work is a poetic expression of the joy of God-experience, the anguish of
being separated from God. Although he is a prominent saint in Southern
India, he is not counted among the sixty-three nayanars.
• Manikkavasakar is said to have born in Vadhavoor
(Thiruvadhavoor, near by melur [madurai D.t]),
seven miles from Madurai on the banks of river
Vaigai. He belonged to Brahmin community.

31. • According to accounts the king of Pandyan dynasty
had selected Manikkavasagar as a part of his legion
after seeing his military acumen and had once
entrusted him with a large amount of money to
purchase horses for his cavalry. On his way he met
an ascetic devotee of Siva, who in fact was Siva
himself.
• Manikkavasakar received enlightenment, realised
that material things are transitory and built the
temple of Siva in Tirupperunturai with the money.
King Varaguna also was preached with knowledge
of reality and blessed with mukthi after Lord Siva
made him realize his small worldly mistake.
Varaguana maharaja immediately gave up his
throne and attained mukthi at feet of Lord Sivan.

32. wisdom

33. BHAKTI POETS OF TAMILNADU

34. KARAIKKAL AMMIYAR
woman poet Punithavathiar, famously known as
Karaikkal Ammaiyar. Her life incidents are
mentioned in the Periyapuranam
.From her childhood she developed a love of God and
studied religious literature. She was married to a
rich merchant Paramadattan. The anecdote of the
mango is very famous one which tells about her
divine gifts and sadly reveals how her husband left
her.

35. • The story goes like this, once Paramadattan handed
two mangoes to Punithavathiar from his friends.
She gave one to a hungry devotee of the Lord.
When her husband came for lunch she served him
the other one which was very delicious. He asked
for the second one and she prayed to the lord. Lord
gifted a mango to her which she gave it to
Paramadattan. He found it very tasty and asked
where she had got it.

36. • She told him what happened and he forced her to
get another one. She prayed and got another
mango but this time it vanished from his hands.
Scared by her divine powers he left her and married
another woman. Shattered by this incident she
renounced the worldly pleasures and decide to
dedicate her life to the god. She shed her flesh and
took the form of a demoness. She then composed
her first poem called

40. Abirami pattar
• Subramaniya Iyer (Tamil: சுப்ரமணிய அய்யர்) was
born to one Amirthalinga Iyer in the village of
Thirukadaiyur. Tirukkadaiyur has one of elegant
Brahmin quarters near the temple called as
agraharams established by the Maratha ruler
Serfoji-I, a great admirer of Brahmin poets and
bards, in the early part of the 18th century. The
village was famous for its Lord Shiva temple named
asAmritaghateswarar AbiramiTemple,
Thirukkadaiyur. Right from his childhood,
Subramaniya Iyer was drawn to the temple and the
Goddess.

41. • One day, Raja Serfoji, the Maratha Raja of Thanjavur
who ruled over the land, visited the temple to pay
homage to Lord Shiva. On noticing the peculiar behavior of
Subramaniya Iyer who was a temple priest, he inquired the other priests
about the individual. One of them remarked that he was a madman while
another rejected this categorization explaining to the king that Subramaniya
Iyer was only an ardent devotee of Goddess Abhirami.
• Seeking to know the truth himself, Serfoji approached
the priest and asked him what day of the month it was
i.e. whether it was a full-moon day or a new-moon day.
Subramaniya Iyer answered mistakenly that it was a
Pournami (Tamil: ப ௌர்ணமி, Lit. full-moon day) who could
see nothing else but the shining luminant form of the
Goddess. While in reality, the night was an Amavasya
(Tamil: அம்மாவசச, Lit. new-moon day). The king rode off
informing the former that he would have his head cut
off, if the moon did not appear on the sky by six in the
night.

42. • Immediately realizing his mistake, Subramaniya Iyer
supposedly lit a huge fire and erected a platform over it
supported by a hundred ropes. He sat upon the platform and
prayed to the Goddess Abhirami to save him. He cut off one
rope after another in succession on completion of each verse
of his prayer. These hymns form the Abhirami Anthadhi.
• On verge of completing the 79th hymn, the Goddess Abhirami
manifested herself before him and threw her thadanga (Tamil:
தடங்சக, Lit. diamond earring ornament), over the sky such
that it shined with bright light upon the horizon. Overcome
with ecstasy, Subramaniya Iyer composed 22 more verses in
praise of the Goddess.
• The king repented his mistake and immediately cancelled the
punishment he had awarded Subramaniya Iyer. He also
bestowed upon the latter the title of "Abirami Pattar" or "One
who worships Goddess Abhirami or The Priest of Goddess
Abhirami" and supposedly awarded his successors the
privilege of using the title "Bharathi".

44. Avaiyar

45. • Avaiyar
• The Avvaiyars (Tamil: ஔசவயார்; English: Respectable
Women) was the title of more than one poet who was active
during different periods of Tamil literature. The Avvaiyar were
some of the most famous and important female poets of the
Tamil canon. Abithana Chintamani states that there were
three female poets titled Avvaiyar.
• Among them, Avvaiyar I lived during the Sangam period (c.
1st and 2nd century CE) and had cordial relation with the
Tamil chieftains Paari and Athiyaman. She wrote 59 poems in
the Puṟanāṉūṟu.
• Avvaiyar II lived during the period of Kambar and Ottakoothar
during the reign of the Chola dynasty in the 13th century. She
is often imagined as an old and intelligent lady by Tamil
people. She wrote many of the poems that remain very
popular even now and are inculcated in school textbooks in
Tamil Nadu. These books include a list of dos and don'ts,
useful for daily life, arranged in simple and short sentences.

47. • There is a very famous legend that is associated with
Auvaiyar (also Auvayar) (Tamil: ஔசவயார்), a
prominent female poets/ethicist/political activist of
Sangam period (Tamil literature), and Naaval Pazham
(Jambu) in Tamil Nadu. Auvaiyar, believing to have
achieved everything that is to be achieved, is said to
have been pondering her retirement from Tamil literary
work while resting under Naaval Pazham tree.
• But she is met with and was wittily jousted by a
disguised Lord Murugan (regarded as one of the
guardian deities of Tamil language), who later revealed
himself and made her realize that there was still a lot
more to be done and learnt. Following this awakening,
Auvaiyar is believed to have undertaken a fresh set of
literary works, targeted at children. These works, even
after a millennium, are often among the very first
literature that children are exposed to in Tamil Nadu
schools.

49. • Arunakiri
• Arunagirinathar was a Tamil poet who lived during the
15th century in Tamil Nadu, India. He was the creator
of Tiruppugazh, a book of poems in Tamil in praise of
the Hindu God Murugan.
• The Thiruppugazh composed by him, consisted of
16,000 songs, of which only about 1,365 has been
traced. His poems are known for their lyricism coupled
with complex rhymes and rhythmic structures. In
Thiruppugazh, the literature and devotion has been
blended harmoniously.
• Thiruppugazh is one of the major works of medieval
Tamil literature, known for its poetical and musical
qualities, as well as for its religious, moral and
philosophical content.

50. • Arunagiri was born in Thiruvannamalai, a town in Tamil Nadu. His
father died soon after his birth and his mother and sister instilled
him with their cultural and religious traditions. Legends claim that
Arunagiri was attracted to the pleasures of the flesh and spent his
youth in pursuing a life of debauchery. His sister always gave
whatever she earned to make her brother happy, and he
frequented devadasis.
• It was said since he was enjoying life luxuriously he started to
suffer leprosy and which people started avoiding him. There came
a time when his sister had no money to meet his demands. She
said that he should sell her in order to have money, upon hearing
which Arunagirinathar realised how selfish he had been. He
decided to end his life, went to a temple and hit his head against
the pillars and steps, begging for forgiveness. Then he leapt from
the temple tower. He was however miraculously saved from the
death by the god Muruga who transformed him into a saint.
• Arunagiri sang his first devotional song and thereafter decided to
spend the rest of his life writing poetry and singing in praise of
God. He was a devotee of Muruga and worshipped him at
Vedapureeswarar temple at the sacred place known as Cheyyar.

52. thiruvilaiyaatalpuranam
• Hinduism has a very rich body of religious works and
literature. Vedas and their associated works and their
branching sciences and fields, etc. There is a body of
literature called Puranas and Ithihasas.
They are collection and compilations of stories, history,
descriptions, explanations of rituals, geography,
etc. The Puranas are 18 in number.
• They are the major puranas.
Apart from these there are the minor puranas. Then
there are the sthala puranas. These deal with the

53. • greatness of a particular holy place or religious
centre. There is one unique purana which is of a different
calibre. This the ThiruViLaiyaadal PuraNa. This purana
describes the 64 Divine Sports and Exploits of Lord Siva of
Madurai known as Chokanatha or Sundaresvara. There
have been several puranas which dealt with the same theme.
There is a Sanskrit version known as Halasya
Mahathmiyam.
• The stories which form the corpus of the latest version of the
Thiruvilayadal puranam are ancient. Some of the stories go
backwards in time to the period of the second Tamil
Sangam. Many of the 64 stories have been mentioned by
Thirugnyanasambandhar and Thirunavukkarasar. That would
take them back before the 6th century AD. Which would
mean that whatever puranas about them that existed, must
have vanished. The latest version was composed by Parajothi
Munivar in the 16th - 17th century.

54. • ThiruviLaiyAl puraNam is the national puranam for
Pandya nadu. The present version was composed by
Parajothi Munivar in the 16th century. He was a native
of Vedaranyam of Tanjavur District. He was Tamil
scholar. He wrote the Vedaranya Puranam in Tamil from
the original Sanskrit form.
• After its completion, he started on an itinery which
took him to many Saivite pilgrimage centres. He went
to all the important places like Chidambaram,
Thiruvanaikkaa, Thiruvannamalai, Thiruvarur and finally
reached Madurai. He became very popular with people
of Madurai who revered him. He stayed in Madurai and
was performing his worships to the Siva of Madurai.
One day the people of Madurai made a popular
request. They wanted Paranjothi Munivar to compose a
puranam involving the 64 Divine Sports of Siva which
took place in Pandyanadu centred around Madurai.