nayanars
{{Short description|Group of Hindu saints devoted to Shiva}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
File:Nalvar.JPG – (from left) Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar, the three foremost Nayanars, and Manikkavacakar.]]
The Nayanars (or Nayanmars; {{langx|ta|நாயன்மார்|translit=Nāyaṉmār|translit-std=ISO|lit=hounds of Siva}}, and later 'teachers of Shiva'){{cite book |last=Sadasivan |first=S. N. |author-link=S. N. Sadasivan |year=2000 |title=A Social History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Be3PCvzf-BYC&pg=PA150 |pages=150–51 |location=New Delhi |publisher=A.P.H. Publishing Corporation |isbn=81-7648-170-X}} were a group of 63 Tamil Hindu saints living during the 6th to 8th centuries CE who were devoted to the Hindu god Shiva. Along with the Alvars, their contemporaries who were devoted to Vishnu, they influenced the Bhakti movement in early medieval South India.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H4q0DHGMcjEC&pg=PA167 | title = Historical Dictionary of the Tamils | first=Vijaya |last=Ramaswamy | publisher = Scarecrow Press | year = 2007 | page = 167 | isbn = 978-0-8108-6445-0 }} The names of the Nayanars were first compiled by Sundarar. The list was expanded by Nambiyandar Nambi during his compilation of material by the poets for the Tirumurai collection, and would include Sundarar himself and Sundarar's parents.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}
The Nalvar ({{literal translation|The Four}}) are the three foremost Nayanars Appar, Sundarar, Sambandar along with Manikkavacakar.{{Cite web |title=Who Were the Nalvars? – Saivite Scriptures |url=https://www.himalayanacademy.com/saivite-scriptures/who-were-the-nalvars/ |publisher=Himalayan Academy |access-date=2024-06-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240321174109/https://www.himalayanacademy.com/saivite-scriptures/who-were-the-nalvars/ |archive-date=2024-03-21}}
History
The list of the Nayanars was initially compiled by Sundarar (Sundararmurthi). In his poem Tiruthonda Thogai he sings, in eleven verses, the names of the Nayanar saints up to Karaikkal Ammaiyar, and refers to himself as "the servant of servants".{{cite web |last=Sivananda |first=Swami |author-link=Sivananda Saraswati |title=Sixty-Three Nayanar Saints |at=19. Tiru Kurippu Thonda Nayanar |publisher=The Divine Life Society Uttar Pradesh |url=https://www.dlshq.org/download/nayanar.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191123171907/https://www.dlshq.org/download/nayanar.htm |archive-date=23 November 2019 |url-status=live}}{{cite book |last=Mahadevan |first=T. M. P. |author-link=T.M.P. Mahadevan |year=1971 |title=Ten Saints of India |edition=3rd |location=Mumbai |publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |page=35 |lccn=70-924698}} The list did not go into the detail of the lives of the saints, which were described in detail in works such as Tevaram.
In the 10th century, king Raja Raja Chola I collected the volumes of Tevaram after hearing excerpts of the hymns in his court.{{cite book |last=Cutler |first=Norman |title=Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil Devotion |year=1987 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=veSItWingx8C&q=tevaram&pg=PA4 |isbn=0-253-35334-3}}{{rp|50}} His priest Nambiyandar Nambi began compiling the hymns into a series of volumes called the Tirumurai. He arranged the hymns of three saint poets Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar as the first seven books which he called the Tevaram. He compiled Manikkavasakar's Tirukovayar and Tiruvasakam as the eighth book, the 28 hymns of nine other saints as the ninth book, the Tirumandiram of Tirumular and 40 hymns by 12 other poets as the tenth book. In the eleventh book, he created the Tirutontanar Tiruvanthathi (also known as Tirutoṇṭar Antādi, lit. Necklace of Verses on the Lord's Servants), which consisted of 89 verses, with a verse devoted to each of the saints. With the addition of Sundarar and his parents to the sequence, this became the canonical list of the 63 saints.{{cite book |last=Zvelebil |first=Kamil |author-link=Kamil Zvelebil |title=Tamil Literature |series=A History of Indian Literature |volume=10 |year=1974 |location=Wiesbaden |publisher=Otto Harrasowitz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ33i496MsIC&pg=PA130 |page=130 |isbn=3-447-01582-9}} In the 12th century, Sekkizhar added a twelfth volume to the Tirumurai called Periya Puranam in which he expands further on the stories of each of 63 Nayanars.
The Nayanars were from various backgrounds, including Nadar, Vanniyar, Vellalas, Idayars, Kurumbars, Thevars, oilmongers, Brahmins, Vannar, and Paraiyars. Along with the twelve Vaishnava Alvars, they are regarded as the important Hindu saints from South India.
Many Kannada works, such has Nambiyannana Ragale and Tiru Nilakanta Devara Ragale, are written on Nayanars by Kannada poet Harihara. Sundara Murthy nayanar is known as Nambiyanna in Kannada literature.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}
List of Nayanars
File:Sri Kokarneshvarar Temple in Tirukokarnam.JPG temple]]
Sundarar's original list of Nayanars did not follow any sequence with regards to chronology or importance. However, some groups have since followed an order for arranging their Nayanar temple images according to Sundarar's poem as well as the information from Nambi and Sekkizhar.{{cite web |last=Vanmikanathan |first=G. |author-link=G. Vanmikanathan |url=http://www.skandagurunatha.org/deities/siva/nayanars/ |title=The Sixty-Three Nayanars |website=Skandagurunatha.org |access-date=2024-06-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930104213/http://www.skandagurunatha.org/deities/siva/nayanars/ |archive-date=2019-09-30 |url-status=live}}
{{Saivism}}
Other saints
The 9th-century poet Manikkavacakar was not counted as one of the 63 Nayanars but his works were part of the eighth volume of the Tirumurai.
In Tiruchuli, the Tamil poet-philosopher Valluvar is worshipped as the 64th Nayanar.{{cite news | last = Kannan | first = Kaushik | title = Saint poet's guru pooja at Tiruchuli | newspaper = The New Indian Express | location = Tiruchuli | publisher = Express Publications | date = 11 March 2013 | url = https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2013/mar/11/saint-poets-guru-pooja-at-tiruchuli-457417.html | access-date = 3 September 2020}} Valluvar was also added as the 64 saint in the annual Mylapore procession of the 63 Nayanars since c. 1905.{{cite journal|title=Arupathu Moovar – 110 years ago|author=Karthik Bhatt |date=16–31 March 2020|journal=Madras Musings|volume=XXIX|issue=23|url=http://www.madrasmusings.com/vol-29-no-23/arupathu-moovar-110-years-ago/}}{{cite journal|title=Thiruvalluvar's shrine|author=Pradeep Chakravarthy |author2=Ramesh Ramachandran |date=16–31 August 2009|journal=Madras Musings|volume=19|issue=9|url=http://madrasmusings.com/Vol%2019%20No%209/thiruvalluvars_shrine.html}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book |last=Cort |first=John E. |author-link=John E. Cort |title=Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Culture in Indian History |year=1998 |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=Albany |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWfnXbVWjKcC |isbn=0-7914-3786-8}}
External links
- {{cite web |url=https://shaivam.org/devotees/63-nayanmarkal |title=63 Nayanmarkal – History of the Great Shiva Devotees |work=Shaivam.org |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231210211019/https://shaivam.org/devotees/63-nayanmarkal/ |archive-date=2023-12-10}}
- {{cite book |author=Sekkizhaar |author-link=Sekkilhar |editor-last=Mahalingam |editor-first=N. |editor-link=N. Mahalingam |translator-last=Vanmikanathan |translator-first=G. |translator-link=G. Vanmikanathan |year=2000 |orig-date=1985 |title=Periya Puranam: A Tamil Classic on the Great Saiva Saints of South India |url=https://archive.org/details/periya-puranam-english-translation-vanmikanathan-g.-r.-k.-mutt-ocred/ |edition=Condensed English |location=Chennai |publisher=Sri Ramakrishna Math |via=Internet Archive}}
{{Nayanars}}
{{Shaivism}}