The Sixty-Three Nayanars

* The Sixty-Three Nayanars *

“The Nayanars or Nayanmars were 63 Saints, Shiva Devotees of Tamil Nadu, active between the fifth and the tenth centuries CE. The Tamil Saiva hagiography Periya Puranam, a volume of the Tirumurai, written during the thirteenth century CE, narrates the history of each of sixty-three Nayanars and the history of nine Thokai Adiyar.

Nayanars were from varied backgrounds, ranging from kings and soldiers to untouchables. The foremost Nayanars are Appar, Sundarar and Sambandar. Together with the twelve Vaishnava Alvars, the Nayanars are sometimes accounted South India's 75 Apostles of Bhakti because of their importance in the rise of the Hindu Bhakti movement.

The services that these devotees did differ, but the common thing is the love for the Lord ornated by moon. They followed different ways of praying the God - chariyai, kiriyai, yogam, nyanam. They were in different kinds of life styles - brahmacharyam, grihastam, vanaprastam, sanyasam. Their traditional work (or the so called caste) differ - champandhar (reciting vedha), appar (farmer), nilakandar (making clay articles), thiruna Laip povar (making leather items) and so on. Both male and female devotees are there. (In fact the wives of many nayanmars were equally devotional and got the place of Lord Shiva along with their husbands). Some of them had high degree of learning and nyana while some others excelled with their simple devotion even though they didn't learn any spiritual teachings. Some of them were kings (pukazch chozar) and some others didn't even have a house to stay. Irrespective of their background all of them anointed Lord Shiva with the perennial spring of love and enjoyed the bliss of His grace. It can be said that their histories show how true devotees will act under different circumstances. They excelled in their own way to be compared only to that individual devotee. Their lives are an indication to all of us that we should worship and will be able to get His grace whatever our status be.”