Manikkavasagar

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Manikkavasagar, whose name literally means one whose words are like precious stones, was a Tamil poet who wrote Tiruvasakam, a book of religious hymns on the god Siva. Manikkavasagar was a minister to the Pandya king Varagunavarman II (c. 862 C.E. – 885 C.E.) and lived in Madurai.

[edit] Legend

A legend states that once the king entrusted to him a large amount of money to purchase horses. Accordingly, he commenced his journey to buy the horses from a market. On his way, he met an ascetic who said he was a devotee of Siva, but in fact was Siva himself. Manikkavasagar was given enlightenment. He realised all materialistic things are transitionary and instead of buying the horses he built a temple in Tirupperuntrai dedicated to Siva with the money which was in his custody. [1]

When the king heard of this misdemeanor and embezzlement, he was enraged and punished Manikkavasagar. Manikkavasagar prayed to the lord. A miracle happened where all jackals were converted to majestic horses and submited to the King. The king was pleased and released him. As night turned the horses tuned to jackals again and caused a chaos. The angry king punished Manikavasagar by placing him on hot sand. Another Miracle happend and the whole place got flooded. People were surprised on the untimely flood. The King asked all the citizens of the nation to put sand in the bank of the river to protect them from flood. [2]

There was an old lady who could not do this due to physical ailments. It is a legend that Lord Shiva appeared as a young man himself and volunteered to work for the old lady for food. But he whiled away the time without bunding the river. The Kind got angry at the Lazy young man and punished him by a whip in his shoulders. The Whip was felt by all the Citizens of the nation as it was felt by Lord Shiva. The king, who was bewildered by these miracles attributed it to action of God in proving the supremeness of Manikkavasagar. He begged Pardon and became a follower of saivism and let Manikkavasagar spread his devotion of siva. [3]

Thereafter, Manikkavachakar moved from one place to other, and spent his time in singing devotional songs and composing hymns dedicated to Siva. Finally, he settled in Chidambaram and spent his time there in the temple complex of Siva in his aspect as Nataraj. He continued to compose devotional songs and hymns. The legend states that he vanished inside Nataraj’s temple complex. In order to honor him, a set of his major works, called Tiruvasakam is placed near the image of Siva.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://www.nandhi.com/manickavasagar.htm
  2. ^ http://www.skandagurunatha.org/deities/siva/nayanars/manikkavasagar.asp
  3. ^ http://www.shaivam.org/admanika.htm

[edit] References

Life history of Manikkavasagar Complete thiruvacakam and thirukkovaiyar

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