Thirugnana Sambanthar

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Thirugnana Sambanthar was a Saiva saint, who lived in the Chola country in the ancient Tamil Nadu during the reign of Ninrasir Nedumaran (c.7th century CE).[1] Sambanthar, is one of the 63 Nayanars, Tamil Saiva Bhakti saints, who lived between the sixth and the tenth centuries CE. Sambanthar composed many hymns on Shiva, some of which were collected at a later date. These hymns form a part of the religious canon of Saivism. Sambandar was a contemporary of Appar, another Saiva saint.

[edit] His life

Information about Sambandar come to us mainly from the Periyapuranam, an eleventh century Tamil book on the Nayanars and the earlier Tiruttondartokai,a similar poetry by Sundaramoorthy Nayanar and "thiru thondar tiruvandadi" by Nambi andar Nambi .


Sambandar was born to Sivapada Hridayar and his wife Bhagavathiar who lived in the town of Sirkazhi in Tamil Nadu. According to legends, when Sambandar was three years old, his parents took him to the Siva temple. There they left the child on the steps of the sacred pond and went in to do their ablutions. Missing his parents, Sambandar started crying. The legends state that Siva and his consort Parvathi appeared before the child and the goddess nursed the child at her breast, giving the child divine qualities. During the occasion of investiture of sacred thread at the age of seven, he to the great surprise of the brahmins who came to perform the ceremony, exponded in flawless manner countless shlokas of vedas, many ancient sanskrit texts and cleared all their doubts on conducting vedic rituals.

Sambandar's first hymn Thodudaiya Seviyan was supposed to have been composed at that young age. This event is confirmed by adi shankara in his soundarya lahari a century later, where he worships goddess and praises her of having fed the dravida sisu(tamil child, sambandar) of milk of gnosis. He is regarded as an incarnation of Lord Murugan(karthikeya).

As a wandering minstrel Sambandar sang several hymns and opposed the then prevalent Jain and buddhist heterodoxy in the Tamil country and is credited with the conversion of the Pandya king from his Jain faith. The saint was instrumental in ousting buddhist and jain philosophies from India and from then on we do not see these faiths playing a big role in politics.[1]

The Tirumurais, the Tamil canonical literature of Saivism, contains the collected poems of the various Saiva saints. The first Tirumurai contains the 384 poems of Sambandar. In actuality sambandar has sung more than 10,000 decads but only 4232 have survived.

Sambandar attained Mukthi in "Visaka Nakshtara" in the tamil month of "Visakam" at the young age of sixteen, soon after his marriage.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Dr. R. Nagasamy. A New Pandya Record and the Dates of Nayanmars and Alvars. Tamil Arts Academy. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.

[edit] References

[1]Life of Thirugnanasambandar