Tirugnana Sampantar (திருஞானசம்பந்தர் - also rendered as Sambandar, Champantar, Sambandar, Jnanasambandar, Gnanasambandar) was a young Saiva poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who lived around the 7th century CE.[1]
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. Campantar'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.[2]
Contents |
| Tirumurai | ||
|---|---|---|
| The twelve volumes of Tamil Shaivite hymns of the sixty-three Nayanars | ||
| Parts | Name | Author |
| 1,2,3 | Tirukadaikkappu | Campantar |
| 4,5,6 | Tevaram | Appar |
| 7 | Tirupaatu | Cuntarar |
| 8 | Tiruvacakam & Tirukkovaiyar |
Manikkavacakar |
| 9 | Tiruvisaippa & Tiruppallaandu |
Various |
| 10 | Tirumandhiram | Tirumular |
| 11 | Various | |
| 12 | Periya Puranam | Sekkizhar |
| edit | ||
Information about Campantar comes mainly from the Periya Puranam, the eleventh-century Tamil book on the Nayanars that forms the last volume of the Tirumurai, along with the earlier Tiruttondartokai, poetry by Cuntarar and Nambiyandar Nambi's Tiru Tondar Tiruvandadi. A Sanskrit hagiography called Brahmapureesa Charitam is now lost. The first volumes of the Tirumurai contain three hundred and eighty-four poems of Campantar, all that survive out of a reputed more than 10,000 hymns.[3]
Campantar was born to Sivapada Hrudiyar and his wife Bhagavathiar who lived in Sirkazhi in what is now Tamil Nadu. They were Saivite brahmins. The group of servitors wore a tuft on top of their head as can be seen in all ancient murals of tirugnanasambandar (like for example in temples of tiru ambar, kudavayil, tirumakaalam and vilamar etc.), all statues and even paintings. The ancient literature has referred to this visual identification as "koor kondrai vaar chadai"( a knot that is on top of head and tilted). The ancient hagiographies have also noted this and so do the writings of subsequent periods. The knot is similar to the ones of "the three thousand ones of chidambaram", that sambandar praises in his hymn at chidambaram. Both sambandar and sundarar have themselves referred to this in their respective hymns. There is evidence to point that at that point of time the group worked on Rig veda. Sankaracharya who lived in the subsequent century has referred to him in one hymn of his Saundarya Lahari, praising him as a gifted Tamil child ("dravida sisu") who was fed with milk of divine gnosis by the goddess Uma. According to legend, when Campantar 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. At his investiture with the sacred thread, at the age of seven, he is said to have expounded the Vedas with great clarity. Campantar attained liberation (mukti) in "Visaka Nakshtara" in the Tamil month of "Visakam" at the age of sixteen soon after his marriage.
He went to Madurai during the reign of the Pandyan Dynasty King, Koon Pandiyan (கூன் பாண்டியன்). In the first half of the seventh century, the most popular faiths in south India were Jainism and Buddhism. The Pandyan king had converted to Jainism: Sekkizhar in more than 20 long verses scorned the conspiracy of the Jains. It is said that his queen Mangayarkarasi (மங்கையர்கரசி) invited Sambandhar.[4] As a wandering minstrel Campantar sang hymns opposing Jain and Buddhist thought and is credited with the conversion of the Pandya king from Jainism.[1] It is said to have been by the advice of Campantar that the king ordered a massacre of 8000 Jainas.[5]
An inscription of Rajaraja Chola I at Tiruvarur mentions Campantar along with Appar, Cuntarar and the latter's wife Nangai Paravaiyar.