Nayanars

Nayanmar (Tamil: நாயன்மார் Nāyaṉmār [ nɑ ː jənmɑ ː r], literally " lord " ) refers to the sixty-three saints of Tamil Saivism ( Saiva Siddhanta ), belonging to the Bhakti movement. Your life is dated to the 6th to the 11th century. The Nayanmar created the Tirumurai, 12 collections of books or Tamil, devotional poetry. The last of these books was written around 1150 by Cekkilar and contains the hagiographies of Nayanmar. This book is called Periyapuranam and the main part contains the hagiography Tirunanasambandars who wrote the first three books and has lived in the 8th century. According to legend, Tirunanasambandar was exposed at the age of two and a half years in the temple in Sirkazhi from his father. When he started to cry with hunger, appeared Shiva 's wife Parvati, and nourished him from a golden container with the milk of her breasts. Then Tirunanasambandar sang with joy the first verses of his poetry.

The first seven books of the Tirumurai are called Tevaram and are considered the most important books of this collection. They were written around the 8th century by three of the Nayanmar, Tirunanasambandar, Appar and Sundarar. These seven books contain poems that praise Shiva in a particular temple, but mostly temples in Tamil Nadu, some poems are also related to the temple in Sri Lanka. The poems contain a diverse mythology of Shiva and his temples, including important pilgrimage places like Madurai and Chidambaram, but also less well-known places.

The eighth book includes the Tiruvasagam and Tirukkovaiyar, a popular poem in praise of Shiva and mystical love poems to Shiva as it appears in Chidambaram. The remaining books of the Tirumurai contain various poems of Shivaite Bhakti.

The Tirumurai is not used liturgically, but sing non- Brahmin priests ( Pantaram or Otuvar ) the Tevaram to the respective described in Tevaram temples to supplement the local rituals. The Tamil music of antiquity probably forms the melodies of these songs, while the ragas are contemporary.

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