Nayanars

Nayanars

The Nayanars or Nayanmars (Tamil: நாயன்மார்கள்) were Shaivite devotional poets of Tamil Nadu, active between the fifth and the tenth centuries CE. The Tamil Śaiva 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.

Sundarar’s eighth century work Thiruthoṇdar thogai lists 60 Shaiva saints[1] but gives none of the legends associated with them. In the tenth century CE Nambiyandar Nambi composed the Tirutoṇṭar Antādi, a sequence of interlocking verses the title of which can be rendered as the Necklace of Verses on the Lord’s Servants. In this work Nambi adds Sundarar himself and his parents to the sequence, creating what is now the canonical list of sixty-three saints, each with a brief sketch of their legend.

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.

They praised 275 of this deity’s most holy temple abodes as the Paadal Petra Sthalams of the Shiva Sthalams on the continent.

The sixty-three Nayanmars
1. Sundaramurthi Nayanar
2. Tiru Neelakanta Nayanar
3. Iyarpahai Nayanar
4. Ilayankudi Mara Nayanar
5. Maiporul Nayanar
6. Viralminda Nayanar
7. Amaraneedi Nayanar
8. Eripatha Nayanar
9. Enadinatha Nayanar
10. Kannappa Nayanar
11. Kungiliya Kalaya Nayanar
12. Manakanchara Nayanar
13. Arivattaya Nayanar
14. Anaya Nayanar
15. Murthi Nayanar
16. Muruga Nayanar
17. Rudra Pasupathi Nayanar
18.Tiru Nalai Povar Nayanar
19. Tiru Kurippu Thonda Nayanar
20. Chandesvara Nayanar
21. Tiru-Navukkarasar Nayanar
22. Kulacchirai Nayanar
23. Perumizhalai Kurumba Nayanar
24. Karaikal Ammaiyar
25. Appuddi Nayanar
26. Tiruneelanakka Nayanar
27. Nami Nandi Adigal
28. Tiru Jnana Sambandar
29. Eyarkon Kalikama Nayanar
30. Tiru Mula Nayanar
31. Dandi Adigal Nayanar
32. Murkha Nayanar
33. Somasira Nayanar
34. Sakkiya Nayanar
35. Sirappuli Nayanar
36. Siruthonda Nayanar
37. Cheraman Perumal Nayanar
38. Gananatha Nayanar
39. Kootruva Nayanar
40. Pugal Chola Nayanar
41. Narasinga Muniyaraiyar
42. Adipattha Nayanar
43. Kalikamba Nayanar
44. Kalia Nayanar
45. Satti Nayanar
46. Aiyadigal Kadavarkon Nayanar
47. Kanampulla Nayanar
48. Kari Nayanar
49. Ninra Seer Nedumara Nayanar
50. Mangayarkarasiyar
51. Vayilar Nayanar
52. Munaiyaduvar Nayanar
53. Kazharsinga Nayanar
54. Seruthunai Nayanar
55. Idangazhi Nayanar
56. Pugazh Tunai Nayanar
57. Kotpuli Nayanar
58. Pusalar Nayanar
59. Nesa Nayanar
60. Kochengat Chola Nayanar
61. Tiru Neelakanta Yazhpanar
62. Sadaya Nayanar
63. Isaijnaniyar

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