Thirunyana Sambandar -the holy ash.

    King Nedumaran of Pandiya kingdom was  a follower of Jainism. His wife Mangaiyarkkarasi and Minister Kulachchiraiyar were devotees of Lord Shiva.


    When the young prodigy Thirunyana Sambandar in his travels reached Pandiya kingdom to sing the praise of the lord, both the queen and the minister were overjoyed. They welcomed him gratefully and were hopeful that at last the king can be removed from the influences of the Jains.


    Though in possession of sound  principles the Jains followed them selfishly. They were constantly fearful of losing the kings patronage and in the survival of their philosophy . Hence were out to poison the king about the intentions of Thirunyana Sambandar's arrival as a direct challenge to the king and his beliefs.The trusting king believed them and gave permission to burn down the mansion ,provided by the queen for the visiting Sambandar with their mantras and prove their superiority over Shaivism. The Mantras of the Jains failed to work on the mansion where the God child stayed. To convince the king of their success the jains set the mansion on fire.
      
       Seeing the mansion on fire and thankful that no one came to harm  , Thirunyana Sambandar sang a pathigam and  sent the heat of the fire back to the person who was responsible for it. The king had sanctioned this revenge and so was immediately affected and was soon down with a burning pain in his stomach.


     The king was miserable in pain and soon listened to the queen to allow Sambandar to cure him. The king asked the jains to work on his left side and Thirunyana Sambandar on the right side . The jains worked with peacock feathers and holy water ,it only increased the burning pain. The king begged Sambandar to cure him and promised to accept and follow Shaivism if he succeeded . The young saint praising the lord applied holy ashes(thiruneer)  on the king's body on the right side . At once the king felt a chilling effect and the pain leaving him on that side .Then he asked Sambandar to cure him completely . Sambandar then smeared the holy ashes on the left side of the king's body and cured the king.The king was all praise for Sambandar and saluted him with folded hands. It was not long before the king embraced Shaivism.


    The queen Mangaiyarkkarachiyar , Kulachchiraiyar and the king Nedumaran are all among the 63 Nayanmars.

Kannappa Nayanar-epitome of devotion

This story is in praise of one hunter who never learnt any holy scriptures and whose discipline was just to kill-hunt, who became an excellent example of devotion.

      Thinnanar was a very skilled hunter, who in his sixteenth year succeeded his father Nagan as the king of the Vyashas(hunters) in Uduppur in South India.

      One day Thinnanar led his men into the forest to hunt, the hunters made a lot of killings but suddenly a wild pig broke away from their nets and leaped away into the dense forest. Only three people were able to chase the wild pig to the end, they were Thinnanar, Nanan and Kadan. The chase had taken them a long way away from their men, they were hungry and tired. Thinnanar asked Kadan to cook the pig while he himself along with Nanan set out to bring water.

      As they cut across the dense forest they came to the foot of the kalahasti hill. Nanan told Thinnanar about the temple of Kudumithevar on top of the hill and that they can go and pray there. Even as Thinnanar took his first step towards the Lord he felt a huge wave of love and boundless joy surge inside him. 

As his eyes fell on the Shiva lingam he was transformed into an embodiment of  devotion .Tinnanar was merged in deep feeling of divine ecstasy.He wept, and shed tears of extreme joy.

      Nanan told Tinnanar that he had seen a priest bathe the Lord and ornate him with flowers. Thinnanar understood the worship that the God of Kalahasti likes, But his foremost concern was that the Lord was alone and unprotected in the forest surrounded by wild animals. Next it stuck him that the Lord must be hungry and  left to get meat for the Lord. He went to the foot of the hill where Kadan had cooked the wild pig, he tasted the meat of the cooked pig and took only those pieces he deemed tasty and worthy of the Lord on a leaf, he took some water from the river in his mouth and some beautiful wild flowers in his hair . He went up the hill, poured the water on the Lingam, ornated the Lingam with wild flowers and offered the meat to the Lord.He stood guard the whole night with bow and arrow in his  hand and left only in the morning to get food .


      The priest Shivakochariyar , as was his habit for years came to perform his daily prayers and to offer salutations to the Lingam. But today the bones and flesh strewn in front of the Lingam distressed him. He cleaned the altar carefully all the while blaming the hunters for the mischief. He brought fresh water from the river to bathe the Lingam and performed puja and prayers. He prostrated in front of the Lord and left to his hermit.


     Our adorable hunter came back with his offerings to the Lord , he forgot sleep at night guarding the Lord was his prime concern.This continued for days. Meanwhile Nanan and Kadan brought his father and others to persuade Thinnanar to return home, but none of their efforts were fruitful in getting back Thinnanar.


     By this time the sage Shivakochariyar was desperate ,he worshiped to the Lord to remove the person who was responsible for this misdeed. The Lord appeared in his dreams and said that the deeds of the person was a delight to him, the water he spit on him more sacred than the Ganges and the flowers he brought in his hair more holier than the offerings of God. He also asked Shivakochariyar to hide and see the true devotion of Thinnanar.


      Shivakochariyar hid behind a tree and saw Thinnanar returning with his offerings.Thinnanar came near the Shiva Lingam and saw with horror that his worst fears had come true ,he saw blood flowing from one eye of the Lingam, Thinnanar in his helplessness screamed out loud, he ran all around the forest to find the miscreant responsible for this, he brought herbs from the jungle to heal the wound. Finally desperate to stop the healing he took his arrow pierced his eye and plucked it out and placed it on the wound on the Shiva Lingam, the bleeding stopped at once, Thinnanar was ecstatic , he danced around in celebration not feeling his own pain. In another moment he saw blood flowing from the other eye of the Lord, this time around Thinnanar knew what's to be done,since he won't be able to see the wound with both his eyes gone he stuck his toe on the wound to mark its position and then  took his arrow to his other eye and was about to pluck it  , when the Lord himself, unable to bear such an act of devotion appeared shouting "Oh! halt Kannappa!!, halt Kannappa!!(kann=eye).Shivakochariyar saw the great love of this devotee and the grace he got for it. It was only mere love and intense devotion to the Lord that bestowed Kannappar the greatest boon from the Lord that is, self-realisation.


Great scholars including Thirunyana Sambandar,, Sundharar, Manikkavachakar,Nakkirar and a list which is too long to put ,have praised this great hunter as an unparalleled example of devotion.

Thirunyana Sambandar-the male palm trees

      Thirunyana Sambandar sings the Pathigam which makes the male palm trees bear fruits.

     Thirunyana Sambandar is one among the sixty three Nayanmars, who lived during the early fifth to tenth century A.D. Nayanmars were devotees of Lord Shiva and they brought about the revival of Saivism in a  period when other religions like Buddhism and Jainism were more wide spread in most parts of India.

     In his journey to various temples in the praise of the Lord , Thirunyana Sambandar came to place called Thiruvoththur. In this place lived a devotee  who grew palm trees for the Lord. Much to the disappointment of the devotee all the trees were male and did not bear fruits. 

    

     When Sambandar came to that place ,the devotee appealed to him with great love and faith .Sambandar sang a pathigam and much to everyone's surprise the male trees started to bear fruits. 

Thirunyana Sambandar-the story of poompavai

Thirunyana Sambandar sings the pathigam to bring Poompavai to life from ashes in front of Lord Kapaleeswar in Thirumayilapur.

      Shivanechar was the name of the wealthy man, who lived with his beautiful daughter Poompavai in Thirumayilapur. He was a devotee of Lord Shiva.As the marvels performed by Thirunyana Sambandar reached him, his admiration for the young son of God grew out of bounds.

         Such was his devotion to the Lord that in his mind and heart he promised  his beautiful daughter Poompavai in marriage to Thirunyana Sambandar.

      One morning Poompavai in her seventh year goes with her friends to the garden to pluck flowers. In the garden the child gets bitten by a venomous snake and dies. Her grief stricken father does not lose faith in the Lord, he collects his child's bones and ashes in an earthern pot and awaits for Thirunyana Sambandar and to fulfill his promise he had made in his heart .

       In his sixteenth year Thirunyana Sambandar comes to Thirumayilapur.The overjoyed father with great reverence invites the young prodigy to his abode and speaks of his beautiful daughter and shows him the pot.

       Thirunyana Sambandar had the pot brought out and in front of Lord Kapali sang the Pathigam which brings poompavai back to life, the girl rose out of the pot now in her twelfth year, so beautiful that words could not describe her. The devotees who had gathered around were overjoyed and sang the praise of the Lord. 

       Shivanechar offered his daughter's hand in marriage to Thirunayana Sambandar, to which the God child politely replied that it would not be proper for him to marry his daughter as he had given her life.He consoled the father as best as he could and went on his travels with his devotees to sing the glory of the Lord.

       

Thirunyana Sambandar-the miracle child

      In the seventh century Chola kingdom is the town Sirkali. Shivapada Hridayar a great devotee of Lord Shiva lived with his wife Bhagavathiyar. The couple were blessed with a son whom they named Sambandhar.The child grew up happily in the tender care and nurture of his loving parents.

      One day when Sambandhar was about three years old he accompanied his father to the pond ,where his father was in the habit of taking bath before going into the temple for worship.

       Shivapada Hridayar made Sambandhar sit on the bank of the pond and went inside the pond and did all the rituals saluting the Lord Thoniappan. 

When he took a dip in the water the child could not see his father and started to cry. After a while the child stopped crying, when his father came out of the water and near the child, saw milk dripping from his mouth.The father took a stick and demanded the child to tell him who gave him milk. The child with infinite joy on his face pointed his finger to  Lord Shiva on the bull with his beautiful wife Parvati beside him and sang his first Pathigam(hymn)-"thodudaiya cheviyan". 

      Though the father could not see the lord he understood what had happened from the hymn the child sang- Lord Shiva and Parvati had descended on the bull on hearing the child cry and Parvati had fed milk to the child in a golden bowl-the milk of knowledge. Hearing his son singing such a beautiful hymn at the tender age of three filled Shivapada Hridayar with great joy he knew his child was truly blessed .When they started from the temple prostrating to the lord he took the child on his shoulders.There was a ocean of devotees who praised their boon Thirunyana Sambandar.