Tirumurai

Manikkavachakar

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Om symbol Tirumurai Om symbol in Tamil
The twelve volumes of Tamil Śaiva hymns of the sixty-three Nayanars
Parts	Name	Author
1,2,3	Tevaram	Sambandar
4,5,6	Tevaram	Thirunavukkarasar
7	Tevaram	Sundarar
8	Thirukkovaiyar	Manickavasagar
9	Thiruvisaippa & Thirupallandu	Various
10	Thirumandhiram	Thirumular
11	Saiva Prabandham	Various
12	Periya Puranam	Sekkizhar
Paadal Petra Sthalam
Paadal Petra Sthalam
Rajaraja I
Nambiyandar Nambi

Topics in Tamil literature
Sangam Literature
Five Great Epics
Silappatikaram	Manimekalai
Civaka Cintamani	Valayapathi
Kundalakesi
Five Minor Epics
Neelakesi	Culamani
Naga Kumara Kaviyam	Udayana Kumara Kaviyam
Yashodhara Kaviyam
Bhakti Literature
Naalayira Divya Prabandham	Kamba Ramayanam
Tevaram	Tirumurai
Tamil people
Sangam	Sangam landscape
Tamil history from Sangam literature	Ancient Tamil music
edit

Tirumurai (

Kulothunga Chola II that it was included as the 12th Tirumurai.^[1] Tirumurai along with Vedas and Shaiva agamas form the basis of Shaiva Siddantha philosophy in South India and Sri Lanka.^[2]

History and background

The

Pallava period in the history of the Tamil land is a period of religious revival of Shaivism by the Shaivite Nayanars who by their Bhakti hymns captured the hearts of the people. They made a tremendous impression on the people by singing the praise of Shiva in soul-stirring devotional hymns.^[3] Tirumurai in anthology supersedes Sangam literature, which is predominantly secular in nature.^[4] The entire Tirumurai is in viruttam meter or lines of four. The principal characteristics of the head-rhyming is influenced both by syllabic and moric prosody.^[4]

Poets

Tirumurai	Hymns	Period	Author
1,2,3	Tevaram	7th century CE	Sambandar^[5]^[6]
4,5,6	Tevaram	7th century CE	Appar^[5]^[6]
7	Tevaram	8th century CE	Sundarar^[5]^[6]
8	Tirukkovaiyar	9th century CE	Manikkavacakar
9	Tiruvicaippa	9th century CE	Thirumalikaittever
			Centanar
			Karuvurttevar
			Nampikatava nampi
			Gandaraditya
			Venattatikal
			Tiruvaliyamutanar
			Purutottama nampi
			Cetirayar
10	Tirumandiram	8th century CE	Tirumular
11	Prabandham
			Karaikkal Ammaiyar
			Ceraman Perumal Nayanar
			Pattinattu Pillaiyar
			Nakkiratevar Nayanar
			Kapilateva Nayanar
			Thiruvalaviyudaiyar
			Nampiyantarnampi
			IyyadigalkatavarkonNayanar
			Kalladateva Nayanar
			Paranateva Nayanar
			Ellamperuman Adigal
			Athiravadigal
12	Periya Puranam	12th century CE	Sekkizhar

Hymns

The Shaiva Tirumurais are twelve in number. The first seven Tirumurais are the hymns of the three great Shaivite saints, Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar. These hymns were the best musical compositions of their age.

The first three Tirumurais (meaning parts) of Tevaram are composed by Sambanthar, the next three by Appar and the seventh one is composed by Sundarar.^[7] Appar and Sambanthar lived around the 7th century, while Sundarar lived in the 8th century. During the Pallava period these three travelled extensively around Tamil Nadu offering discourses and songs characterised by an emotional devotion to Shiva.^[8] Their hymns include allegations against Jain monks and criticism of Jainism.^[9]

Sambanthar was a 7th-century child poet-saint who died at the age of 16 in 655 CE. His verses were set to tune by Nilakantaperumalanar who is set to have accompanied the poet on his yal or lute. The first three volumes of Tirumurai contain 383 hymns.^[7] Appar (alias Tirunavukkarasar) was born in the middle of the 7th century in Tiruvamur, Tamil Nadu, and lived about 81 years. He converted to Jainism as a youth, became the head of a Jain monastery over time, but then returned to Shaivism. Tirumurai contains 313 hymns of Appar over volumes 4-7. His hymns are highly devotional, with some containing criticism of Jainism as he experienced it.^[7] Sundarar (alias Sundaramurthi) was born towards the end of the 7th century.^[7] He is the author of 100 hymns compiled as the 7th Tirumurai.^[7]

Tiruvasakam and Tirukovayar are compiled as the eighth Tirumurai and is full of visionary experience, divine love and urgent striving for truth.^[10] Manickavasagar was the Pandya King Varaguna II's prime minister and renounced his post in search of divinity.^[10]

The ninth Tirumurai has been composed by Tirumalikaittever, Sundarar, Karuvurttevar, Nambiyaandar Nambi, Gandaraditya, Venattatikal, Tiruvaliyamutanar, Purutottama Nambi and Cetirayar. Among these the notable is Gandaraditya (950-957 CE), a Chola king who later became a Saivite saint.

Tirumandiram by Tirumular unfolds siddantha (attainment) as a fourfold path - virtuous and moral living, temple worship, internal worship and union with Siva.^[10] Tirumular worked out an original philosophical system, and the southern school of Saiva siddantha draws its authority from Tirumandiram, a work of 3000 verses.^[11] Tirumandiram represents another school of thought detailing agamic traditions, which run parallel to the bhakthi movement. It does not glorify temples or deities as in the case of other Tirumurais.^[11]

The eleventh Tirumurai was composed by Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Cheraman Perumal, Pattinattu p-pillaiyar, Nakkiratevar, Kapilateva, Tiruvalavaiyudaiyar, Nampiyantarnampi, Iyyadigal katavarkon, Kalladateva, Paranateva, Ellamperuman Adigal and Athirava Adigal. Nambi's Tirutottanar Tiruvanthathi followed an exclusive style of mincing Tamil and Sanskrit verses in anthati meter similar to Tevaram of the trio.^[12] Karaikkal Ammaiyar (550-600 CE) is the earliest of the woman Saivite poets who introduced the kattalai-k-kali-t-turai meter, which is a complicated structural departure from the old classical Tamil meters.^[13] The other meter used by Ammaiyar was an old venba and also an antathi arrangement in which the offset of one line or stanza is identical with the onset of the next line or stanza.^[13]

Kulothunga Chola II.^[16]

Compilation

Sekkizhar's Periya Puranam (1135 CE) is wholly known as Tirumurai, the holy book. Thus Saiva literature which covers about 600 years of religious, philosophical and literary development.^[20]

Temples revered

Vaippu Sthalangal are places that were mentioned casually in the songs in Tevaram.^[22] The focus of the moovars' (first three poets) hymns suggests darshan (seeing and being seen by God) within the puja (worship) offering.^[23] The hymnists made classificatory lists of places like katu (for forest), turai (port or refuge), kulam (water tank) and kalam (field) being used - thus both structured and unstructured places in the religious context find a mention in Tevaram.^[23]
The temples mentioned in the works of the 9th Tirumarai, Thiruvisaippa, are in turn referred to as Tiruvisaipa Thalangal. The shrine of Gangaikonda Cholapuram are revered as under
" He of the Shrine of Gangaikonda Choleswaram takes whatever forms that his worship visualize" - 131,5.[24]

In culture

Tirumurai was one of the reasons for converting Vedic ritual to Agamic puja followed in Shiva temples.

brahmanas.^[27] The Odhuvars were from the vellala community and were trained in ritual singing in Tevaram schools.^[27]

Periya Puranam, the eleventh-century Tamil book on the Nayanars that forms the last volume of the Tirumurai, primarily had references only to Tevaram and subsequently expanded to 12 parts and is one of the first anthologies of Tirumurai.[28] One of the first anthologies of moovars' hymns called the Tevara Arulmuraitirattu is linked to Tamil Saiva siddhantha philosophy by grouping ninety-nine verses into 10 categories.^[28] The category headings are God, soul, bond, grace, guru, methodology, enlightenment, bliss, mantra and liberation - corresponding to Umapthi's work, Tiruvarutpayan.^[29] Tirumurai kanda puranam is another anthology for Tirumurai as a whole, but primarily focuses on Tevaram. It is the first of the works to refer the collection of volumes as Tirumurai.^[29]