Tirumular

Murtiof Tirumular

Om symbol Tirumurai Om symbol in Tamil
The twelve volumes ofTamilŚaivahymns of the sixty-threeNayanars
Parts	Name	Author
1,2,3	Thirukadaikkappu	Sambandar
4,5,6	Thevaram	Thirunavukkarasar
7	Thirupaatu	Sundarar
8	Thiruvasakam& Thirukkovaiyar	Manickavasagar
9	Thiruvisaippa& Tiruppallaandu	Various
10	Thirumandhiram	Thirumular
11	Various
12	Periya Puranam	Sekkizhar
Paadal Petra Sthalam
Paadal Petra Sthalam
Rajaraja I
Nambiyandar Nambi

Tirumular(Tamil:திருமூலர்,romanized:Tirumūlar), also known asSuntaranāthar,was aTamilShaivitemystic and writer, considered one of the sixty-three poet-saints called theNayanars,and is listed among a group of 18 sages called theSiddhars.His magnum opus, theTirumantiram,consisting of over 3000 verses, forms a part of the key text of the TamilShaiva Siddhantacompilation called theTirumurai.

Chronology

The dates of Tirumular's life are controversial, and because his work makes reference to so many currents of religious thought, the dates that different scholars assign are often appealed to for anchoring the relative chronology of other literature in Tamil andSanskrit.Verse 74 of theTirumantirammakes the claim that Tirumular lived for 7yugas (ages) before composing theTirumantiram.

Some are therefore inclined to place his composition well before theCommon Era.The scholar and lexicographer S. Vaiyapuripillai, however, suggested that he probably belonged to the beginning of the eighth-century CE, pointing out that Tirumular could not very well be placed earlier given that he appears to refer to theTevaramhymns ofSambandar,Appar,andSundarar,that he used "very late words" and that he made mention of the weekdays.

Others wish to push the date still later: Dominic Goodall, for instance, appears to suggest, on the grounds of religious notions that appear in the work withTamillabels for which a certain historical development can be traced in other datable works, that theTirumantiramcannot be placed before the 11th- or 12th-century CED.Yet another view, alluded to for instance by Vaiyapuripillai (ibid.), is that the text may contain an ancient core, but with "a good number of interpolated stanzas" of later date. Whatever the case, allusions to works and ideas in theTirumantiramcannot, at least for the moment, be used as useful indicators of their chronology.

Legend

Suntaranāthar,as the saint was known, was ayogioriginally from then Madurai. According to legend, he is believed to have travelled toMount Kailash,where he was initiated by the deityShiva.After spending 5 years at Mount Kailash, he undertook a journey under the order of Shiva toTamilakamto meet his contemporary, the sageAgastyainPothigai Hills.After meeting Agastya, he went toChidambaram,and after worshiping Shiva at theNataraja Temple,he was about to return to Mount Kailash. During his journey, near Sathanur village (a village nearAaduthurai), he saw a group of cows crying. He discovered that their cowherd, Mulan, was dead, having been bitten by a snake. Touched by the sight of the cows, he decided to use his yogic powers and move his soul from his body to that of the dead cowherd's, leaving his own body inside a log. On waking up in the body of the cowherd, the cows became happy; he then motioned them towards the village. When the saint wished to return to his own body, he was surprised to find that it was nowhere to be found. At this moment, he heard a divine voice from the sky, that of Shiva, who told him that he had been behind the disappearance of the body. The deity told him that he wished the saint to spread his teachings through the body of Mulan, allowing him to preach to the common folk in the vernacular Tamil spoken by the cowherd, as opposed to the literary Tamil in which the saint was well-versed. Suntaranāthar was henceforth calledTirumular,tirumeaning an epithet indicating respect. The saint is regarded to have engaged in meditation under apeepal treeinThiruvavaduthurai,receiving holy hymns in Tamil. These three thousand holy hymns were compiled to become the book called theTirumantiram.

See also

• Agastya
• Kalangi Nathar
• Bogar
• Patanjali
• Thirumandhiram

External links

• Thirumanthiram with Tamil explanation— Tamil version of Thirumanthiram
• Tirumantiram— English version of Thirumanthiram