The twelfth and last book of the Tamil Shaiva canon is not a hymn. It is sixty-three biographies — of the Nayanmars, the Shaiva saints — composed by Sekkizhar in the twelfth century, and it is the reason the tradition's own account of itself survives. Its subjects include a king, a hunter, a potter, a fisherman, a washerman, a woman who asked to be made a ghoul, and a labourer barred from the temple he wanted to see.
📖 Periya Puranam at a Glance
Also called: Tiruttondar Puranam — the Purana of the holy devotees
Author: Sekkizhar, minister to a Chola king, 12th century
Extent: over 4,200 verses
Subject: the 63 Nayanmars, plus nine groups of devotees
Its seed: Sundarar's Tiruttondattogai, which lists the devotees
Place: the twelfth Thirumurai
📑 Table of Contents
🖋️ Why It Was Written
The traditional account: the Chola king Anapaya was absorbed in the Sanskrit-derived Jivaka Chintamani, a Jain epic. Sekkizhar, his minister, urged him instead toward the lives of the Shaiva devotees, and was asked to write them. He composed the work at Chidambaram, beginning — the tradition holds — from a phrase given in the temple: ulagelam, “all the world.”
📌 The chain behind the text
Sekkizhar was not inventing. Sundarar's Tiruttondattogai — a hymn in the seventh Thirumurai — simply lists the devotees by name and epithet. Then Nambiyandar Nambi expanded each into a verse in his Tiruttondar Tiruvandadi. Sekkizhar expanded those into full narratives. Three stages, across some four centuries, from a list to a hymn to a book.
👥 Who the Sixty-Three Are
| Nayanmar | Who they were |
|---|---|
| Kannappar | A hunter. Offers meat and water carried in his mouth, and finally his own eyes — the story is the tradition's central statement about the relation of ritual purity to devotion |
| Tirunalaippovar (Nandanar) | A labourer of a community barred from the temple at Chidambaram. His story of longing to see the deity is among the best known in Tamil, and became a major figure in later Tamil literature and drama |
| Karaikkal Ammaiyar | A woman who asked to be freed of her beauty and given a ghoulish form so as to be near Shiva's dance. Among the earliest Tamil poets in the canon; her hymns are in the eleventh Thirumurai |
| Tirunilakanta | A potter |
| Atipattar | A fisherman who offered the first catch daily |
| Tirukkuripputtondar | A washerman |
| Sundarar, Appar, Sambandar | The Thevaram poets are themselves among the sixty-three |
| Cheraman Perumal | A Chera king |
| Manakkanjarar, Kalikkamar, Eyarkon | Chieftains and nobles |
📌 The composition of the list is the argument
Kings and hunters, potters and ministers, women and washermen, on one list, in one canon, at equal standing. The Periya Puranam does not argue for this in the abstract; it simply narrates sixty-three lives and lets the range make the point. The tradition placed the book as the closing volume of its scripture.
⚠️ The Difficult Stories
Some of the sixty-three lives are genuinely disturbing, and an honest page says so. Several accounts involve devotees who kill or are prepared to kill — a son, a parent, a wife, a king's own child — when a vow of service comes into conflict with a relationship. Siruthondar's story is the hardest of them.
How the tradition itself reads these:
- They are told as tests — in the narratives Shiva is the one who has set up the impossible demand, and in each case the outcome is reversed or restored.
- They are hagiography in an extreme register, making a claim about unconditional commitment, not prescribing conduct. No Shaiva text takes them as a rule of action; the Dharmashastras, which do prescribe conduct, forbid what the stories describe.
- The Tamil commentarial tradition discusses the difficulty rather than ignoring it.
Presenting these episodes as unambiguous models to imitate misrepresents the tradition. Suppressing them misrepresents the text. This page does neither.
💡 Kannappar, read carefully
The hunter offers what a hunter has: meat, water carried in his own mouth, flowers stuck in his hair. Every element violates ritual purity. The brahmana priest who worships at the same shrine is horrified. Shiva then causes an eye of the linga to bleed, and Kannappar gouges out his own to replace it — placing his foot on the linga to mark the second eye's position before he does. Every act is a violation, and the story's entire force is that the deity accepts them and stops him. The priest is shown this deliberately.
🏛️ Its Position and Its Afterlife
Where it stands
- Twelfth Thirumurai — canonical scripture in Tamil Shaivism, not supplementary literature.
- Recited and expounded in temples and in Shaiva Siddhanta institutions; the sixty-three are represented as a set of bronzes in most major Tamil Shaiva temples and are carried in procession.
- Guru Puja days for individual Nayanmars are observed through the year.
- In later literature: the Nandanar story in particular was reworked in the 19th century by Gopalakrishna Bharati as Nandanar Charitram, and became a reference point in Tamil public debate on temple entry.
📌 What it did for the tradition
Most religious canons end with doctrine or with law. This one ends with biography — and specifically with the biography of ordinary people. The effect on Tamil Shaivism is visible: the tradition's saints are named, located, and remembered as individuals with occupations, which is a different kind of religious memory from a list of doctrines.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Periya Puranam?
The twelfth and last book of the Tamil Shaiva canon — over 4,200 verses by Sekkizhar (12th century) giving the lives of the 63 Nayanmars. Also called Tiruttondar Puranam. Unlike books 1–11, which are hymns, it is narrative: the canon closes by recording who sang.
Who are the 63 Nayanmars?
The Shaiva saints of Tamil tradition — and the range is the point: Kannappar a hunter, Nandanar a labourer barred from the temple, a potter, a fisherman, a washerman, Karaikkal Ammaiyar a woman who asked to be freed of her beauty, a Chera king — and the Thevaram poets themselves. All on one list at equal standing.
What is the story of Kannappar?
A hunter who offers what a hunter has — meat, water carried in his own mouth, flowers from his hair — every element violating ritual purity, to the horror of the brahmana priest at the same shrine. When the linga's eye bleeds he gouges out his own to replace it, marking the second with his foot. The story's entire force is that the deity accepts it and stops him — and the priest is shown this deliberately.
Are some Nayanmar stories disturbing?
Yes — several involve devotees prepared to kill a family member when a vow conflicts with a relationship, Siruthondar's being hardest. The tradition reads them as tests (Shiva has set the impossible demand, and each outcome is reversed) and as hagiography in an extreme register — a claim about unconditional commitment, not a rule of action. No Shaiva text treats them as prescriptive, and the Dharmashastras forbid what they describe.
How did the Periya Puranam come to be written?
The Chola king Anapaya was absorbed in a Jain epic, and Sekkizhar urged him toward the Shaiva devotees instead — and was asked to write them. But he was not inventing: Sundarar's Tiruttondattogai lists the devotees; Nambiyandar Nambi expanded each into a verse; Sekkizhar expanded those into full narratives. Three stages across four centuries — a list, a hymn, a book.
🙏 Conclusion
Sekkizhar took a hymn that listed names, and wrote the lives. The result closes the Tamil Shaiva canon not with doctrine but with sixty-three people — a hunter who gave his eyes, a labourer who could not get through the gate, a woman who asked to be made hideous, and several kings, all on one list at equal standing. Some of the stories are hard to read and the tradition has always known it. What the book asserts, it asserts by who is in it.