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Kachiyappar () was an 8th-century Tamil temple
According to tradition, the first line of the first stanza was written by Kachiyappar's patron deity,
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
as well as a poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
and Vedantist. He is the author of the '' Kanda Puranam'', written between the years 600 and 750 CE.
Personal life
Kachiyappar was born in a ShaiviteBrahmin
Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...
family and officiated as a priest in the Ekambareswarar Temple in Kanchipuram
Kanchipuram (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: '; ), also known as Kanjeevaram, is a stand alone city corporation, satellite nodal city of Chennai in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in the Tondaimandalam region, from ...
, Kumara Kottam Murugan temple, Kanchipuram.
Works
''Kanda Puranam''
Kachiyappar's greatest composition was the '' Kanda Puranam'', which is the Tamil adaptation of theSanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
''Skanda Purana
The ''Skanda Purana'' ( IAST: Skanda Purāṇa) is the largest '' Mukhyapurāṇa'', a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text contains over 81,000 verses, and is of Shaivite literature, titled after Skanda, a son of Shiva and Parv ...
''. The metres have been composed in the same style as the former. It is made up of six volumes comprising a total of 13,305 stanzas. According to Kachiyapper's preface to Parasurama Mudaliar's ''Kandha purana Vachagam'', the work was completed in the Saka year 700 corresponding to 778 CE.
According to tradition, the first line of the first stanza was written by Kachiyappar's patron deity, Murugan
Kartikeya (/ kɑɾt̪ɪkejə/; ), also known as Skanda ( /skən̪d̪ə/), Subrahmanya (/ sʊbɾəɦməɲjə/, /ɕʊ-/), Shanmukha ( /ɕɑnmʊkʰə/) and Murugan (/ mʊɾʊgən/), is the Hindu god of war. He is generally described as the ...
himself. The god is also believed to have corrected the 100 stanzas written by the priest during the day. The poet is regarded to have taken his composition to the god and rehearsed it.
The hall ''Kandhapurāna Arangetra Mantapam ''(An outdoor pavilion) where Kachiyappar composed the text still exists in the temple complex. To the present day, the priests in the temple are the descendants of Kachiyappar.
References
Bibliography
* * * * Bhakti movement Indian Shaivite religious leaders Tamil poets {{hindu-bio-stub