Thirumoolar

Tirumular, also known as Suntaranāthar, was a Tamil Shaivite mystic and writer, considered one of the sixty-three poet-saints called the Nayanars, and is listed among a group of 18 sages called the Siddhars. His magnum opus, the ''Tirumantiram'', consisting of over 3000 verses, forms a part of the key text of the Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta compilation called the ''Tirumurai''.

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 and Sanskrit. Verse 74 of the ''Tirumantiram'' makes the claim that Tirumular lived for 7 ''yuga''s (ages) before composing the ''Tirumantiram''.''Tirumantiram A Tamil scriptural Classic. By Tirumular. Tamil Text with English Translation and Notes'', B. Natarajan. Madras, Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1991, p.12.

Some are therefore inclined to place his composition well before the Common 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 the ''Tevaram'' hymns of Sambandar, Appar, and Sundarar, that he used "very late words" and that he made mention of the weekdays.''Vaiyapuripillai's History of Tamil Language and Literature (From the Beginning to 1000 A.D.)'', Madras, New Century Book House, 1988 (after the first edition of 1956), particularly footnote 1 on p.78.

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 with Tamil labels for which a certain historical development can be traced in other datable works, that the ''Tirumantiram'' cannot be placed before the 11th- or 12th-century CED.See pp.xxix-xxx in a Preface (entitled ''Explanatory remarks about the Śaiva Siddhānta and its treatment in modern secondary literature'') to ''The Parākhyatantra. A Scripture of the Śaiva Siddhānta'', Dominic Goodall, Pondicherry, French Institute of Pondicherry and Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, 2004. 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 the ''Tirumantiram'' cannot, at least for the moment, be used as useful indicators of their chronology.

Legend

Suntaranāthar, as the saint was known, was a yogi originally from then Madurai. According to legend, he is believed to have travelled to Mount Kailash, where he was initiated by the deity Shiva. After spending 5 years at Mount Kailash, he undertook a journey under the order of Shiva to Tamilakam to meet his contemporary, the sage Agastya in Pothigai Hills. After meeting Agastya, he went to Chidambaram, and after worshiping Shiva at the Nataraja Temple, he was about to return to Mount Kailash. During his journey, near Sathanur village (a village near Aaduthurai), 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 called ''Tiru''mular, ''tiru'' meaning an epithet indicating respect. The saint is regarded to have engaged in meditation under a peepal tree in Thiruvavaduthurai, receiving holy hymns in Tamil. These three thousand holy hymns were compiled to become the book called the ''Tirumantiram''.

See also

* Agastya
* Kalangi Nathar
* Bogar
* Patanjali
* Thirumandhiram

References

External links

Thirumanthiram with Tamil explanation
— Tamil version of Thirumanthiram


— English version of Thirumanthiram

{{Authority control

Nayanars
Indian Shaivite religious leaders
Hindu philosophers and theologians
Indian yogis
Indian Hindu saints