Nayanars

The Nayanars were the sincere and ardent devotees of Lord Siva. They were saints from Southern India, especially Tamil Nadu, and were mostly responsible for development of Shaivism in the Middle Ages. While the Nayanars are devotees of Siva, Alvars are devotees of Vishnu.

Simple devotees

Only a few Nayanars had made a study of the Hindu Agamas. The rest were simple Bhaktas only. They served the devotees of Lord Siva and absolutely surrendered themselves to their Lord. They were quite ignorant of philosophy. Many among Nayanars cleaned the temple premises, made garlands of flowers for the Lord, lighted the temple lamps, planted flower gardens, fed the devotees and performed other humble tasks around the temple. They regarded worship of Siva Bhaktas as superior even to the worship of Lord Siva Himself.

Role model of Devotion

According to the Nayanar tradition, true devotion is all what God wants. For example, Kannappa, the hunter, illustrated this ideal. He was totally ignorant of Saiva doctrine, philosophy or worship, but attained within six days, the highest place possible for devotees of Siva through the intensity of his devotion. The nature of Kannappa’s devotion was quite different from that of the ordinary worshippers of Siva. Adi Sankara names him as the role model for all devotees, in his Sivananda-lahari.

Four Samayacharyas

The prominent Nayanars who were considered as the foremost among the 63 are Appar, Sundarar, Sambandar also known as Thirugnana Sambanthar, and Manikkavasagar. They are the four Grandmasters of the Shaivite Bhakti canon.

Similarly, the Alvars, who were twelve in number, exhibited greatest devotion to Vishnu.

Bhakti renaissance

The Bhakti literature that sprang from these four great Shaiv a saints of Tamilnadu has in no small measure contributed to the establishment and sustenance of a culture that broke away from the ritual-oriented Vedic religion and rooted itself in Devotion as the only path for salvation. Along with the Vaishnava literature of the Divya Prabhandham they helped to make Tamil religious life independent of a knowledge of Sanskrit.

63 Nayanars

References and external links

Cited from Swami Sivananda's Lord Siva and His Worship; http://www.dlshq.org/download/lordsiva.htm#_VPID_115

Bhakti movement | Hindu religious figures | Shaivism

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