Nambiyandar Nambi

Thirunaraiyur Nambiyandar Nambi was an eleventh-century Shaiva scholar of Tamil Nadu in South India who compiled the hymns of Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar and was himself one of the authors of the eleventh volume of the canon of the Tamil liturgical poetry of Shiva, the Tirumurai.

Birth and life Nambiyandar Nambi was born in the town of Thirunaraiyur into the tradition of the Adi Shaivites, brahmin priests in the temples of Lord Shiva. In Nambiyandar Nambi Puranam also called as Tirumurai Kanda Puranam, Nambi identifies his patron, the great Arumolivarman alias Rajaraja Chola, as ராசா ராசா மன்னவன் அபயகுல சேகரன் requested him to collect the hymns of the three great poet-saints Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar. Nambi managed to get palm-leaf manuscripts of the hymns, though some had been eaten away by termites. They were able to recover around ten percent of the entire set of hymns. Nambi also wrote a memoir of the lives of the sixty-three great devotees mentioned by Suntarar; the Tiruttondar Tiruvandhadhi. His hymns in praise of Sambandar and Appar provide some biography of those saints.

Compilation King Rajaraja Chola was on a mission to recover the Tirumurai hymns after hearing short excerpts of Tevaram in his court. He sought the help of Nambi Andar Nambi, who was a priest in a temple. It is believed that by divine intervention Nambi found the presence of scripts, in the form of cadijam leaves half eaten by white ants in a chamber inside the second precinct in Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram. Rajaraja thus became known as Tirumurai Kanda Cholan meaning one who saved the Tirumurai. The first seven books were later called as Tevaram, and the whole Saiva canon, to which was added, as the 12th book, Sekkizhar's Periya Puranam (1135 CE) is wholly known as Tirumurai, the holy book. Thus Saiva literature which covers about 600 years of religious, philosophical and literary development. Related Devara temple near nambi's village 1.kattumannarkoil 8 km 2.Kanattumulloor 9 km 3.Omampuliyur 14 km 4.Melakadambur 14 km from here