Sekkizhar Temple, Kundrathur – History
Kundrathur has the reputation
of being the birth place of inspired epic poet Sekkizhar who has sung the glory
of 63 Saivite Saints titled Peria Puranam also revered as Tiru Thondar Puranam.
Sekkizhar was a poet and scholar of Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta, a Saiva saint contemporary with the reign of Kulothunga
Chola II. He
compiled and wrote the Periya Puranam (Great Purana), 4253 verses long, recounting the life stories of
the sixty-three Shaiva Nayanmars, the poets of Shiva who composed the
liturgical poems of the Thirumurai. Sekkizhar's work itself became part of the sacred
canon.
Sekkizhar was born in Kundrathur village in Thondaimandalam. Sekkizhar was a scholar in
both Vedas as well as agamas as well as Thirumurais. His original name was
Ramadevan. He had been functioning as an inmate in a Vaishnavite shrine near
Kanchi and at the instance of Lord
Ambujaksha (Lord Vishnu) started
working on Thirumurais and Nayanmars. When he was in Chidambaram about to start
on Periyapuranam, Lord Siva famously instructed him with how to start.
He moved to Chidambaram in order to compose Periyapuranam. Among all the hagiographic Puranas in Tamil, Periyapuranam(or Tiruttondar Puranam) stands first. Kulothunga
Chola II, then a
young king, was a devotee of Lord Nataraja at Chidambaram and continued the reconstruction of the center
of Tamil
Saivism that
was begun by his ancestors. The king thereupon invited Sekkizhar to expound the
lives of the Saiva saints in a great poem. As a Saiva saint, Sekkizhar knew
about the lives of the saints and after he collected the data he wrote the poem
in the Thousand Pillared Hall of the Chidambaram
temple.
Sekkizhar would himself sing
the Periyapuranam and arouse the latent Chola Saiva zeal and successfully bring
the king back in line. Folklore has is that, when Sekkizhar sat pondering at
Chidambaram temple as to how to begin his work, Lord Siva had appeared again
and said his first verse should be: This work is considered the most important
initiative of Kulothunga
Chola II's reign.
Although it is only a literary
embellishment of earlier hagiographies of the Saiva saints it came to be seen
as the epitome of Chola literary style. The Periyapuranam is considered a fifth Veda in the Tamil and it immediately took its place as the
twelfth and the last book in the Saiva canon. The temple of Nageswarar in
Kundrathur was built by Sekkizhar. In memory of this great poet, a big mandapam
(hall) was constructed near Nageswarar temple in the recent past. This mandapam
is called as Sekkizhar Mani Mandapam. In addition to that, to
honor this great poet a temple was also constructed to him.