Appar (Thirunavukkarasar) – Life History
Appar (Thirunavukkarasar) Nayanar,
also known as Navukarasar and Appar, was a seventh-century Saiva Tamil poet-saint, one of the most prominent of
the sixty-three Nayanmars. He was an older contemporary of Thirugnana
Sambandar. His
birth-name was Marulneekkiyar. He was called "father" by Sambandar,
hence the name Appar.
Sundarar states in his Thiruttondattogai that
Appar composed 4900 hymns of ten or eleven verses each. This statement is
repeated by Nambiyandar Nambi and Sekkizhar, but only 313 hymns are known today. These
hymns are collected into the Thirumurai. Within the Thirumurai, the compositions of Appar,
Sundarar and Thirugnana Sambandar are collected within their own volumes,
called Thevaram.
Early
life
Details of Appar's life are
found in his own hymns and in Sekkizhar's Periya Puranam (the last book of the Thirumurai). Appar
was born in the middle of 7th century to Thiru Pukalanar and
Mathiniyar as their second child in a village called Thiruvamur in
Thirumunaipadi Nadu (Panruti Taluk, Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu). His
sister, Thilagavathiar was betrothed to a military commander who died in
action. When his sister was about to end her life, he pleaded with her not to
leave him alone in the world. She decided to lead an ascetic life and
bring up her only brother.
He is regarded as a divine
arrival of saint Vageesar who was a great devotee and a saint at Lord Shiva's
Kailasam. Throughout boyhood, Appar was very much interested in Jainism and started studying its scriptures. He went
away from home and stayed in their monastery and was renamed Dharmasana. Appar
had travelled to Thiru Padhiri Puliyur (Cuddalore) to join a Jain
monastery where he was given the name Dharmasana. "Seeing the transient,
ephemeral world he decided to probe into truth through renunciation." After
a while, afflicted by a painful illness in his stomach (intussusception),
Dharmasana returned home. He
prayed for relief at the Siva temple where his sister served and was cured. He
was also involved in converting the Pallava king, Mahendravarman to Saivism. This was also the period of resurrection
of the smaller Shiva temples. Appar sanctified all these temples by his verses and
was also involved in cleaning of the dilapidated temples called uzhavarapani.
He was called Thirunavukkarasu, meaning the "King of divine
speech". He extolled Siva in 49,000 stanzas out of which 3130 are now
available and compiled in Thirumurais 4-6.
Navukarasar is supposed to
have stayed many years at Atikai with his sister before visiting other Siva
temples to sing in praise of Siva. He heard of Thirugnana
Sambandar and
went to Sirkali to meet him. Thiru Gnanasambandhar respectfully addressed Navukarasar
as Appar (father) and he and Appar travelled together singing hymns. Appar
is said to have traveled to about a hundred and twenty-five temples in
different cities or villages in Tamil Nadu. He attained Mukti (Union with God Shiva) in Sadaya Nakshatra in
the Tamil month of Chithirai at
Tiru Pugalur Siva temple at the age of 81.
Appar's Thevaram
Appar’s Thevaram hymns are grouped into three books, forming
the fourth, fifth and sixth volumes of the Thirumurai, the Tamil poetic canon of Shaiva Siddhanta. The compilation of these books is generally
ascribed to Nambiyandar
Nambi (10th
CE). Some of Appar's hymns set to various Panns, the melodic modes of Ancient
Tamil music -
the rest are set to Tirunerisai and Viruttam metres. In the last
four decades of his life, he visited on foot no less than 125 shrines of Shiva, scattered over a territory
of one thousand miles (1,600 km).
He was the only one of the
four Kuravars to visit the shrine at Tirukokarnam on the western coast of India. He sang 312 decads
comprising 3,056 stanzas of devotion. All the songs in the Thevaram
(called Patikam) are believed to be in sets of ten. The hymns were set to
music denoted by Panns and are part of the canon of the Tamil music. They continue to be
part of temple liturgy today. Several of these poems refer to historic
references pointing to the saint-poets' own life, voice of devotee persona,
using interior language of the mystic.
Multi-vocal rhetoric is
commonly used taking on personal emotions and genres and some voices of classical Sangam literature. Appar's poems dealt with inner, emotional and
psychological state of the poet saint. The metaphors used in the poems
have deep agrarian influence that is considered one of the striking chords for
common people to get accustomed to the verse. The quote below is a popular
song of Appar glorifying Shiva in simple diction.
"மாசில் வீணையும் மாலை மதியமும்
வீசு தென்றலும் வீங்கிள வேனிலும்
மூசு வண்டறை பொய்கையும் போன்றதே
ஈசன் எந்தை இணையடி நீழலே"
translating
to
"My
Lord's twin feet are like the blemish less Veena
like the
full-moon of the evening
like the
gentle breeze blowing from the South
like the
young spring
like a
bee-humming pond "
The tendency to incorporate
place names known to the folks in the idiom of the poems is another
characteristic feature of Thevaram. The poems also involved glorifying the
feat of Shiva in the particular location - the usage of locale continuously
occurring in the verses is a testament. According to Prentiss, the poems do not
represent social space as a contested space, the hymns represent the hymnists
were free to wander and to offer their praise of Shiva. The emotional
intensity of the hymns represents spontaneous expression of thought as an
emotional response to God.
Paadal
Petra Sthalams are
275 temples that are revered in the verses of Thevaram and are
amongst the greatest Shiva
temples of the continent.
The Divya Desams by comparison are the
108 Vishnu temples glorified in the poems of the
contemporary Vaishnava Alvars of Tamil Nadu, India. Vaippu Sthalangal are places that were mentioned casually in the
songs in Thevaram. The focus of the Moovar hymns suggests darshan (seeing
and being seen by God) within the puja (worship) offering. The
hymnists made classificatory lists of places like Kaadu (for
forest), Thurai (port or refuge), Kulam (water tank)
and kalam (field) being used - thus both structured and unstructured
places in the religious context find a mention in Thevaram.
Compilation
Raja Raja Chola I (ruled 985-1013 CE) embarked on a mission to
recover the hymns after hearing short excerpts of Thevaram 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. The brahmanas (Dikshidars) in the temple opposed
the mission, but Rajaraja intervened by consecrating the images of the
saint-poets through the streets of Chidambaram.
Rajaraja thus became to be
known as Thirumurai Kanda Cholan meaning one who saved the Thirumurai.
Thus far Shiva temples only had images of god forms, but after the advent of
Rajaraja, the images of the Nayanar saints were also placed inside the temple. Nambi
arranged the hymns of three saint poets Sambanthar, Appar and Sundarar as the
first seven books; Manikkavasagar’s Thirukkovayar and Tiruvasagam as the 8th book; the 28 hymns of
nine other saints as the 9th book; the Thirumanthiram of Tirumular as the 10th
book; 40 hymns by 12 other poets, Tiruttondar Thiruvanthathi - the
sacred Anthathi of the labours of the 63 Nayanmar saints and his own
hymns as the 11th book.
Sekkizhar's Periya Puranam (1135 CE) was later
added as the 12th book. The first seven books were later called as Thevaram.
This collection of 12 books is known as Thirumurai. These are also
known as the Tamil Vedas. Thus, Saiva literature covers about 600 years of
religious, philosophical and literary development. In 1918, 11 more songs
were found engraved in a stone temple in Tiruvidavayil in a village close to Nannilam,
and it was the first instance found where Thevaram verses were found
in inscriptions.
In 1921, an English
translation of the hymns by Appar, Sambandar, Sundarar, and Manickavasagar was
done by Francis Kingsbury and GE Phillips, both of United
Theological College, Bangalore (edited by Fred Goodwill) and published in a book as Hymns of the Tamil
Saivite Saints, by the Oxford University Press.
In Temple
Worship Services
Thevaram was one of the
sole reasons for converting Vedic ritual to Agamic puja followed in Shiva temples. Though these two
systems are overlapping, Agamic tradition ensures the perpetuation of
the Vedic religion's emphasis on the efficacy of ritual
as per Davis. Odhuvars, Sthanikars, or Kattalaiyars offer
musical programmes in Shiva temples of Tamil Nadu by singing Thevaram after
the daily rituals. These are usually carried out as chorus Programme soon
after the divine offering. The singing of Thevaram was followed by musicals
from the music pillars in such temples like Madurai
Meenakshi Amman Temple, Nellaiappar
Temple and Suchindrum. The singers of these
hymns were referred as Tirupadiyam Vinnapam Seyvar or Pidarar, from the
inscriptions of Nandivarman III in the Tiruvallam Vilvavaneswarar temple
records.
Rajaraja deputed
48 pidarars and made liberal provisions for their maintenance and
successors. A few earlier records give details about the gifts rendered to
the singers of Thevaram from Parantaka I of the 8th century. A record
belonging to Rajendra I mentions Tevaranayakan, the supervisor of Thevaram and
shows the institutionalization of Thevaram with the establishment of
a department. There are records from Kulothunga
Chola III from
Nallanyanar temple in South Arcot indicating singing of Thiruvempavai and Thiruvalam of
Manickavasagar during special occasion in the temple. From the 13th
century, the texts were passed on to the Odhuvars by the Adheenams or
charitable establishments.
The charitable establishments
that ran on philanthropy of individuals and merchant caravans had come to be
because after the 13th century, the time of ancient nation states viz. Cholas
etc. was finished, and the temples became only denominated, voluntary,
charitable places. This is briefed by a 15th-century, Chidambaram temple
inscription. During the time of Cholas etc. the temple hymn service workers
were known as uvacchar and marars. These terms are of very ancient origin
and traceable to even early Sangam times.
