Mahadeva Swamy Temple,
Melanallur – Legends
Nandanar , also known
as Tirunalaippovar was a Nayanar saint,
venerated in the Hindu sect of Shaivism.
He is the only Dalit ("untouchable")
saint in the Nayanars. He is generally counted as the eighteenth in the list of
63 Nayanars. Like the other Nayanars, he was a devout devotee of the
god Shiva.
The tale of Nandanar is retold numerous times in folk tales, folk music, plays,
films and literature in Tamil
society. While Nandanar is included in Nayanar list since the 8th
century CE, the 12th century CE Periya
Puranam gives a full hagiographical account of his life.
The tale focuses on two
miracles attributed to him. In Sivalokanathar Temple, Tirupunkur;
his prayers are said to have moved a giant stone bull, which still appears in
the moved position in the temple. Nandanar is said to have ritually purified
himself by fire at Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram.
Nandar's tale features in temple lore and religious literature related to both
these temples. Gopalakrishna Bharati's 19th century
retelling of the saint's life remains the basis of many later retellings. It
expands the original narrative adding elements of oppression of the Dalit saint
by higher castes.
While higher caste retellings
of the tale focus on the saint's observance of caste norms, Dalits emphasize
his exploitation and superior religiosity. Apart from collective worship Nandanar
enjoys being part of the Nayanars in Shiva temples of Tamil
Nadu, shrines depicted to Nandanar exist in both the sites of his
miracles. The saint also became an icon of protest in Dalit rights movements.
One of the most prominent
Nayanars, Sundarar (8th
century) is the first to name Nandanar (called Tirunalaippovar) in literature,
however Tirunalaipovar ('he who will go tomorrow') relates to the tale of
Nandanar longing to visit Chidambaram;
no details of his life are revealed. In the eleventh century, Nambiyandar
Nambi devotes a stanza to Nandanar in his Thiruthondar Thiruvanthaathi while
recalling the lives of the Nayanars. Tirunalaipovar is described as a Pulayar who
lived in Adhanur. He is said to have visited Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram of
his patron god Shiva
"by God's grace" and "three thousand Brahmins (priests)
of Chidambaram saluted him."
The earliest full (and primary
religious) account of Nandanar's life is found in the Tamil Periya
Puranam by Sekkizhar (12th
century), which is a hagiography of the 63 Nayanars, but it was
the Nandanar Charitram by the Tamil poet Gopalakrishna Bharati (1810–1896)
brought Nandanar's tale to public attention. The Nandanar Charitram (printed
in 1861), the magnum opus of Bharati, added new elements to Sekkizhar's
tale. Though it is unknown when he lived exactly, generally he is dated to 7th
or 8th century CE.
The Periya Puranam:
The Periya
Puranam narrates that Nandanar belonged to Adhanur in the Chola kingdom.
Presently, Adhanur is located in Nagapattinam district, in the Indian state
of Tamil
Nadu. He was born in the Pulaiya caste, who were regarded
"untouchables". They were agricultural labourers and singers. Another
description considers Nandanar from the Dalit caste of Paraiyar,
who served as labourers and were drummers as per the caste code. Nandanar was born in poverty, in Pulaippadi,
the Pulai slums of Adhanur. He was a staunch devotee of the god Shiva, the
patron god of Shaivism. He was a leather maker, who crafted drums and
other musical instruments.
He also served as a village
servant, a watchman, a labourer as well as the "town crier", who used
to beat the drums. In Nandanar's times, Dalits were not allowed to enter Hindu
temples. So, Nandanar would stand outside a Shiva temple and sing the praises
of Shiva and dance. However, he harboured a strong urge to pay his respects to
the icon of Shiva at Sivalokanathar Temple, Tirupunkur.
He stood outside the temple, but a huge stone Nandi (the
bull mount of
Shiva, whose sculpture is generally seen in Shiva temples, facing Shiva in
the garbhagriha - sanctum
sanctorum) blocked his path of vision.
The compassionate Shiva
ordered Nandi to move a little to side and the bull complied, allowing the
Nayanar to see the central icon of Shiva, unobstructed. Nandanar cleaned up the
surroundings of the temple. The temple lore of Tirupunkur narrates that Shiva
instructed his son Ganesha to aid Nandanar in digging the temple
tank named Nandanar tirtha, after the saint. Another
variant tells that Ganesha dug up the tank in the night so that Nandanar can
bathe in its sacred waters before seeing Shiva in the temple.
He circumambulated the
shrine and returned to Adhanur. Nandanar visited many temples of Shiva and
served the god. Once, he longed to visit the Thillai Nataraja Temple of
Chidambaram, which enshrines Shiva as Nataraja,
the Lord of Dance. He used to say every day that he will go the next day to
Chidambaram, but never actually dared to step in the holy town, where he was
prohibited entry. Thus, he came to be known as "Tiru-Nalai Povar",
'he who will go tomorrow'.
Finally, Nandanar reached the
boundary of Chidambaram, but feared to set foot in the town. He saw the smoke
of fire
sacrifices and heard the chants of the Vedic scriptures.
Thinking about how he can see Nataraja's dancing icon, the Nayanar circumambulated
the town numerous times and finally succumbed to fatigue and slept. Lord Shiva
appeared in his dream and told Nandanar to enter the temple through a holy
fire. The god also informed the Brahmin priests
of Chidambaram to prepare a pyre. Next day, the Brahmins approached Nandanar as
per the divine order.
Nandanar entered the holy fire
chanting the name of Shiva and reappeared in a new purified form. He looked
like a Brahmin sage, wearing matted
hair (characteristic of a Shaiva) and the
sacred thread worn by Brahmins across his chest. His body was
smeared with sacred ash. The gods showered flowers on the
Nayanar from heaven and the Brahmins cheered. With the Brahmins, Nandanar went
in the garbhagriha and saw Nataraja.
The Nayanar disappeared in the
image of Nataraja and became one with Shiva. The Periya
Puranam version is interpreted as a Brahmanical narrative, where a
particular Dalit is granted salvation by transforming into a Brahmin; the
superiority of the Brahmins is reinforced and the legitimacy of the ban of
Dalits is not challenged.
The Nandanar Charitram:
Bharati was an ardent devotee
of Lord Shiva and wrote three operas in honour of various Nayanar saints.
Though Bharati was himself an upper caste Brahmin, he was a crusader for the
rights of the Dalits. While Sekkizhar exalts Nandanar's devotion to Shiva,
Bharati presents the grim reality of ostracization that the Nayanar suffered. Bharati's
Nandanar is "not a rebel, but only a
protester". The Nandanar Charitram focuses on the
atrocities that Nandanar and Dalits as a whole had to suffer at the hands of
upper castes. The opera Nandanar Charitram was embedded with the
social message that Shiva grants emancipation irrespective of caste. The play
starts with the term "May I come", a warning to higher-caste people
that Dalits had to cry out before entering any street, so as to not pollute the
higher caste members.
The Nayanar first clashes with
his own Dalit brethren. They oppose his devotion for the Lord of Chidambaram,
whom they call a Brahmin god. The Dalit elders — headed by
Pariyakilavan — define his duties as a pariah and advise him to not
confront caste rules. They tell him to worship the folk deities of the pariah,
instead of Shiva, the god of Brahmanical Hinduism. The Dalits also feel that
Nandanar needs to abide by the social norms and give up his taboo idea of
entering a temple. A villainous Brahmin landlord Vetiyar (Vediyar) appears in
Bharati's tale. He torments his bonded
labourer Nandanar and chastises him repeatedly for trying to go
beyond caste norms.
Vetiyar sees Nandanar's bhakti
and desire to enter a temple "not only as undesirable and irreligious, but
also as a serious threat to his social status." Vetiyar refuses to grant
him permission to Chidambaram and even resorts to violence. After much
persuasion, the Brahmin relents on the condition that the saint do an
impossible task of cultivating and harvesting the field in one night. Aided by
Shiva's attendant ganas,
the saint completes the task. The Brahmin realizes the piety of the Nayanar,
apologizes to him and lets him go. Bharati retained the final confrontation with
the Brahmins of Chidambaram and his ritual purification by fire. Bharati
concludes in a poem saying that "it is said in the epics that the Lord
worshipped by Gopalakrishna granted salvation even to Untouchables!"
Puthiya Nandan:
The short story Puthiya
Nandan by Pudhumaipithan (1906-1948) places the
classical tale of the Nayanar in a contemporary setting. While retelling
Nandan's ancient tale, it also alludes to the Dalit rights movements of Mahatma Gandhi and Periyar E. V. Ramasamy.
Nandan Kathai:
Indira Parthasarathy's Nandan
Kathai (1978) builds the tale of Nandanar further, introducing two
non-Brahmin upper caste landholders, who are as ruthless as Bharati's Vediyar.
Nandanar is portrayed as a lover of art, rather than God. He wants to see the
cosmic dance of Nataraja. A Devadasi called
Abhirami also appears; no significant female characters are found in earlier
narratives. Indira is blunt in reprimanding the Dalits for not understanding
Nandanar. Nandan Kathai is a quest for liberation of Dalits and women
alike. Unlike earlier narratives, Indira's tale is devoid of miracles and is a
story of how Nandanar falls prey to a conspiracy.
The Vediyar-priest, the
Vediyar-landlord and the two non-Brahmin upper caste landholders, hatch a plot
to end Nandan. They make Nandanar believe that God harvested crop from the field,
an allusion to the miracle of Vediyar's impossible task in Bharati's work.
Then, they persuade him to organize a dance contest between Bharatanatyam,
the high-caste elites' dance and the folk dance of the Dalits. Finally, in the
climax, Nandanar agrees to undergo a fire-trial, reassured by the earlier
miracle, but he and Abhirami burn in the flames. The upper castes succeed in
sending a warning to Dalits how trespassers of the caste code, longing for
salvation, would be punished.
Other Works:
The devotional poet Thyagaraja (1767–1847)
also narrates the tale of Nandanar in his poems. Umapathi Sivacharya's Kunchitangristava (early
fourteenth century) mentions Nandan's legend. While another Sanskrit
work Hemasabhanatha Mahatmya devotes its ninth chapter to the
Nayanar. The Sthala Purana of the Nataraja temple
called Chidambara Mahatmya praises the god as served by Nandan.
Brahmins View on Nandanar:
In stories of higher caste
Hindus (especially Brahmins), Nandanar is a Brahmin or God himself somehow
trapped in the body of an untouchable and whose true form is revealed by the
fire trial. Other tales focus on his strict adherence to caste norms, his
obedience of his Brahmin master and his refusal to enter the holy temple as an
untouchable.
Dalits View of Nandanar:
The Dalits strongly believe in
his piety and portray Brahmins as the root cause of all the misery of the
Nayanar. Nandanar fits in the Dalit narrative that proves that their
religiosity is on par or superior to the higher castes. They say that Nandanar
was 'swallowed by God'. The sashes round Nataraja's waist are interpreted as
the legs of the saint, who merged into the god.
Celebration in Hindu Religion:
Nandanar is specially
worshipped in the Tamil month of Purattasi,
when the moon enters the Rohini nakshatra (lunar
mansion). He is depicted with a shaved head, folded hands with a kamandalu and
a danda (staff), like a seer. He receives collective worship as part
of the 63 Nayanars. Their icons and brief accounts of his deeds are found in
many Shiva temples in Tamil Nadu. Their images are taken out in procession in
festivals.
A water tank in Chidambaram is
considered sacred as it is believed to be the site of Nandanar's
fire-purification. A recently built small shrine dedicated to the Nayanar,
exists in south-west part of the town. A sculpture of Nandanar as a singer is
found in the Chidambaram temple, besides another in Airavatesvara Temple of Darasuram (12th
century) depicting him in the entering the fire pit.
The Nandi in Sivalokanathar
Temple, Tirupunkur is seen placed off centre as a testimony of Nandanar's
devotion and the miracle. A stone image of the saint is worshipped in the
temple. The Dvarapalas (gate-keeper sculptures) are
depicted with his heads leaning downwards, said to be in honour of Nandanar.
In 1959, a shrine was created
outside the Shiva temple, from where the stone image of Nandanar looks
eternally at Shiva. Nandanar is depicted with his hands joined above his head,
praying to Shiva. Scenes of Bharati's opera and the local legend of Nandanar
and Ganesha digging the temple tank are seen on the shrine.
Legacy:
Nandanar's influence was and
remains limited primarily to the Tamil-speaking areas. The Christian missionary
Rev. A. C. Clayton—who was "sympathetic" to the Dalit cause—used
Nandanar's narrative to suggest that bhakti (devotion)—which
saw no distinction of class or caste—was the superior means to salvation than
the jnana-marga (salvation
by knowledge) propagated by the Brahmins and also challenged the authority of
the Brahmin orthodoxy. Nandanar became "the hero of tales of caste
protest". The "Adi
Dravida" (Dalit) leaders of the Self-Respect Movement used
Nandanar as an exemplar to prove that social superiority originates not from
birth, but the qualities and deeds of people.
In 2010, Cadres of the Tamil
Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) and the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) under the leadership of P. Sampath, protested to bring down the wall
on the South Gate of the Chidambaram temple, which was as per a tale built as
Nandanar entered from the gate. The walled gate was the symbol of the
oppression of the Dalit caste and caste discrimination, as per the protesters
who demanded its demolition. The state government which governs the temple
currently contented that the veracity of Nandanar's tale and its connection to
the walled Gate, cannot be ascertained and thus, refused the protesters'
demands.
Nandanar continues to inspire
them (Dalits) as a symbol of resistance and a hope of a better
future. However, young Dalits identify with recent Dalit leaders
like B. R. Ambedkar and are unaware or
uninterested in the "obedient Nandanar". Ambedkar, himself had
dedicated his book The Untouchables, to three Dalit saints, including
Nandanar. In speech in Chidambaram, Mahatma Gandhi called Nandanar, a true
practitioner of Satyagraha, a means of Nonviolent resistance. Gandhi said:
"Nanda broke every barrier and won his way to freedom, not by brag, not by
bluster, but by the purest form of self-suffering... he shamed them into doing
justice by his lofty prayer, by the purity of his character, ... he compelled
God Himself to descend and made him open the eyes of his persecutors".
Nandanar's tale is retold
numerous times through folk tales, plays, literature and art forms like Villu
Paatu and "musical discourses". A number
of Tamil films, all titled Nandanar, recall
Nandanar's tale following Bharati's version. Besides a silent film in
1923, another silent film Nandanar, subtitled The Elevation of the Downtrodden,
directed by P. K. Raja Sandow, in 1930. The first
talkie film on Nandanar was made in 1931. The 1935 film featured K. B.
Sundarambal, who also performed on stage as the Nayanar numerous
times. The 1942 film, starring Dhandapani
Desikar in the lead, courted controversy for its overly Brahmin
overtones and was banned in Kolar
Gold Fields after protests by Dalits, however the ban was
lifted after Desikar met and personally apologized to the Dalits for being part
of the climax, which featured the fire-purification.
Another film on Nandanar was
released in 1943. Sundaram Balachander acted in the 1948
film. N. S. Krishnan presented the story as
a "narrative art form", while A.
Padmanabhan released a small booklet on the saint's life for
children. C. T. Indra says that Nandanar was made immortal in legend and
remembered over the years "as a strategy of public management of anxiety.
... In the Essentialist way, Nandan's devotion was cited down the ages to play
down the social inequities and play up his spiritual qualifications."
