Temples in Sirkali

1. The central shrine (Brahmapurisvara—linga)

2. Toni Appar shrine—facing east, on a mound in the first floor, reached by a flight of steps west of the central shrine.

3. Sattanathar shrine—in a cella facing south in the second floor above no. 2 supra (the deity is a form of Bhairavar or Vadugar)

4. Jnana-Sambandar shrine—in the second, north-west of the central shrine.

5. Sthirasundari (Amman) shrine—west of the sacred tank.

Sirkali is the headquarters of the taluk of the same name in the Tanjavur district. It is a celebrated Saiva centre. It was the birth place of the Nayanar Sambandar and is associated with the legends and festivals of that boy-saint. He was born in a house in a street west of the main temple, now named after him, which has a small temple called (Kulottunga-?) Solisvaram. West of the town is the temple of Tiruttalam Udaiyar Who is held to have presented the boy-singer with cymbals. A few kilometres to the south is Nanipalli (Punjai), the home of his mother, and some kilometres north of it is Nallur-Tirumanam now known as Achchapuram where Sambandar on his wedding day in his sixteenth year attained beatitude with the whole wedding party.

Sirkali has twelve different names (see the Footnote). Brahma is said to have worshipped Siva here. Hence the place is called Brahmapuram (or -puri) and the central linga is called Brahma-purisvara. The devas in their distress took shelter here from the asuras; hence the name of the place Pugali. During the (the Great Deluge), Parvati and Paramesvara converted the pranava into a boat and floated on the floods and touched land on the mound here and saved the devas and' men from destruction. Toni-Appar is a representation of this legend (cf. the legend of Noah’s Ark). ‘Karuvarai-sulnda-kadalidai-midakkum-kalumala-nagar’, sings Sundarar. Appar also sings the glory of Tonipuram. Sambandar’s first miracle happened on the south bank of the sacredi t ank here.

When the three-year old boy cried for milk, Parvati and Paramesvara in the boat on the mound responded and offered him divine milk which inspired the child of three to burst into an ecstatic hymn:

‘Todudaiyaseviyan... ullamkavar kalvan edudaiya-mala ranmunnai natpanin detta arul seyda Pidudaiya piramapura(m) meviya pemmanivananrey.’.

This is the reply the child Sambandar gave to his father when he enquired of him as to who gave him the milk.

Brahmapurisvara temple

Sirkali was also the original home of Kali (cult of the mother-goddess). Such an old and celebrated centre has only three inscriptions of the Later Cholas: one of Rajadhiraja II and two of Kulot-tunga III. The original temple should have consisted of the central linga shrine, that of Brahmapurisvara, on the southern bund of the sacred tank; the Toni Appar shrine on a mound west of the central shrine, reached by two flights of steps from the inner prakara\ and perhaps also the Satta(i)nathar shrine in the second floor reached from the southern prakara of the Toni Appar shrine by another flight of steps. The origins of all these are lost in oblivion. The three Later Chola inscriptions do not throw any light on the earlier fabric. All the earlier inscriptions must have been lost in the later renovation. It is a pity.

It seems that the enlargement of this temple campus must have taken place, as in the case of the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram, in the periods of Kulottunga I, Vikrama Chola, Kulottunga II and completed during the reign of Kulottunga III. This temple has three prakaras with high walls of enclosure. There are two sets oigopurams with seven storeys in the outer walls of enclosure. The Amman shrine (of Sthirasundari) and the Sambandar shrine are also the work of Kulottunga I and his successors. In my childhood, I have seen heaps of stone material—mostly pillars—in the third prakara between the inner and outer on the eastern side. They were perhaps the ruins of the hundred-pillared mandapa.

Now to the three inscriptions. The oldest inscription in this temple is found on the north wall of the Tiru-Jnana Sambandar shrine. It is an inscription of the eleventh year of Tribhuvanachakra-vartin Rajadhiraja II (ARE 123 of 1896; SII, V, no. 988) and records a gift of food offerings (kar daily and on festivals to Aludaiya Pillaiyar (Sambandar) by one Atkonda Nayakan Tirunattap-Peruman, the headman (kilavan) of Venmani.

The land gifted for the offerings is said to have been in the brahmadeyam of Tiruk-kalu-malam, in Tiru-kalu-mala nadu, a part of Rajadhiraja valanadu.

There are two inscriptions of the days of Kulottunga III, recorded on the south wall of the Brahmapurisvara shrine. One is of the ninth year and 176th day of “Tribhuvanachakravartin Kulottunga who conquered Madurai” (ARE 125 of 1896; SII, VI, no. 990). It records the gift of land for a perpetual lamp as tiru-nanda-vilakkup-puram to Tiruttonipuram Udaiyar and Periya Nachchiyar. Incidentally, this inscription refers to the land survey conducted by Kulottunga I in his sixteenth year.

The other inscription relates to the fourteenth year of Kulottunga III (ARE 124 of 1896; SII, V, no. 989). It records a gift of land by two ladies for the maintenance of a gardener and a flower-garden for the supply of flowers to Tirut-Tonipuram Udaiya Nayanar for the merit of their husbands, themselves and their descendants. One is Edirilip-Perumal, wife of Palaiyanur Udaiyan Vedavanam Udaiyan of Mcnmalai Palaiyanur nadu, a subdivision of Jayangondasola mandalam (the great General and Minister of Rajadhiraja II and his successor Kulottunga III—see die section on Pallavarayanpettai and the Note there on Vedavanam Udaiyan) and daughter of Jananatha Kalpam Araiyan, the headman (kilavan) of Anangur Kurram in Naduvil nadu alias Rajaraja valanadu; The other party to the gift is Umai Alvi, daughter of Edirilipperumal, who had married Perumur Udaiyar Nayanar Tiruvengadam Udaiyar of Venmanikkurram, a part of Suttamalli valanadu. They were persons of position and respectability. It was an age of faith and everybody made endowments to the god of his or her choice according to his or her ability and the degree of devotion.

There is a reference from a record in another temple to a gift for a matha in this place. There is a temple called Agastyesvaram at Muniyur (called Munniyur in the inscription) in the Tanjavur district which records that in the 28th year of Tribhuvana-chakravartin Rajaraja III, the residents of Munniyur made a grant of land to the Tirumurai Devarachchelvar matha on the north side of Tirultondisvaram Udaiya Nayanar temple at Tirukkalu-malam (Sirkali) in Tirukkalu mala nadu in Rajadhiraja valanadu. This is a reference to a matha for the practice and promotion of Devaram.

For a brief account of Sambandar’s life and achievements, see B. Natarajan’s The City of the Cosmic, pp. 107-111. Here is a para therefrom on his mission and its influence:

‘Sambandar was a prodigy and his life was a miracle of miracles. He had no schooling in the modern sense of the word. He had mastery of the four Vedas, six Vedangas and of Tamil in all its range and glory. His songs conform to the best traditions of Tamil literature and lend themselves to interpretation in attractive musical modes. It is amazing how he acquired the wealth of knowledge and wisdom enshrined in his immortal songs. To have visited about one hundred and ten temples during his brief span of sixteen years in those days of difficult communications and to have left behind so great a treasure of religious and philosophical literature is really remarkable. It is an influence which will last, as has been said of the Ramayana, as long as the hills and rivers endure’.

Hallowed are the home and the temple closely associated with the life of Sambandar, who imbibed the divine milk of Parvati and became an inspired devotee to sing the glory of the Holy name.

The twelve names of Sirkali:

The twelve names are: Brahmapuram, Venuptiram, Pugali, Venguru, Tonipuram, Pundarai, Sirapuram, Puravam, Sanbai, Srikali or Sirkali, Kochchaivayam, and Kalu-malam. These are mentioned in the ‘Tirukkalumala Mummamkkovai’ (verse 10). For a brief explanation of the legends associated with these names and a list of other names, vide the ‘Sikalit-tala varalaru’ (in Tamil) published by the Sattanathasvami Devasthanam.