Nayanar 5: Meiporul (Meypporul)

The fifth saint is described by Arurar as “Velluma mika valla Meypporul—‘Meypporul [Meiporul] who is very capable of conquering’. He is called ‘Meypporul Ventan’ and ‘Cetiyar Perziman’ by Cekkilar. Cekkilar seems to suggest that he earned the title of Meypporul because he realized Meypporul or truth. “Meyttava vetame Meypporul” is what Cekkilar says in this Nayanar Puranam? The true Shaivite form is the greatest truth. It is because of this realization, the Sanskrit and Kannada works translate his name as Siddhiraja. An enemy of the saint knowing the latter’s devotion to the Shaivite form and his search for Agamas came in the form of a tapasvin pretending to carry a bundle of Agamas.

He had a free entrance to the king’s retiring room where he killed the saint whilst he (the latter) was prostrating at the feet of this tapasvin. One servant Tattan seeing this, hurried to punish this murderer but the dying king prevented him saying that ‘he is our man’. This is considered as real conquest through the path of love and satyagraha as opposed to the conquest by sword and hatred and Cekkilar emphasizes this by saying “Meyttava vetame meypporulenat tolutu venrar”. It is the victory of humility, love and self-sacrifice in the name of the sacred form of Shaivism.

Nampiyantar Nampi mentions all these incidents and an inscription of Rajaraja I states that an image was installed for this saint who is described therein as “Tatta namare kanenra Mildtutaiyar”, He is a king of Ceti country. Milatu is ‘Malai Natu’ whose capital was Tirukkovalur. The name of the enemy is given as Mutta-natan and some manuscripts of Periyapuranam read ‘bu instead of ‘mu’, i.e., Buddhanatan for Mutt ana tan. It is possible on the basis of this reading that the Kannada and Sanskrit works describe him as a Buddhist feudatory of Sediraja-Siddharaja-Meypporul Nayanar