Nayanar 8: Eripatha (Eripattar)

The next verse in Thiruthondathogai starts with the description of Eripattar, Ilaimalindha vel Nampi Eripattark katiyen”— ‘I am the servant of Eripattar [Eripatha], the lord of the leaflike spear’. Nampiyantar gives a story that the saint slew the riders of the elephant of Pukalaccola when he heard that it had snatched a flower basket from the hand of a tapasvin. Eripattar’s place of birth is given as Karuvur. This is on the basis of Nampiyantar Nampi making this saint a contemporary of Pukalccola who is said to have died at Karuvur and according to Arurar, “Polirkaruvurt tunciya Pukalccolarkkatiyen’. In the verse describing Pukalccola’s greatness Nampiyantar states that the Cola had handed over his sword to Eripattar thus earning the epithet Pukal. The name of the Shaivite whose flowers were snatched by the elephant is given as Civakamiyantar by Cekkilar, who explains the story in a connected form.

Cekkilar makes Eripattar kill not only the riders but also the elephant, the Pattavardhana. But when the Cola came on the scene, he felt that no Shaivite could have been in the wrong and that Eripattar must have saved a greater calamity by killing the men and the elephant. He thought that he himself ought to have been punished and therefore handed over the sword to Eripattar with a request that he himself might be killed by way of punishment for all that had happened. The wild Eripattar was so moved by this act that he became a convert to the faith of self-sacrifice.

Cekkilar has really made a wonderful story of mental and spiritual development out of the two remarks found in two different verses of Nampiyantar, thereby showing that the glory of Eripattar did not consist in his slaughter of the elephant and riders but in his final attempt at self-conquest inspired by the glorious example of Pukalccola. But all this is not clear in the hymn of Arurar: whereas Cekkilar will have Eripattar wield his battle-axe, Arurar speaks of only the spear. The description of Arurar amounts to nothing more than that of a Virabhakta.

We can in this connection take up for consideration the story of Pukalccola. Arurar describes him merely as “Polir Karuvurt tunciya Pukalc colarkkatiyen’ — ‘I am the servant of Pukalc-cola who died in the garden city of Karuvur.' He describes him as the 41st saint in his list. Students of Cankam literature know that the kings were sometimes differentiated by reference to the place of their death. Such a practice seemed to have continued during the age of Arurar as well. That is why the poet speaks of Pukalccola who died at Karuvur of gardens. This will suggest that during the troubled times of the Kalabhra interregnum, the Colas had to migrate to Karuvur of the Cola-Kerala Mandala.

Nampiyantar Nampi, as already pointed out, does not mention anything more than this Cola handing over the sword to Eripattar as the true fame of this king (50). But Cekkilar makes Uraiyur his place of birth, the old Cola capital, and makes him go to Karuvur for receiving the tributes from his feudatories when the story of Eripattar takes place. He leads an expedition against Atikan, who failed to pay tribute. The king saw amongst the heads of the defeated people brought before him one head of a Shaivite devotee with the usual braided hair. He considered that this was the greatest sin that the king could commit, viz., killing a Shaivite devotee probably a Shaivite ascetic; and as a penance he burnt himself away in a fire specially prepared. “Karuvurt tunciya” ordinarily may not mean burning oneself away to death unless the reading was, “Polir karuvurt tit tunciya . If there was any such reading Nampiyantar Nampi would have given a different version. Perhaps Cekkilar learnt some details of Pukalccola Nay a-nar from the traditions prevalent in the Konku country.

In the Darasuram temple, there is a sculpture with the inscription, Pugalchcholanar’ which gives the story as described in Penya-puranam. On the right hand side, there are three men holding swords in their right hands; probably these were the soldiers or commanders who went to war against Atikan. Next to them in the midale is the king on the seat. On either side are found two men holding their hands in anjali pose, probably the ministers of state informing their king. Next, to the left, is found a person, viz., the king himself without the blazing fire. The left hand comer shows Shiva and Parvati coming on the sacred bull to bless the saint. Whereas in these stories the king burns himself away to reach Kailas, in the Kannada and Sanskrit works Shiva intervenes to save him from the fire. It will be very difficult to prove that the development of the story which must have taken place only after the age of Nampiyantar Nampi could have been in the mind of Arurar,

The Kannada and Sanskrit works give the name of Eripattar as Iripattunayanar, Iribhakta and Virabhakta; the king is variously named as Manuchola, Anapayanayachola and Pogdlchola.