Nayanar 18: Nandanar (Thirunalai Povar)

The 18th saint is Tirunalaippovar Nayanar [Thirunalai Povar]. Arurar sings, “Cemmaiye Tirunalaippovarkkum atiyen”—am the servant of him who will go straight tomorrow’. This is the saint who was saying every day that he would go to Tillai (Citamparam) the next day. Arurar refers to this saint in another place also, where he mentions him along with other saints whose faults Shiva has accepted as noble actions and where he states that this merciful act of God has inspired him to take refuge in God. Perhaps this saint’s going into the temple was forbidden in those days because he was an untouchable.

Nampiyantar refers to this saint as a ‘purattiruttontan’—‘the Shaivite follower who was beyond the pale of the castes’. He also refers to his ‘pulai’ (untouchability), that is, being a member of the untouchable community living on cow. By the Grace of God he became a ‘muni’ (saint or sage). His native place was Atanur, which Cekkilar identifies with the village of that name in Menkanatu, in Nir natu, i.e,, Cola country, on the banks of Kollitam (Coleroon).

Cekkilar makes him give hides for the drum and strings for ‘vinif (harp) to the temples. At Thiruppungur, the Lord ordered Nandi to move aside so that this saint could have a direct view of the linga. The Lord intervened on his behalf to fulfil his desire of having a vision of the Tillai dance. The Lord appeared in a dream to Tillai Muvayiravar and they prepared a sacrificial fire into which the saint entered to come out as a purified ‘muni’ to enter the hall of Tillai dance only to disappear into the ‘akasa . If this story is true, Arurar will not be justified in saying, “Nalaippovanum....kunram ceyyinum kunamenak karutum kolkai kantu” because he would not have committed any fault if he had entered the temple as a purified muni. Nampiyantar Nampi who states that the saint had become a muni does not mention anything about the entrance into the fire.

The Sanskrit and Kannada traditions call him ‘Tirunal popar , ‘Tirunal vovar , which are all corruptions of the name Tirunalaippovar and they also translate the name as ‘Svogantri . These traditions do not state anything beyond that this saint though a chandala, pleased Shiva with his devotion. They give his proper name as Nanda which is also found mentioned in Periyapuranam. In the Vaishnavite tradition Kulacekaralvar who is said to have been always saying that he will be going and seeing Ranganatha (I will be going and seeing Ranganatha tomorrow).

This idea of ‘Tirundlaippotal’ seems to have been popular in the world of Bhaktas. The sculptures on the southern wall of Dara-suram represents the story of Tirunalaippovar as preserved in Periyapuranam. On the right hand corner stands a person with a beard and a moustache and with the cloth tied round his waist reaching to his knees and his hands held in anjali pose.

There is something like a pillar on his right hand side. This is probably Nandanar before he entered the sacrificial fire. To the right of this pillar we find the fire with its flames inside which appears Nandanar with the hands held in the anjali pose and with the beard, but in addition with a matted hair tied up in the form of a cone-like crown. The look in his face is serene as opposed to the look of humility visible on the figure which we had identified as Nandanar before purification. On the right side of the fire stand two men new and on the left one man, all standing with hands held in anjali pose probably representing the Tillaimuva-yiravar.