Nayanar 46: Satti (Sakti)

The 46th saint is Sakti Nayanar (Satti). Arurar refers to his victorious heroic anklet and speaks of him as the chief of Varincai which Cekkilar identifies with a city of that name in the Cola country. He belongs according to Cekkilar to the Velan community. He cut away the tongues of those who spoke ill of the Shaivites. That is all what Nampiyantar says. This shows that there were some people who were hostile to the Shaivites not only the Buddhists and the Jains but also some of the followers of Smrtis looking upon the Shaivites as heretics unfit to dine with.

Cekkilar adds that the saint was powerful enough to cut away the tongue suggesting thereby that the saint was Saktiyar because of Sakti or power. It looks as though Cekkilar is speaking of the weapon Sakti, rather than the power but in verse, 4, of this Pura-nam, the saint is said to have cut away the tongue with ‘katti’, the sword. It may be suggested that ‘catti’ may be the more correct reading than ‘katti’ in which case the name Cattiyar (Sakti-yar) may be explained as one carrying the ‘catti’ the weapon.

The Kannada and Sanskrit traditions speak this saint as Satti-nayanar or Saktinatha having made a vow to slay all those who were not Saivites (not only those who abused the Shaivites), The traditions do not describe the actual slaughter.

The name Saktinatha is borne by some Munaiyaraiyar and it may be that this saint belonged to that family but ruling from Varincaiyur, whilst other members of the family ruled, as already pointed out, from Navalur, Kovalur, and Kiliyur. It may be pointed out that ‘Natan’ is a name assumed by some Shaivites who had attained siddhi as explained in Tirumantiram while others are called ‘Antar’ like Nampantar and Sivakamiyantar mentioned by Cekkilar and the Darasuram sculptures. It is curious that the word Nayanar is not found though the present editions of Periyapuranam give the headings as Nayanar Puranams in spite of the fact that Nayanar is not used by Cekkilar within the body of the text.

The Darasuram sculpture represents three persons on the right of Saktiyandar and one on the left all standing with hands held in anjali pose, whilst the insulting tongue of the fourth person standing in front of the saint has been drawn out to cut away by the weapon in the hand of Saktiyandar.