Nayanar 48: Kanampulla

The eighth verse in Thiruthondathogai begins with the phrase ‘Karaikkanian’ which is the name of the Charukkam or canto in Periyapuranam giving us the lives of the saints mentioned in this verse. The first saint in the verse—the 48th saint in the list from the beginning—is Kanampulla Nayanar. The words of Arurar are, “Karaikkantan kalalatiye kappukkontirunta Kanampulla Nampikkum (Karikkum) atiyen”— ‘I am the servant of Kanampulla Nampi, who took as his armour or protection, the anklet bedecked feet of the Lord of blotted throat (and of Kari) ‘.

Unfortunately, the stories now current about this saint do not bring out either the significance of the word Nampi or of the description that he had the Lord’s feet as his armour or protection. He was a native of Irukkuvelur according to Nampiyantar, which Cekkilar identifies as the city on the eastern bank of ‘Vata Vellaru’. According to Nampiyantar Nampi, he became poor in the city and went to Tillai where he lighted up the grass for lamps.

Cekkilar describes him as the saint interested in putting up lamps in the Tillai temple and who becoming poor and penniless, cut and gathered ‘kanampul’ grass which he sold away for purchasing ghee required for the temple. One day, he could not find any purchaser for the grass and, therefore, he burnt away the grass itself as light. Even the grass was not found in required quantity. He, therefore, burnt away his own tuft of hair as the lamp.

This extreme service of self-sacrifice described by Cekkilar is not mentioned by Nampiyantar Nampi, but it is found represented in the Darasuram sculpture. We have on the right hand edge of the sculpture, the saint with the knotted tuft sitting and holding a lighted up bundle of grass as the lamp. In the centre we see a temple in front of which the saint is bending down his head with the unloosened hair of the head flowing down to be lighted up by the flames of the light below. At the left hand edge is found a person standing with a sacred thread. It is too blurred to be identified. It may be the Sivagana form of the saint.

The whole story seems to have been built on the name of Kanampullar without reference to the other description given by Arurar. Arurar speaks of this saint in another place when he gives a list of great men whose faults, the Lord has welcomed as their glories. Appar also refers to this saint, “Ennirainta kunat-tinale Kanampullan karuttukantar” — ‘The Lord was pleased with the idea or heart of Kanampullan, because of his innumerable good qualities’. In another place he sings, “Aruntavatta Kanampullark karulkal ceytu katalam atiyarkkenrum kunankataik kotuppar-palum” — ‘He is the Lord who blessed Kanampullar of rare tapas and conferred good qualities on his loving servants’. Probably, it is this conferring of good qualities, Arurar speaks of as the Lord enjoying the faults of his servants as their good qualities. These references cannot be to the current story. One would have at least expected the tradition to speak of this saint in contemplation being overgrown with a jungle of ‘kanampul’ or being saved from the attack of a group of tigers or other enemies.

The Sanskrit and Kannada traditions speak of this saint as Kannampala or Kanolapa, a Shaivite who burnt his own hair when the oil and faggots he collected one night for maintaining a light in the temple were exhausted.