Nayanar 53: Kazharsinga (Kalarcinka)

The ninth verse in Thiruthondathogai begins with the phrase ‘Katal culnta’ which has become the name of a Charukkam or canto in Periyapuranam giving us the lives of the saints mentioned in this verse. The first saint in this verse—the 53rd in the list from the beginning—is Kalarcinka Nayanar (Kazharsinga). Arurar’s words are “Katal culnta ulakelam kakkinra Peruman Katavarkon Kalarcinkan atiyarkkum atiyen”— ‘I am the servant of the servants of Kata-varkon Kalarcinkan who is ruling the world surrounded by the seas’.

According to Nampiyantar, the nose of the queen who smelt the flower set apart for the Lord of Arur was cut away when this king however stating that the hand must be first cut away probably because it took the flower before the nose smelt it, cut away accordingly the hand of his very queen. The cutting of the nose was the greatness of another saint Ceruttunai Nayanar and, therefore, his story also may be taken up for consideration at this point, though he comes as the 55th saint in the list.

The words of Arurar,

“Matal culnta tar Nampi Itankalikkum Tancai mannava-nam Ceruttunaitan atiyarkkum atiyen”—

‘I am the servant of the servants of Ceruttunai, the king of Tanjai and (Itankali, the Lord of the garland of petals).’

His native place is Tancai in the Maru-kal Natu of the Cola country. The full name of the place is given by Cekkilar as Tancavur. This saint belongs to the Velan community according to Cekkilar. If we are to reconcile Arurar’s description of the hymn as the ruler of Tanjai and Cekkilar’s statement that he belongs to the Velan community we must assume that we have a chief of the Velir community.

Nampiyantar states that he cut away the nose of the queen of Kalarcinkan when she smelt the flower set apart for the Lord. He does not mention the name of Ceruttunai, in the verse describing Kalarcinkan, but when we take both the verses describing the two saints respectively, it is clear that they give a connected story of Kalarcinkan’s visit to Thiruvarur with his queen, of Ceruttunai being there inside the temple at the time, of the queen smelling a flower, of Ceruttunai getting enraged at this sacrilege cutting away the nose of the queen, of Kalarcinkan intervening and stating that before the nose was cut off, the offending hand must be cut off, and of the King Emperor cutting off the hand of his own queen.

Cekkilar gives us some more particulars about Kalarcinkan. He came of an old Pallava family blessed by the Lord; he went on a military expedition, defeated the frontiers of the enemies and conquered the northern country. He went and visited the temples of Shiva and performed true or bodily services. His own crowned queen of great fame going round the temple at Thiruvarur saw all its points of greatness one by one and reached the mantapa where the garland for the Lord was woven. On its side was lying a flower which had fallen and she picked it up and was smelling.

Cekkilar thus seems to have minimized the fault of the queen. Ceruttunai took it as a great sacrilege that she was smelling it within the sacred precincts of the temple and hastened and cut away her nose. There was great bleeding and the queen was rolling on the ground because of great pain. The king who came just then was enraged that somebody had wounded the queen. But when Ceruttunai explained the circumstances, the king stated that the hand which had first taken the flower should have been cut, and cut away the rosy hand of his beloved crowned queen. The king ruled thereafter for a number of years reaching the abode of Shiva in time.

From the two accounts, it is quite clear, that both these saints were incapable of governing their impulses; but in fairness to Shaivism, we should be careful to reconcile that it was their merit of devotion to God and not their inability to control themselves that enabled them to obtain Shiva’s Grace. The real greatness lies in their deep reverence for Shiva, such a deep reverence that Ceruttunai forgets that he is cutting away the nose of the queen and Kalarcinkan forgets that he is cutting away the hand of his own beloved queen. They forget this world in the thought of the Lord, and old attachments no longer are found to endure. But reading the words of Arurar, none of these incidents is suggested to our mind.

The Kannada and Sanskrit traditions speak of Kalarcinka Nayanar or Padasimha as a Pallava king of Kanci who cut off the hand of his wife when she took with her hand an old flower garland removed from the body of Shiva after worship and smelt it—smelling such flowers being considered a heinous sin. This seems to go one step further than Cekkilar because after all, the queen here smells an old flower. In those traditions, Ceruttunai Nayanar is made Siruttunenayanar but the name is correctly translated as Ranamitra who cut off the nose of the queen of Padasimha for smelling the old flower garland removed from Shiva’s image and thrown out.

The Darasuram sculpture represents a Shaivite sitting down and probably preparing garlands out of flowers lying on the raised platform before him. On the other side of this platform stands the queen clothed from the waist to the ankle. Her left hand rests on the platform and her right hand holds a flower which she is smelling. Next to her stands a person with the sacred thread probably in the act of worshipping. On the left hand side of the sculpture we find Ceruttunai cutting away the nose of the queen with a sword or a knife. The inscription beneath the sculpture is Seruttunaiyandar. In the sculpture representing the story of Kalarcinka Nayanar, we find Kalarcinkan with his crown and his flowing clothes catching hold of the left hand of the queen with his left hand and raising his sword with his right hand to cut away her hand. The question of identification of this king was discussed in our attempt at fixing the age of Arurar.