Nayanar 67: Nesa (Neca)

The 67th saint is Neca Nayanar (Nesa). Nampiyantar Nampi makes him a native of Kampili and a weaver or ‘caliyan’.He wove clothes and loin cloths and presented them free to the Shaivites. No further details are given by Cekkilar. The Sanskrit and Kannada traditions speak of him as Kera Nayanar or Snehanatha.

One of the Darasuram sculptures represent the story with the inscription Nesandar beneath it. Necantar is there with his cloth coming from the waist to a point very much above the knee and with his tuft knotted to the left and a necklace probably of Rudraksa. He is holding up a loin cloth in his right hand which is in the act of being presented to a Shaivite bhakta who is found here with the sacred thread. Kampili is on the banks of Tungabhadra.

If our contention that Thiruthondathogai is a list of Tamil saints is correct, that hymn must have been sung in an age when the power of any one of the Tamil kings extended up to Tungabhadra and this could not have been after the time of Nandivarma Pdllava. Some; however, point out that Neca Nayanar and Tirumular said to have come from Kailas are saints of the northern country. Tirumular got into the body of a Tamilian shepherd according to the story. He must be considered to be an out and out Tamilian; for, this description of a Tamilian can never refer to the soul but only to the body. Instead of making Neca Nayanar an exception to the rule, it is much better to look upon him as the saint of the Tamil country living in the age of the great Pallavas.