Sundarar: The Bridegroom Claimed as a Slave at His Own Wedding

Sundarar's household life is unusually prominent in his biography, and the tradition does not tidy it.

Paravai Nachiyar:

• At Thiruvarur, he saw a temple dancer named Paravai and wanted to marry her
• He asked Shiva to arrange it
• Shiva did, acting as the go between
• They married and lived at Thiruvarur

Sangili Nachiyar:

• Later, at Thiruvottiyur, now in Chennai, he saw Sangili and wanted to marry her
• She had heard about Paravai and did not want to be left
• She required him to swear an oath, in the temple, that he would not leave Thiruvottiyur
• Shiva advised him to take the oath standing under a particular tree rather than before the linga, so that the oath's binding form would be avoided
• Sangili learned of this and moved the deity, so that he took the oath in the more binding form
• They married

And then he left:

• He missed Thiruvarur and Paravai
• He left Thiruvottiyur, breaking the oath
• He went blind, immediately, on the road
• He recovered partial sight at Kanchipuram, in one eye
• And full sight at Thiruvarur, in the other

Then the reconciliation:

• Paravai would not take him back, knowing about Sangili
• Shiva went to her as a messenger, twice, to argue his case
• On the first attempt she refused
• On the second, at night, she relented

How to write about this. Plainly, and without smoothing it.

What the story contains:

• A man who married twice
• Who swore an oath he did not intend to keep, on advice
• Who broke it
• Who suffered a consequence
• Whose first wife was justifiably angry and refused him
• And who was reconciled through third party intervention

What the tradition does with it. It keeps all of it, including the parts that reflect badly on him.

He is not presented as having been in the right. He broke an oath, and the blindness follows directly from it in the narrative. The tradition treats the consequence as deserved.

What should not be taken from it:

• That divine sanction excuses breaking commitments to a spouse
• That a wife should be argued into taking back a husband who broke his word
• That Shiva's involvement makes the conduct exemplary

The story is not offered as a model of marriage and the tradition does not read it that way. It is offered as an account of a particular difficult man who was nonetheless held.

The two women. Both are treated as devotees in their own right, both have shrines, and both are named in the tradition alongside him.

Sangili's insistence on the oath is recorded as reasonable. She had heard about the first marriage and wanted a commitment. The tradition does not fault her for it, and it treats the attempt to evade the binding form as the fault it was.

On blindness in the story. Worth a note.

The narrative uses blindness as a consequence, and the tradition should not be read as suggesting that blindness in anybody's life is a punishment or a moral statement.

It is not. Blindness has causes, most of them medical and many of them preventable or treatable. In India, cataract remains a leading cause of avoidable blindness and is surgically correctable, and there are extensive free surgical programmes.

A story from the eighth century is not an account of why anybody cannot see.

Sundarar's single most consequential composition is not a hymn of praise. It is a list.

The Thiruthondar Thogai:

• Eleven verses
• Composed at Thiruvarur
• Naming the devotees of Shiva, individually and in groups
• Each verse ends with the phrase that he is the servant of the servants of these

How it came about. By tradition, at Thiruvarur, Shiva began the composition by giving him the first words, Thillai vazh andanar, the brahmanas of Thillai, and Sundarar continued from there.

What is in it. The names of devotees, some individually and some by category:

• Named individuals: Appar, Sambandar, Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Kannappar, Nandanar and many others
• Groups: the brahmanas of Thillai, the devotees of various places
• And, crucially, the final formula: I am the servant of those who are devoted to the Lord

Why the list matters. It is the source of the entire Nayanar tradition.

• Nambiyandar Nambi, in the eleventh century, expanded it into the Thiruthondar Thiruvandhadhi, giving more detail on each
• Sekkizhar, in the twelfth century, expanded that into the Periya Puranam, the full lives of all sixty three, which is book twelve of the Tirumurai
• The number sixty three derives from counting Sundarar's list, with the individually named and the groups counted in a particular way
• Every Nayanar shrine, every image in the Arupathimoovar procession, and every account of these saints goes back to eleven verses

Who is on the list. This is the substance and it is worth restating.

The named devotees include:

• Kings and chieftains
• Brahmanas
• Cultivators
• A hunter, Kannappar
• A fisherman, Athipathar
• A potter, Thirunilakanta
• An oil monger, Kaliyar
• A washerman, Thirukkurippu Thondar
• A weaver, Nesa
• A woman who asked to be given the form of a ghoul, Karaikkal Ammaiyar
• A man from a community excluded from temple entry, Nandanar
• A woman ruler in a hostile court, Mangayarkkarasiyar
• A female musician, Isaignaniyar, who is Sundarar's own mother

And Sundarar's formula. This is the key.

He does not say he is a servant of Shiva. He says he is the servant of the servants.

That formula, adiyarkku adiyen, is the core statement of the Tamil Shaiva devotional attitude, and it is the same position Thondaradippodi Alvar took on the Vaishnava side with his name meaning the dust of the feet of the servants.

Both traditions arrived, independently, at the same conclusion: the relation to the community of devotees is the relation to the Lord, and the lower position in it is the better one.

The practical consequence. The tradition's own foundational list is a statement that the community of devotees includes a hunter, a fisherman, a washerman, an outcaste man and a woman who took a demonic form.

And that its composer's stated position is that he is beneath all of them.

Sekkizhar and the Periya Puranam. Worth noting since the expansion is what most people actually read.

• Sekkizhar was a minister of the Chola king Kulothunga II
• By tradition, he wrote the Periya Puranam to draw the king away from the Jain epic Jivaka Chintamani, which the king admired
• It runs to over 4,200 verses
• It is book twelve of the Tirumurai
• It is one of the major works of Tamil literature
• It is available in translation and is the source for every story in this batch

One of the sixty three is a Chera king, and he is in the list because of Sundarar.

Cheraman Perumal Nayanar:

• A Chera king of Kerala, generally identified as Rajasekhara Varman or Perumakkothai
• A Shaiva devotee and a poet
• Author of the Ponvannathandhadhi, the Thirukkailaya Gnana Ula and the Adiyula
• Counted among the sixty three Nayanars
• And Sundarar's friend

The friendship. It is the most developed friendship in the Nayanar corpus.

• Cheraman heard of Sundarar and came to meet him
• They travelled together
• Cheraman took Sundarar to Kerala and showed him the Shaiva sites there
• Sundarar's hymns include several composed on the Kerala temples
• Cheraman gave him large gifts, which Sundarar characteristically accepted and dispersed

The gold. One episode is worth telling because it is characteristic of Sundarar.

He was in the habit of asking Shiva for things: gold, grain, cloth, and once, at Thiruvarur, for enough to feed the devotees.

At Thiruppugalur he asked and was given, and at Thiruvarur he received gold which he was told to throw into a river at one place and collect from the tank at another, which he did.

How the tradition treats this. Without embarrassment.

Sundarar asks. Constantly, specifically, for material things, and he is given them. His hymns include requests for money.

The tradition does not treat this as unspiritual. He is on the terms of a friend who asks a friend, and the asking is itself the relation.

How a reader should treat it. With more caution, and a guide should say so.

• A saint's biography in which requests are granted is a narrative, not a mechanism
• Devotional practice is not a means of obtaining money and no responsible teacher presents it as one
• Anybody who tells you that a specific ritual, payment or observance will produce wealth is selling something
• The tradition's own great figures were mostly poor, and several, including Vedanta Desika, refused wealth explicitly

What is genuinely in the story is a relation informal enough to ask in. That is the transferable part.

The end. Sundarar's departure, and Cheraman's.

• By tradition, Shiva sent a white elephant for Sundarar
• He mounted it and began the journey to Kailasa
• Cheraman Perumal, in Kerala, understood what was happening
• He mounted his horse, whispered a mantra in its ear, and rode
• The horse rose, and he caught up with the elephant
• They arrived together

How to read it. As the tradition's statement about the friendship: that neither would arrive without the other, and that a king rode after a poet rather than the reverse.

The Kerala connection. Worth noting since it is a genuine link between traditions.

• Cheraman Perumal is a significant figure in Kerala tradition
• The Thiruvanchikulam temple near Kodungallur is associated with him
• That is the same Kodungallur associated with Kulasekhara Alvar, the Vaishnava Chera king, described in an earlier entry
• So the old Chera capital produced a Vaishnava Alvar and a Shaiva Nayanar, both kings, both poets

And the other Cheraman Perumal tradition. It should be mentioned because it exists and is contested.

There is a separate and much discussed Kerala tradition about a Cheraman Perumal who is said to have divided his kingdom and left for Mecca, connected to the Cheraman Juma Masjid at Kodungallur, which claims to be among the oldest mosques in India.

Whether that figure is the same as the Nayanar, a different Chera ruler, or a legend is disputed by historians and the traditions are generally treated as separate.

What is not disputed is that Kodungallur, the old port of Muziris, was a place where a great many traditions arrived early, and that the Chera country's religious history is unusually layered.

Sundarar's contribution to the tradition is a register, and it is worth setting out because it gives permission for something people already do.

What his hymns sound like:

• He complains. About poverty, about his circumstances, about not being helped
• He demands. Specifically, for named things
• He reminds Shiva of past favours and asks why they have stopped
• He is sarcastic
• He calls him madman, and worse
• He points out that the Lord who owns everything is not sending anything

Examples of the tone, in substance:

What use is it that you have all this, if you leave me like this. I have nobody else and you know it. Everybody says you give to your devotees; where is mine. You made me your slave by a deed; a master feeds his slave.

Why the tradition ranks this highly. Because of what the complaint presupposes.

You cannot complain to somebody who is not there. You cannot demand from somebody with whom you have no relationship. You cannot be sarcastic to a stranger.

The complaint is evidence of intimacy, and the tradition reads it that way.

Sakhya bhava, the friend's mood, is the technical placement, and it holds that between friends the formalities drop, and that dropping them is not disrespect but its opposite.

Where else this appears. It is a recurring Indian devotional register.

• Sundarar in Tamil Shaivism
• Thirumazhisai Alvar telling the Lord to roll up his bedding
• Surdas and Mirabai reproaching Krishna
• Ramprasad Sen in Bengal, who scolds Kali continually and whose songs are largely complaint
• Tukaram in Marathi, who tells Vitthal exactly what he thinks
• Kabir, in a different mode
• The Psalms, outside this tradition entirely, which are largely complaint

Why this matters for an ordinary person. Because most people's actual prayer, when they are honest, is complaint.

They are not praising. They are saying: this is difficult, I did not deserve this, where were you, why is this happening, please make it stop.

And a great many people feel that this is not proper prayer and that they should be doing something more elevated.

The tradition's answer: that is the canonical form, it is in scripture, it was done by saints, and the alternative, polite formal address to somebody you are not actually engaging with, is the weaker thing.

A caution alongside it. Complaint as devotion is not the same as bitterness as a habit.

Sundarar's hymns complain and then turn. They end in praise, in acknowledgment, in the relation. The complaint is addressed to somebody and expects a response.

A practice that consists only of grievance, addressed to nobody, is a different thing, and if that is where you are, the useful step is probably to talk to a person rather than to intensify the practice.

And if what you are carrying is more than complaint. If the difficulty is persistent, if it is affecting sleep, eating, work or your ability to be with people, that is worth taking to somebody. Tele MANAS is 14416 in India, free, in many languages.

The tradition has room for the complaint. It also has no objection to you getting help.

Places

Thiruvennainallur:

• In Villupuram district, where the deed was produced and where he was declared a slave
• The Kirubapureeswarar temple
• The same temple where Appar returned, which is a notable coincidence of sites

Thirunavalur:

• His birthplace, nearby

Thiruvarur:

• In Thiruvarur district, where he lived with Paravai and where the Thiruthondar Thogai was composed
• The Thyagaraja temple, one of the largest temple complexes in Tamil Nadu
• The Kamalalayam tank
• The Azhi Ther, the temple chariot, among the largest in Asia
• Thiruvarur is the birthplace of the Carnatic trinity, Tyagaraja, Dikshitar and Syama Sastri, which is a separate and remarkable fact about one town

Thiruvottiyur:

• Now in north Chennai, where he married Sangili
• The Thyagarajaswamy temple
• The magizham tree associated with the oath

Thiruppugalur:

• In Nagapattinam district, where he asked and received, and where Appar attained his end

Thiruvanchikulam:

• Near Kodungallur, Kerala, associated with Cheraman Perumal Nayanar
• The only Paadal Petra Sthalam in Kerala sung by Sundarar in that region

Practice

The Thiruthondar Thogai:

• Eleven verses naming the devotees
• Recited in Shaiva practice
• The formula adiyarkku adiyen, servant of the servants, is the takeaway

Pitha pirai soodi:

• The first verse of book seven, the one that calls Shiva a madman
• Short, and the natural entry point to Sundarar

Namah Shivaya:

• As throughout this batch

The Arupathimoovar:

• At Mylapore in Panguni, March or April
• All sixty three in procession
• The list Sundarar made, walking through a Chennai neighbourhood, once a year

Reading:

• The Periya Puranam of Sekkizhar, in translation, for the lives of all sixty three
• The Tevaram book seven for Sundarar's own hymns
• Both available in print and online

A practice from him. This is the specific one.

Say what you actually mean. If your prayer is a complaint, make it a complaint. If you want something, ask for it. If you are angry, say so.

The tradition's book seven opens with a man shouting at God, and it is scripture.

What it does not permit is not talking to him at all because you do not think your state of mind is respectable enough.

A closing thought. A man's wedding was interrupted by a stranger with a document.

The document said his grandfather had signed away the family. The village elders examined it, compared the handwriting, and found against him. He was declared somebody's property in front of everybody he knew.

And the man who had done this to him walked into a temple and vanished, and the bridegroom shouted after him that he was insane.

That is the first verse of the seventh book, and the man who was declared a slave spent the rest of his life writing about how he was the servant of the servants, and then made the list.