Lord Shiva, popularly termed as the lord of creation and re-creation, but without whom creation cannot occur, is symbolized by the Shiva Lingam. Saivism is the major faith in the Indian system of belief, that worships Shiva as its principal God. Shiva temples are spread all over India.
About Nayanmars
Thirunavukarasar, Thirugnanasambandar and Sundarar were the first Nayanmars who composed songs in the praise of Lord Shiva after visiting the temples of Lord Shiva and brought out the glory of the God by their pathigams. 3 Nayanmars visited these temples along with their followers in spite of the inconveniences they faced while travelling the nook and corner of Tamilnadu in search of these temples. There are instances when God Shiva himself had directed them and shown the way to some of the temples so that the above Nayanmars could visit these temples and compose Pathigams. These Pathigaams (poems or songs) composed in the classical Tamil language are of immense value to the Tamil literature.
Saivite Tirumuraigal have been grouped into 12. The first 7 Tirumuraigal consists of the Pathigams composed by Thirunavukarasar, Thirugnanasambandar and Sundarar and are collectively and popularly known as Tevara Paadalgal.
These Tevara Paadalgal convey one message clearly - that the temples referred in the Pathigams were in existence 1000 years before.
LORD SHIVA QUOTE
Lord Shiva himself had made a comment on the services rendered by 3 first Nayanmars and it quote as.
ஞானசம்பந்தன் தன்னை பாடினான்
திருநாவுக்கரசன் என்னை பாடினான்
சுந்தரன் பொண்ணை பாடினான்
Meaning
Gnanasambandan composed the songs in praising god bringing him also into the picutre, Thirunavukarasar composed the songs purely in the praise of god, whereas Sundarar composed his songs praising god and requesting for wealth.
Role of king Rajaraja chola
Played a key role in compiling all these songs and name it as “Devaram” with the help his priest Nambiandar Nambi. These songs in the form of a palm leaf manuscript were recovered from one of the closed chambers in Chidambaram Natarajar Temple. Unfortunately, only approximately half of the total manuscripts could be recovered and the rest had been destroyed by termites.
Why padal petra Sthalam?
Most important among them, glorified by the 63 Tamil Nayanmars, particularly the 3 viz, Thirunavukarasar (Appar), Sundarar and Sambandar in their Tevaram hymn, are revered as the Tevara Paadal Petra Sthalams. They are 274 Shiva temples in number and out of which 264 temples are situated in Tamilnadu. The 274 odd shrines that have at least one Pathigam composed in their honor are referred to commonly as Paadal Petra Stalangal, or more generally Shivastalams. Most of them are located in TamilNadu, details as shown below.
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