saivite information - stories of siva devotees, shiva sthothras, etc.
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Site Relocation
Geocities is closing on 26-Oct-2009.
Nayanmars web site will be moving to
nayanmars.netne.net
This site contains selected thEvAram (Tevaram), thiruvAsagam (Tiruvasakam), thiruppugazh, etc. songs and some vedic texts such as Rudram, purusha suktham, narayana suktam, durga suktham, manthra pushpam, sandhya vandanam, as well as some stotras / shlokas such as lalita sahasranamam, lingashtakam, etc. in Tamil, English, Telugu, Kannada and Sanskrit / Hindi. A detailed word by word translation in English is also available for several padhigams and a number of other songs from saiva thirumuRais. Please visit the documents section for these.
Vedas are the songs of sages who have expressed their experiences of God in Sanskrit. The thEvAram and thiruvAsagam songs are as important as the vedas and they express the same/similar things. However, unlike the vedas which were treated for thousands of years as intended for only the select few of the society, the thEvAram and thiruvAsagam songs were intended for everyone. These were sung between 600 AD and 900 AD.
(Comments by Kanchi Acharya: 21-Mar-03:
Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal said that singing the Thevaram, Divya Prabandam, Tiruvachakam and Tirupugazh and bringing glory to the temples was a speciality in Tamil Nadu. He said the Odhuvars of Tamil Nadu were performing a commendable job in popularizing the hymns.
The Swamigal said that every student in Tamil Nadu should be made conversant with the Tamil literature. They should be made to learn the thevaram, divya prabandham, etc. In fact, it was necessary for every family to learn them.
The Swamigal regretted that both stotras and the sastras were being neglected by the present generation. Singing the tamil hymns are as important as offering coconuts and camphor.)
thirumuRai: The works of 27 great saints are collectively referred to as 'thirumuRai'. (These saints include sambandhar, appar, sundarar, mANikkavAsakar, thirumUlar, and others). These have been compiled into 12 volumes (referred to as 12 thirumuRais) containing about 18,000 songs in Tamil. The first 7 thirumuRais are referred to as 'thEvAram'. The 8th thirumuRai is called 'thiruvAsagam'. and 'thirukkOvaiyAr'. The 9th is 'thiruvisaippA' and 'thiruppallANdu'. 10th is the 'thirumandhiram'. The 11th is called 'prabandha mAlai'. The 12th is the 'thiruth thoNdar purANam' (popularly known as 'periya purANam' ) that chronicles the life history of the nAyanmArs.
If you are interested in learning about the lives of these saints, please visit the Saiva Sidhdhantha Homepage. There is an excellent book in English titled 'Periya Puranam' published by Ramakrishna Mission. The SivAnandASramam (Divine Life Society) has published a book on the web called 'Sixty-three nayanar saints' This is a good book providing their life history.
Gangai Puththaga Nilayam of Chennai has published a book 'thEvArath thiruppadhigangaL'. This contains all the available thEvAram songs.
Audio Cassettes / CDs: Sri Dharmapuram Swaminathan has released numerous audio cassettes that contain selections of many songs from thEvAram. In addition, he has also released sets containing entire thEvAram, thiruvAsagam, and 9th thirumuRai. These are sung to the traditional ragas as documented more than a thousand years ago. In fact, the OdhuvArs have kept this music tradition alive through all these years. The ragas are called 'paN' in Tamil.
Lyrics: There are several sites on the internet that offer selected portions of these works. (Project Madurai, shaivam.org, etc. provide the full text of the thirumuRais in Tamil and English transliteration). However, I felt that they did not meet the following needs:
* When presented in traditional Tamil format, the songs are not easy to understand as one may not know how to separate the words.
* When presented in English transliteration format, it is not easy to pronounce the words correctly.
* Many people have access to the audio cassettes containing some selection of thEvAram songs. However, very few have the complete set of thEvAram books to know the lyrics. The available internet content on thEvAram is not easy to search and locate the song of interest.
In view of the above, I have put together the songs in the sequence in which they appear in a number of thEvaram audio cassettes.
I have also posted some selected padhigams and selected songs from various thirumuRais that I feel are easier to understand and recite as part of a group prayer. Meanings in English and/or Tamil is also posted for a subset of songs.
I have used a transliteration scheme that is very phonetic when read in English. I hope you find these useful. Please let me know if you find any errors so that I can correct them. I welcome your comments and suggestions.
V. Subramanian