History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c15.s1.7

c15.s1.7

The Tēvāram and the Nalāyira Prabandham hymns were also produced during the age of the Pallava monarchs. We have already seen that Appar, the first of the Tēvāram hymnists was the well-known contemporary of Mahēndravarman I who was converted to Śaivism by him. His hymns in the Tēvāram collection number over 3000 and are full of Sanskrit expressions and Brahmanical culture and tradition. Tiruñāna-Sambandar was his younger contemporary and flourished during the reign of Narasimhavarman I. During his period Śaivism was very much in the ascendant and Śiva temples were very numerous in South India. According to the Periyapurāṇam account he is said to have succeeded in converting Neḍumāṛan the contemporary Pāṇḍyan King to Śaivism after a successful disputation with the Śamaṇas who were very powerful at this period at Madura. His poems in the *Tēvāram* number nearly 4000. Sundarar the last of the sixty-three Śaiva saints appears to have lived in the ninth century and mentions Appar and Sambandar who preceded him. His *Tiruttoṇḍatokai* was the basis on which Nambiyāṇḍār Nambi composed his *Aṇdādi* and these two formed the main sources of Śekkilār for writing the *Periyapurāṇam*. Sundarar's hymns amount to eleven hundreds nearly in the *Tēvāram*.