The Colas c34.23

c34.23

Śēkkiḻār was born at Kunṟattūr in Kunṟaivaḷanāḍu, a subdivision of Puliyūr-kōṭṭam in Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam. He is also called Śēvai-kāvalar and Gaṅgai-kula-tilaka. He was a Veḷḷāḷa by caste; he sought an official career under the Cōḷa government, rose to a high rank and earned the title *Uttamaśōḻa-Pallavan*. He was devoted to the deity of Tirunāgēśvaram and evinced his devotion by building in his native town of Kunṟattūr a Śiva temple closely modelled on that of Tirunāgēśvaram. His deeply religious nature was roused to protest against the way in which the *Jīvaka-Cintāmaṇi*, the impious work of a heretical Jaina, was being read, admired and enjoyed in the Court of the Cōḷa monarch; he held that to spend time on such a book was to waste the opportunities of this life and to imperil the life hereafter, and exhorted the king to turn instead to the lives of the Śaiva saints sketched by Sundaramūrti in his *Tiruttoṇḍattogai* and elaborated by Nambi Āṇḍār Nambi. The king then commanded Śēkkiḻār to expound the life-stories of the Saints, and being greatly attracted by the theme, he desired Śēkkiḻār to write down the lives *in extenso* in a great poem, and gave him much wealth to enable him to undertake the task. Śēkkiḻār then retired to Cidambaram, and with his mind filled with divine grace—there was a voice commanding him to begin the work with the words *Ulagelām*—he began to compose the *Tiruttoṇḍar-Purāṇam* in the beautiful 1000 pillared *maṇḍapa* within the precincts of the temple. Messengers went to the Cōḷa monarch and reported the progress of the work from time to time until it reached completion with a total of 4253 stanzas. Then the king himself came to Cidambaram; again a voice, accompanied by the tinklings of an anklet, commanded the king to listen with attention to the great work of Śēkkiḻār, and there followed the formal publication of the work when Śēkkiḻār expounded it from day to day for a whole year; the work was universally hailed as a veritable fifth Veda in Tamil and immediately took its place as the twelfth book in the Śaiva canon. The author was honoured with the title *Toṇḍar-śīrparavuvār*, ‘the singer of the glories of saints’, adorned with the crown of knowledge (*ñānamuḍi*) and saluted by everyone present including the Cōḷa monarch. Umāpati's poems must be read in the original for one to realise the gusto with which that author celebrates this epoch-making event in the history of South Indian Śaivism.