A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c20.8

c20.8

Ñānasambandar was a Brahmin of the Kaundinya *gōtra* from Shiyāli in the Tanjore district. There are few Śaiva temples in the Tamil country today where worship is not offered to him. Legend avers that as a child of three he got the milk of divine knowledge from Pārvati herself and narrated the incident to his father in song. The father at once realized the divinity of his child and carried him on his shoulders from one Śaiva shrine to another until he was relieved by the present from the gods of a pearl palanquin for his son's use. At that time the Pāndya country was almost completely overrun by Jainism, and the Pāndyan queen, a princess from the Chola country, and the minister Kulaccirai, both of whom were Śaivas, sent Sambandar an urgent invitation to come and release the Pāndya and his country from the tightening grip of Jainism. Ñānasambandar betook himself to Madura, foiled all the conspiracies of the Jains against him, vanquished them in debate and converted the king and his subjects to Śaivism. The story goes that on this occasion 8,000 Jains were put to death by impalement, and a festival in the Madura temple is supposed to commemorate the gruesome event to this day. This, however, is little more than an unpleasant legend and cannot be treated as history. There is no reason to believe that, even in those days of intense religious strife, intolerance descended to such cruel barbarities. Nor are we asked to believe the story of his marriage. It is said that when, at the age of sixteen, he was married, the ceremony had hardly been completed when the newly wedded pair and all the wedding party were absorbed into the god-head. Sambandar had disputations with Buddhists also and visited many shrines and sang hundreds of hymns in his short life-time. He was the purest of all the saints, with no past to regret. He may be placed in the middle of the seventh century and his Pāṇḍyan contemporary was either Māravarman Avaniśūlāmaṇi or his grandson Arikesari Māravarman.