Indian Antiquary Vol 54

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 13

JANUARY, 1925)
CHERAMAN-PERUMAL-NAYANAR
CHERAMAN-PERUMAL-NAYANAR.
BY A. 8. RAMANATHA AYYAR, B.A., M.R.A.S. The period from the sixth to the tenth centuries A.D. was one of great Hindu religious revival in South India. Buddhism which had been flourishing well, carried as it had also been to distant countries under royal patronage and missionary endeavour, had gradually begun to decline in sincerity and popularity, and the restless ferment of the times produced in succession several Saiva and Vaishnava reformers, who purged the land of the corrupt and effete religions by their own impassioned and soul.stirring hymns of monotheistic bhakti, and re-established a purer and more catholic form of Hinduism on the secure basis of singleminded devotion to God. As Mr. K. V. Subrahmanya Ayyar has well said in his Religious Activity in Ancient Dekhan, " persons of no mean merit were they, who adorned the firmament of the Indian Reformation, which may be said to have commenced in the seventh century A.D. and a little prior to it and continued its work for a long time. The men it produced were of varying capacities, and all of them arrayed themselves in one work or another in the mighty task of Reform, which, it may be said to their credit, was effected with the least bloodshed, as one is prone to find in other countries under similar conditions."
Of the sixty-three saints who have been mentioned as the premier apostles of Saivism, and who can be located in the period above-mentioned, Sundaramûrti-Nayanar, the Brahman boy-saint of Tirunavalůr was a noted figure, and his Tirvttondattogai, wherein he has catalogued the names of the saints that had lived prior to him, and the Núrrandddi of Nambiyâņdar-Nambi (c. tenth century A.D.) were the nuclei from which Sêkki!år (c. 1150 A.D.) elaborated at a later date his Periyapuranam, the Saiva hagiology, which had acquired so much sanctity as to be classified as the twelfth tirumurai or sacred collection of Saiva writings. This Sundara had as his contemporaries Viranmiņdar, Kotpuliyâr, Månakañjarar, Eyarkôn-Kalikkamanar, Perumilalai-Kurumbar, Som åsiyâr and Chêramân-Perumal, who have all been included in the exalted galaxy of Saiva saints.
Of the last-named of them, who was a Chêra king and a specially devoted friend of Sundaramarti-Nayanår, Sêkkilar has given the outlines of the religious side of his biography in a few chapters of the Periyapuranam, and the main incidents of Chéramân-Perumal's life are also succinctly summarised in a single verse of the Tiruttoņdar-puranam. The Travancore king Råmavarman (A.D. 1758-98), in the preface to his work on Natyasastra, called the Balaramabharatam, makes mention of this king as one of his ancestors.
The Periyapuranam account is as follows:
With his capital at the seaport town of Kodungôļur, called also Mahôdai, whose ramparts were the high mountain ranges and whose moat was the deep sea, there reigned a powerful king named Sengôr poraiyan, the overlord of Malai-nadu. In this illustrious family was born prince Perumäkkôdaiyar, also called by the significant title of Kalarirrarivár(one who understood the speech of all living beings) a pious devotee of Siva, who had kept himself
1 காவலர்ம கோதையார் கொடுக்கோளூர்க்கோக் கழறியவை யறிந்தகோச் சிலம்போசைக்கருத் தார், காவலர்சோ னண்பரடிச் சேரனென்றே கவின்று வரும் வண்ணானை நயந்தகோசம், பாவலர் கோப் பாணபத்திரனால் வாய்ந்த பாமர் திரு முகம்வாங்கிப் பணிகோ வெற்பின் மேவியகோ வானைச் goo was Sgor ar WT 6 Cri Carlo. -Tiruttondarpurdqasdram, v. 42. । यइंचचेरनृपतिर्मधुरापुरीश.
पत्राणेन कनकं प्रद रावसंख्यम् । तत्तुन्नवायकुलभक्तजनाय भूयात्
e farem a a: Balaramabharatam. (TAS., IV, 109.) 3 நினைத்தன கொடுக்கவல்லா னிலத்துயிர் கழறுஞ் சொற்க
arr $ 20 $4 DO CONTROL CFFLINY Sr Tirwiļaiyddarpurdnan.