Nambiyandar Nambi

Nambiyandar Nambi (Nambi Andar Nambi), also known as Tirunarayur Nambiyandar Nambi and Nampiyantarnampi, was a 12th century Tamil poet saint and a follower of Shaivism. He was a Shaiva scholar in the ancient Tamil country and compiled the initial 7 volumes with the hymns of Tirunavukkaracar (Appar), Nanacampantar (Campantar) and Cuntarar (Sundarar) as Tevaram. Nambiyandar Nambi himself was one of the poets of the 11th volume of the Tirumurai, the canon of the Tamil devotional poetry on Lord Shiva.

Tirunarayur Nambiyandar Nambi was born in the region of Tirunaraiyur in the family of traditional brahmin priests, known as Adi Shaivites, who worshipped in the temples of Lord Shiva. Rajaraja Chola I, the Chola King, urged Nambiyandar to accumulate the hymns of the 3 great poet saints, namely Tirunavukkaracar, Nanacampantar and Cuntarar. He organised to manage manuscripts on palm leaves of the devotional hymns, although few of the manuscripts were half destroyed and eaten by termites. But still Nambiyandar was capable to recover almost ten percent of the entire compilation of the devotional hymns.

Nambiyandar Nambi also composed a memoir based on the lives of the sixty three Nayanaars (Shaivite devotees) as described by Cuntarar; the Tiruttondar Tiruvandhadhi. His hymns in praise of Campantar and Tirunavukkaracar offer some hagiography of the poet saints.

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