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The Tevaram (Tamil: தேவாரம், Tēvāram), also spelled Thevaram, denotes the first seven volumes of the twelve-volume collection Tirumurai, a Shaiva narrative of epic and Puranic heroes, as well as a hagiographic account of early Shaiva saints set in devotional poetry.[1] The Tevaram volumes contain the works of the three most prominent Shaiva Tamil saints of the 7th and 8th centuries: Sambandar, Appar, and Sundarar.[2][3][4] The three saints were not only involved in portraying their personal devotion to Shiva, but also engaged a community of believers through their songs. Their work is an important source for understanding the Shaiva Bhakti movement in the early medieval South India.[5][6]
In the 10th century, during the reign of Rajaraja I of the Chola dynasty, these saints' hymns were collected and arranged by Nambiyandar Nambi. Starting with the Tevaram along with the rest of Tirumurai and ending with the Periya Puranam, Tamil Shaivism acquired a canonical set of sacred texts on ritual, philosophy, and theology. This marked its coming of age alongside the expansion and consolidation of Chola imperial power in the 11th century CE.[7] Tevaram contains 796 hymns made up of 8,284 stanzas.[8] These hymns continue to be devotionally sung in contemporary times in many Shiva temples of Tamil Nadu.[9]
- ^ Cort 1998, p. 177.
- ^ Ignatius Hirudayam, "Canonical Books of Saivism and Vaishnavism in Tamil and Sanskrit" in Menachery 2010, p. 16 ff.
- ^ Cutler 1987, p. 4
- ^ Zvelebil 1974, p. 92
- ^ Sabaratnam 2001, p. 25
- ^ Schüler 2009, p. 32
- ^ Cort 1998, p. 178
- ^ R. Champakalakshmi 2007, p. 55.
- ^ Sabaratnam 2001, p. 24