Sambandar | |
|---|---|
 A copper alloy sculpture of Sambandar with forefinger pointing slightly up (symbolically towards Parvati and Shiva) | |
| Personal | |
| Born | |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Organization | |
| Philosophy | Shaivism, Bhakti |
| Religious career | |
| Literary works | Tevaram |
| Honors | Nayanar saint, Muvar |
Sambandar (Tamil: சம்பந்தர், romanized: Campantar), also referred to as Tirujnana Sambandar (Tamil: திருஞானசம்பந்தர், romanized: Tiruñāṉacampantar), was a Shaiva poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who lived sometime in the 7th century CE.[1][2] According to the Tamil Shaiva tradition, he composed an oeuvre of 16,000 hymns in complex meters, of which 383 (384) hymns with 4,181 stanzas have survived.[3] These narrate an intense loving devotion (bhakti) to the Hindu god Shiva. Sambandar died when he was sixteen years of age. The surviving compositions of the poet-saint are preserved in the first three volumes of the Tirumurai, and provide a part of the philosophical foundation of Shaiva Siddhanta.[2][3]
He is one of the most prominent of the sixty-three Nayanars, Tamil Shaiva bhakti saints who lived between the sixth and the tenth centuries CE. He was a contemporary of Appar, another Shaiva poet-saint.[4]
- ^ Peterson 1989, pp. 19–27, 272–273.
- ^ a b Dehejia, Vidya (1987). "Sambandar: a Child-Saint of South India". South Asian Studies. 3 (1). Taylor & Francis: 53–61. doi:10.1080/02666030.1987.9628355.
- ^ a b Zvelebil 1974, p. 95.
- ^ Encyclopaedia of Jainism, Volume 1, page 5468