Sekkizhar

Sekkizhar (Tamil: சேக்கிழார்) was a poet and scholar of Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta, a Saiva saint contemporary with the reign of Kulothunga Chola II. He compiled and wrote the Periya Puranam (Great Purana), 4253 verses long,recounting the life stories of the sixty-three Shaiva Nayanars, the poets of Shiva who composed the liturgical poems of the Tirumurai. Sekkizhar's work itself became part of the sacred canon.

Sekkizhar was born in Kundrathur village in Thondaimandalam. Sekkizhaar was a scholar in both vedas as well as agamas as well as tirumurais. His original name was Ramadevan. He had been functioning as an inmate in a Vaishnavite shrine near Kanchi and at the instance of Lord ambujaksha(Lord vishnu) started working on tirumurais and nayanmars. when he was in chidambaram about to start on periyapuranam, Lord Siva famously instructed him with how to start.

He moved to Chidambaram in order to compose Periyapuranam. Among all the hagiographic Puranas in Tamil, the Periyapuranam (or Tiruttondar Puranam) stands first.

Kulothunga Chola II, then a young king, was a devotee of Lord Siva Natraja at Chidambaram and continued the reconstruction of the center of Tamil Saivism that was begun by his ancestors.

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