Periya Puranam

The Periya Puranam (“The Great Purana,” 12th century), composed by Sekkizhar under the Chola king Kulottunga II, is the great hagiography of the 63 Nayanars — the Shaiva epic that wove the saints’ lives into scripture and made the Tevaram’s authors biographically present.

Overview

Commissioned by the king (to turn the court from a poet’s erotic classic — the tradition names the civakacintamani? — to the saints’ lives); Sekkizhar, the prime minister, composed the 4,286 verses narrating each Nayanar’s life, organized by birth-order of the saints.

Content and Structure

The lives: Sambandar, Appar, Sundarar, Manikkavacakar among the four greats, then the sixty-three’s full roster (Kannappa the hunter, Nandanar the untouchable, Karaikkal Ammaiyar the ghoul-saint, the kings and the poor); the Thiruthondar Thogai (Sundarar’s hymn-list of the saints) as the organizing spine.

Significance

The Shaiva canon’s twelfth book (the Tirumurai’s last) — the hagiography that historicized Tamil devotion; the model of Indian hagiographic literature (later sant-biographies descend from its form); the temple-frieze programs (the Nayanar images in every Shaiva temple) rest on its narratives.

Verification notes

• The 12th-century composition and Sekkizhar’s authorship are documented; the saints’ lives are hagiographic sources.
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).