Iyarpagai Nayanar

Iyarpagai Nayanar is the Nayanar whose legend teaches hospitality without limit: he gave his own wife to a devotee who asked — and the devotee proved to be Shiva.

Life/Legend

The hagiography relates that Iyarpagai, a Vellala of Kaveripoompattinam, held the rule that nothing he possessed could be refused to a devotee of Shiva. When a devotee-beggar asked for his wife, he granted her — and walked with the couple to see them home. On the way, the beggar revealed himself as Shiva, restored the wife, and took the household to himself. The tale is the canon’s hardest test of the devotional absolute.

Legacy

The story is told as the measure of the virtue of hospitality (virundhombal) raised to transcendence in the Nayanar teaching.

Verification notes

• Narrative is hagiographic (Periya Puranam); dating traditional.
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).