the second contains his own contribution, the
Tirutontar Tiruvantathi. This work recounts the
lives and achievements of the 63 saints, offers the
story of his own life and work, and records some
of his own hymns. Finally, Nambi made SEKKILAR’s
PERIYA PURANAM, a larger summary of the lives and
works of the Shaivite saints, the 12th book.
Thus, the Tirumurai is a vast heterogeneous
collection. It spans the centuries from the first
Shaivite saint, the woman Karakkal Ammaiyar (c.
500 C.E.), to Sekkilar in the 12th century. For a
fuller list of the Shaivite saints see NAYANMARS.
Further reading: T. N. Ramachandran, trans., Tirumurai
the Sixth: St. Appar’s Thaandaka Hymns (Dharmapuram:
Dharmapuram Aadheenam, 1995); V. C. Sasivalli, Mys-
ticism of Love in Saiva Tirumurais (Madras: International
Institute of Tamil Studies, 1995); Kamil V. Zvelebil,
Tamil Literature (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975).
Tirupati
Tirupati (also known as Tirumala) is a site in
southern Andhra Pradesh where a TEMPLE to
VISHNU in the form of Venkateshvara stands on top
of a sacred hill. It is one of the major PILGRIMAGE
sites in India and may be India’s richest temple.
People go to see Venkateshvara for practical ends,
with wishes for children, wealth, or success in
education. It is very common for people to have
their head shaved in the town of Tirupati, to
fulfill a vow to the deity, who has been humbly
beseeched.
As many as 30,000 pilgrims a day walk the
long narrow winding roads to the top of Tirumala
hill to the modest-sized temple there. There are
rest houses along the walking route. A bus ride
to the summit takes approximately one hour
from the bottom. The summit is a dramatic 2,100
feet over the city of Tirupati. As are most Vaish-
navite temples Tirupati is known for its delicious
PRASADA, or “grace food,” which is given to all who
visit the Lord. The food is symbolically offered to
God and divinely eaten by him before it is given
to the worshippers to take home. The temple is
known both for allowing non-Hindus into its
inner sanctum and for keeping the eyes of the
image covered—its look is considered too potent
for people to bear.
The temple is located amid the famous seven
hills of the Sheshacalam mountain range, said to
represent the seven hoods of the divine serpent
ADISHESHA, the couch for the recumbent VISHNU
as they float on the MILK OCEAN between eras.
The oldest part of the temple dates to the ninth or
10th century. There is a credible tradition that the
temple was originally a MURUGAN or SHIVA temple
that was converted to Vishnu by the famous
Vaishnava Acharya RAMANUJA in the 12th century.
The temple was enlarged considerably under the
VIJAYANAGARA kings, who took Venkateshvara as
the patron deity of the royal family.Further reading: Nandith Krishna, Balaji, Venkatesh-
wara, Lord of Tirumala-Tirupati—an Introduction (Mum-
bai: Vakils Feffer & Simons, 2000); Velcheru Narayana
Rao and David Shulman, God on the Hill: Temple Poems
from Tirupati (New York: Oxford University Press,
2005).Tiruvacakam
The Tiruvacakam is the celebrated collection of
hymns by the Tamil Shaivite poet-saint MANIK-
KAVACAKAR. Together with the shorter poem Tiruk-
kovaiyar, it forms the eighth book of the Tamil
Shaivite canon TIRUMURAI. Tiruvacakam contains
51 hymns comprising a total of 3,414 lines. The
hymns range in length from eight to 400 lines and
show a significant variety of metrical forms, with
14 subvarieties of meter. The hymns are usually
rhymically recited or sung rather than read.
The work includes some unusual themes.
Some have a woman in the role of devotee to the
Lord, singing songs appropriate for playing games
or doing village chores. One interesting poem is
meant to be sung to awaken the divinity in the
temple in the morning (a common part of IndianK 450 Tirupati