for this theology, the temple and its rites are not sectarian in a strict sense.
Indeed, the community of Brahmins who perform six daily rituals to Nat.ara ̄ja
claim that they follow vedic practice rather than tantric or a ̄gamic. They thereby
differentiate themselves from the hereditary priests at other S ́aiva Siddha ̄nta
temples, the arccakan.s, who follow the tantric or a ̄gamaic rites of the texts we
have discussed. The Dı ̄ks.itas (Tamil Dı ̄t.citars), as they are called, are an endog-
amous community, who perform rites accompanied by Sma ̄rta Brahmins or
Aiyars who are qualified to perform recitation of the Vedas (Younger 1995:
133–24). These rites are quite elaborate and involve the performance ofpu ̄ja ̄to
a crystal lin.gatransported out from the inner sanctum of the bronze Nat.ara ̄ja to
an outer porch where ablutions are made over it (abhis.eka). It is then returned
to the inner shrine and pu ̄ja ̄to the icon of Nat.ara ̄ja himself is performed, involv-
ing the offering of lights (dı ̄pa), sound, and, at certain times of the day, food
(naivedya). During one of the evening pu ̄ja ̄slow caste singers, the O ̄tuva ̄rs,
sing Tamil devotional hymns before the icon, as they do elsewhere throughout
Tamilnadu.
While Tamil S ́aivism is strongly associated with royal power and the uphold-
ing of orthoprax values, as we can see at Cidambaram, it simultaneously under-
mines those values through its emphasis on popular devotion. We can see this
in the context when a caste of singers, the O ̄tuva ̄rs, sing hymns to the icon of
S ́iva and during the great festival when the icons of Na ̄t.ara ̄ja and his consort are
paraded through the streets by Ve ̄l.a ̄l.as, outside of brahmanical control (Younger
1995: 60–3). In one sense festival transgression of formal boundaries can serve
to reinforce those boundaries but in another sense the carnival disrupts hierar-
chy and in it we can hear voices otherwise occluded. Indeed, it is these other
voices that are articulated in much of the devotional poetry of the Na ̄yan
̄
ars,
which partly developed against the oppression of the lower castes in the feudal-
ism of the southern kingdoms.
The Na ̄yan
̄
ars were often low caste themselves, composing love songs to S ́iva
in his icons at different temples. In the love or bhaktipresented in these Tamil
sources what is important is the direct, unmediated relationship between the
devotee and the Lord in which the devotee can become mad (piccu, un
̄
matta) with
devotion. The texts of the Na ̄yan
̄
ars are incorporated into the canon of the
southern S ́aiva Siddha ̄nta, the Tirumurai, which also contains S ́aiva Siddha ̄nta
S ́a ̄stras in Tamil (Zvelebil 1975; Peterson 1991: 52–9). Among the Na ̄yan
̄
ars
represented, the most famous is Ma ̄n.ikkava ̄cakar dated by tradition to the fifth
century, who composed the “sacred verses” (Tiruva ̄cakam) and whose 20-verse
hymn, the Tiruvempa ̄vai, is still recited in temples today. Ma ̄n.ikkava ̄cakar is the
most revered saint of Tamil S ́aivism. He was a court official in Madurai but
retired to a life of meditation at Cidamabaram where, tradition maintains, he
entered the inner sanctum never to return and merged with his god (Younger
1995: 194–201). Other texts are also recited by the O ̄tuva ̄rs, particularly the
later Te ̄va ̄ram(Peterson 1991). The following is an example from the Na ̄yan
̄
ar
Appar, who expresses a devotional sentiment specific to place, to the particular
temple in which S ́iva dwells:
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