People / group

Nayanars

6th–8th century · 6th century · Also known as Nayanmars

The Nayanars were sixty-three Tamil poet-saints devoted to Shiva, active in south India mainly between the 6th and 8th centuries. The hymns of the greatest of them, Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar, were collected as the Tevaram and form the core of the Tirumurai, the canon of Tamil Shaivism, and their lives were told in the 12th-century Periya Puranam. Their movement drew many away from Jainism and Buddhism.

Nayanars
Image: https://www.google.com/profiles/trshash84 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 2 profiles

Pallava dynastySocioeconomy, ImpactHinduismTexts

Mentioned in 1 state history

First Pandyan Empire

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Nayanars. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/nayanars
MLA
“Nayanars.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/nayanars. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Nayanars.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/nayanars.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Nayanars’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/nayanars (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻