Thirumoolar - Historical Facts as we know them

His original name was Sundaranathar. Bogar – 7000 apparently has reference to Thirumoolar’s father and his mother.

He was one of the eight disciples of Nandhidevar (Nandhinatha Sampradaya). The other disciples were Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanananda, Sanatkumara, Vyagrapada, Patanjali and Sivayoga Muni.

Thirumoolar had around 16/64 disciples of his own (differing versions). Some of them are Kaalangi Siddhar, Kanjamalai Siddhar, Mālāngan, Indiran, Coman, Piraman, Uruttiran.

He is considered one of the 18 siddhas in the Tamil Siddha tradition and also considered one of the 63 nayanmaars.

He had come down to Thiruvaduthurai. There are many versions which we come across as to why he came there and what happened from there on. Two of the prominent ones are as follows:

1.     The Periya Puranam Version:

He wanted to visit and stay for some time with his friend and first siddha – Agathiyar and started on a journey from Kailash to Podhigai Hills. He had visited Chidambaram (alongwith Patanjali and Vyagrapada) among other places of interest. There he came across some cows crying because their master Moolan was dead because of a snake bite. He then decided to enter into the body of Moolan (paragayapravesam / Transmigration) to make the cows happy. He first placed his old body inside the bark of a tree and then herded the cows back to their home and was finally confronted by Moolan’s wife. Finally, he left the cows and Moolan’s wife to enter into his old body. However, when he reached there, he could not find the body. Understanding that this was the work of Siva, he then sat under an Arasu tree (Peepal tree / Ficus Religiosa) and went into deep meditation. He used to be in this state for one full year and at the end of each year, he came out of this state and gave out one Aphorism.  Since he has given out 3000 Aphorisms, it is assumed he lived for 3000 years atleast.

2.     Agattiyar Vaittiya Rattina Churukam – 360 Version:

The eldest son of Sveta Maharaja, who ruled over the country of Rajendrapura in the Pandiya kingdom, Virasena was married to Gunavati. One day, while taking a stroll in the garden, he plucked a flower, smelt it and immediately collapsed dead. This was the time when Thirumoolar was flying in the sky. On seeing these events, he decided to enter the body of Virasena (paragayapravesam / transmigration). He then instructed his disciple – Gururaja Rishi to take care of his body which he left in a cave and entered the body of Virasena. As days passed, Gunavati noted this difference and confronted him. Thirumoolar then explained that he entered the body of the Virasena for the sake of the people. Gunavati sent some people to find the body and burn it so that Thirumoolar will not go back. When Thirumoolar found this, he left the palace and started his journey. On his way, he saw the dead body of Jambukesvara (a learned Brahmin of Thiruvannaikaval). He immediately transmigrated to this body and hid the body of the King Virasena in a tree bark (since the tree sheltered the body of the king, it came to be known as Arasa Maram). He then went to deep forest as Kalivana and started composing his Aphorisms.

Since it is almost impossible to verify all the facts simultaneously, we will adopt an approach of editing this page as and when we have additional information / corrections with respect to the facts mentioned here.

We shall also be putting up a Tamil-English dictionary of all the Tamil words appearing in this series of texts for easy reference to all the readers. 

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