Manikkavacakar

Manikkavacakar was a 3rd-century Tamil saint and poet who wrote <a href="/facts/Thiruvasagam/PHCXunvD">Thiruvasagam</a> and <a href="/facts/Tirukkovaiyar/sA4Se3wf">Thirukkovaiyar</a>, books of <a href="/facts/Shaiva/aVXXNj6v">Shaiva</a> hymns. Tamil scholars and researchers share that he was a minister to the <a href="/facts/Pandya/W0alsFor">Pandya</a> king <a href="/facts/Nedunjeliyan_II/7Vt90oNW">Nedunjeliyan II</a> (3rd Century CE) and lived in <a href="/facts/Madurai/TaUDwHAq">Madurai</a> (or) he was a minister to the Pandya king <a href="/facts/Arikesari_Maravarman/H7N3JALS">Arikesari</a> (6th Century CE ).
He is revered as one of the <a href="/facts/Nalvar/5UXwkMTb">Nalvar</a> ("group of four" in Tamil), a set of four prominent Tamil saints alongside <a href="/facts/Appar/wMz70nLN">Appar</a>, <a href="/facts/Sundarar/LQ7PDJ87">Sundarar</a> and <a href="/facts/Sambandar/oBeExUdt">Sambandar</a>. The other three contributed to the first seven volumes (<a href="/facts/Tevaram/NFTzjNIW">Tevaram</a>) of the twelve-volume Saivite work <a href="/facts/Tirumurai/xCWAj9Cb">Tirumurai</a>, the key devotional text of <a href="/facts/Shaiva_Siddhanta/pNxWuUhy">Shaiva Siddhanta</a>. Manikkavacakar's Thiruvasagam and <a href="/facts/Thirukkovaiyar/sA4Se3wf">Thirukkovaiyar</a> form the eighth volume. These eight volumes are considered to be the Tamil Vedas by the Shaivites, and the four saints are revered as Samaya Kuravar (religious preceptors)
His works are celebrated for their poetic expression of the anguish of being separated from God, and the joy of God-experience,: 48  with ecstatic religious fervour. In his expression of intimacy to God, Manikkavacakar mirrors the sentiments expressed by his fellow <a href="/facts/Bhakti_movement/yASKGhTd">Bhakti period</a> saints referring to the Lord as the "Divine Bridegroom" or the Nityamanavaalar ("Eternal Bridegroom"), with whom he longed to be united in "divine nuptials".

Manikkavacakar open-in-new

Manikkavacakar