Singing of the Tevaram hymns in Chirrambalam in the Chidambaram temple

For Tamil Saivas, ‘Koyil’ (‘the Temple’) means the temple of Nataraja at Chidambaram whose Tamil name is Chirrambalam meaning 'Little Hall'. (The name Chidambaram resulted most probably from a folk etymological Sanskritic reinterpretation of the earlier name Chirrambalam attested in the Tevaram hymns.) Recently, this temple has been the focus of a law suit filed in Tamil Nadu. The crux of the controversy seems to be whether a person not belonging to the Dikshitar community of priests can sing the hymns from the Tevaram and Tiruvacakam in front of the Nataraja deity in Chirrambalam. According to news reports, the Dikshitar priests of the Chidambaram temple have refused to allow such singing inside Chirrambalam claiming that "only they were entitled to sing the glory of the Lord" from that location. According to Prof. Paul Younger who has studied the Chidambaram temple traditions, the Oduvars have been allowed to sing the Tamil hymns from inside the porch south of Chirrambalam from 1990. (See The Home of Dancing Sivaú, Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 38)

The Dikshitars’ claim is contradicted by the Tamil Saiva text Tirumuraikanda Puranam authored by Umapati Sivachariyar, one of the four primary teachers of Tamil Saiva Siddhanta philosophical system. Interestingly, Umapati Sivachariyar belonged to the Chidambaram Dikshitar community. His 14th century text is the source for the tradition concerning the loss and recovery of the Tevaram hymns at least 10 centuries ago. The most important event germane to the present controversy concerns the setting to music of the Tevaram hymns and their singing in the Chidambaram temple.

According to Tirumuraikanda Puranam (verses 20-34), the Tevaram hymns were recovered from their storage location in Chidambaram temple by Nambiyandar Nambi, a Saiva author who began the canonization of the Tamil Saiva texts. But by the time of the recovery, the traditional musical scales for the hymns had been forgotten. When Nambiyandar Nambi prayed to Siva for the music of the hymns, Siva told Nambi that he had bestowed the music to a female descendant of the saint Nilakanda Yalppanar. Nilakanda Yalppanar hailed from the bardic community known as the Panars and was one of the 63 Saiva saints. (According to Periyapuranam, a Tamil text of the 12th century, Yalppanar provided musical accompaniment to Campantar, one of the three authors of the Tevaram.) Nambiyandar Nambi asked the female bard to set the Tevaram hymns to music. After the hymns were set to music, the reigning Chola king heard a voice from the sky stating that the woman be brought in front of Nataraja, (i.e., Chirrambalam) so that she could sing the hymns in the musical scales she had set. According to Umapati Sivachariyar, this music which was performed in front of the Chola king, Nambiyandar Nambi, the three thousand Dikshitars of Chidambaram, and many Saiva devotees, resulted from Divine Grace for the prosperity of the southern land.

The Tirumuraikanda Puranam thus establishes the following facts.

1. Tevaram hymns can be sung from inside Chirrambalam.

2. Such singing can be done by a person other than the Dikshitars.

3. The Dikshitars and other Saivas have accepted this tradition from at least the 14th century.

 

S. Palaniappan