41 Facts About Nandanar

Nandanar is generally counted as the eighteenth in the list of 63 Nayanars.

The tale of Nandanar is retold numerous times in folk tales, folk music, plays, films and literature in Tamil society.

Nandanar is said to have ritually purified himself by fire at Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram.

Apart from collective worship Nandanar enjoys being part of the Nayanars in Shiva temples of Tamil Nadu, shrines depicted to Nandanar exist in both the sites of his miracles.

The Periya Puranam narrates that Nandanar belonged to Adhanur in the Chola kingdom.

Nandanar was born in the Pulaiya caste, who were regarded "untouchables".

Nandanar was born in poverty, in Pulaippadi, the Pulai slums of Adhanur.

Nandanar was a staunch devotee of the god Shiva, the patron god of Shaivism.

Nandanar was a leather maker, who crafted drums and other musical instruments.

Nandanar served as a village servant, a watchman, a labourer as well as the "town crier", who used to beat the drums.

So, Nandanar would stand outside a Shiva temple and sing the praises of Shiva and dance.

Nandanar stood outside the temple, but a huge stone Nandi blocked his path of vision.

Nandanar cleaned up the surroundings of the temple and dug a pond in honour of Shiva.

Nandanar visited many temples of Shiva and served the god.

Nandanar used to say everyday that he will go the next day to Chidambaram, but never actually dared to step in the holy town, where he was prohibited entry.

Finally, Nandanar reached the boundary of Chidambaram, but feared to set foot in the town.

Nandanar saw the smoke of fire sacrifices and heard the chants of the Vedic scriptures.

Shiva appeared in his dream and told Nandanar to enter the temple through a holy fire.

Nandanar entered the holy fire chanting the name of Shiva and reappeared in a new purified form.

Nandanar looked like a Brahmin sage, wearing matted hair and the sacred thread worn by Brahmins across his chest.

Bharati's Nandanar is "not a rebel, but only a protester".

The Nandanar Charitam focuses on the atrocities that Nandanar and Dalits as a whole had to suffer at the hands of upper castes.

The opera Nandanar Charitam was embedded with the social message that Shiva grants emancipation irrespective of caste.

The Dalits feel that Nandanar needs to abide by the social norms and give up his taboo idea of entering a temple.

In stories of higher caste Hindus, Nandanar is a Brahmin or God himself somehow trapped in the body of an untouchable and whose true form is revealed by the fire trial.

The temple lore of Tirupunkur narrates that Shiva instructed his son Ganesha to aid Nandanar in digging the temple tank named Nandanar tirtha, after the saint.

Indira Parthasarathy's Nandan Kathai builds the tale of Nandanar further, introducing two non-Brahmin upper caste landholders, who are as ruthless as Bharati's Vediyar.

Nandanar is portrayed as a lover of art, rather than God.

Unlike earlier narratives, Indira's tale is devoid of miracles and is a story of how Nandanar falls prey to a conspiracy.

Finally, in the climax, Nandanar agrees to undergo a fire-trial, reassured by the earlier miracle, but he and Abhirami burn in the flames.

Nandanar is specially worshipped in the Tamil month of Purattasi, when the moon enters the Rohini nakshatra.

Nandanar is depicted with a shaved head, folded hands with a kamandalu and a danda, like a seer.

Nandanar receives collective worship as part of the 63 Nayanars.

In 1959, a shrine was created outside the Shiva temple, from where the stone image of Nandanar looks eternally at Shiva.

Nandanar is depicted with his hands joined above his head, praying to Shiva.

Nandanar's influence was and remains limited primarily to the Tamil-speaking areas.

Sampath, president of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front and an office-bearer politician from the Tamil Nadu unit of Communist Party of India, calls the Chidambaram fire-trail as Brahmin propaganda to conceal the truth that Nandanar was burnt at the stake.

Basu suggests that Nandanar "continues to inspire them as a symbol of resistance and a hope of a better future".

Nandanar's tale is retold numerous times through folk tales, plays, literature and art forms like Villu Paatu and "musical discourses".

Besides a silent film in 1923, another silent film Nandanar, subtitled The Elevation of the Downtrodden, directed by P K Raja Sandow, in 1930.

The first talkie film on Nandanar was made in 1931.