GROUP 6

Kannappa Nayanar Nagan was the king of hunters at Uduppur in Pottapi Nadu. His wife was Tattai. They were

great devotees of Lord Subramanya. By His grace, they had a child, after a long time. It was very heavy: so,

they named him Tinnanar. Tinnanar was Arjuna in the previous birth, according to Tiru Kalahasthi Puranam.

When he went to worship Siva, to get Pasupatha Astra, and when the Lord came to him as a hunter, Arjuna

did not recognise Him. So, he had to be born as a hunter again and adore the Lord, before attaining Final

Liberation. Tinnanar was educated according to the hunters’ customs. He became a good archer. Even when

he was young, his father retired, and crowned him king. Though he was a hunter and carried on hunting as

his Dharma, Tinnanar was full of love and would not kill young ones, females, diseased animals, etc.

Spiritually, he had already killed the animals within himself, viz., lust, anger, greed, vanity, etc. One day,

Tinnanar went out hunting. A pig escaped from its net and was running away. Tinnanar pursued it

accompanied by two others, Nanan and Kadan. The pig was tired and stood near a tree. It was quickly killed

by Tinnanar. They were tired, too, and thirsty. They proceeded towards the Ponmukali. Tinnanar wanted to

climb the nearby mountain. Nanan, too, volunteered to follow him, saying that on that, the Kalahasthi hill,

there was Lord Kudumithevar (God with a Tuft). Kadan was busy cooking the pork. Even when he began to

climb the hill, there was a definite change coming over Tinnanar, owing to past Samskaras. He felt that a

great burden was being lifted off his shoulders. He was losing bodyconsciousness. As he saw the Lord there,

he felt supreme love surging in his heart. He embraced the Lingam and kissed It. He began to shed tears of

joy. He felt that the Lord was lonely there, and that he should

thenceforth remain with Him. Again, he thought that the Lord might be hungry. Though he was reluctant to

leave the Lord alone, he quickly came down the hill to fetch some food for the Lord. He took the best pieces

of the pork, tasted them and ear-marked the very best for Him. In the mean time, he gathered from Nanan

that the Lord was worshipped daily with water, flowers, etc, before the food was offered to Him. So, he

began to collect the other articles of worship. He filled his own mouth with water from the river. Flowers, he

gathered and wore them on his head! He took the pork, bow and arrow and went up the hill again, alone this

time. At the temple, Tinnanar poured from his mouth, the water that he had brought for His worship. That

was his ‘Abhishekam’. Then he decorated the Lingam with the flowers he had brought on his own head. This

was his ‘Archana’. He then placed the pork before the Lord. He went out and stood guard for Him, at the

entrance, lest some wild animals should hurt Him. In the morning again he went out to hunt and bring fresh

food for the Lord. In the mean time, Nanan and Kadan worried about the change that had come over

Tinnanar (which they thought to be madness). They went and reported the matter to Tinnanar’s parents.

They came and tried, in vain, to take him back. They, too, went away. When Tinnanar left the temple in the

morning to get food for the Lord, Sivagochariar, the temple priest, came there for the usual orthodox

worship. He was horrified at the desecration that some unknown person had done in the temple. He was well

versed in the Agamas (rituals of Siva-worship). He performed the necessary purificatory rites and took bath

again and began his formal worship. He brought water in a holy pot, with a bandage around his own mouth,

lest the breath of his mouth should pollute it. He brought fresh flowers in a holy basket. He brought fruits and

sweets, newly made and unpolluted by anyone tasting it, before the Lord for being offered to Him. He went

home after the worship.

Tinnanar returned with fresh meat. He removed the priest’s decorations, and did the worship in his own way,

and then as usual, stood guard at the entrance. This went on for five days. The priest was greatly upset about

the desecration of the holy place. He appealed to the Lord to stop it. Lord Siva wanted to show to

Sivagochariar the nature of Tinnanar’s supreme devotion. He commanded him in a dream, to hide himself

behind the Lingam, when Tinnanar went to the temple the next day, and watch what took place. On the sixth

day, Tinnanar went out as usual for getting the Lord’s food. While returning, he saw many ill omens, which

made him feel that something had happened to the Lord: he was so unconscious of himself, that he did not

think that something could happen to him. He ran towards the Lord. He was grieved to see blood issuing

from the Lord’s right eye. The articles he had brought for the worship dropped from his hand. He wept

bitterly. He could not find who had done this to the Lord. He treated the eye with herbs he knew of. Still the

bleeding did not stop. A simple idea occurred to him: ‘flesh for flesh’. At once, with his own arrow, he took

out his own right eye, and fixed it over the right eye of the Lord. The bleeding stopped. He was very happy.

When he was dancing in ecstasy, he noticed that the Lord’s left eye had begun to bleed. But, he had already

found out the remedy. There was only one problem: how to locate the eye of the Lord, when his own eye had

been pulled out. So, Tinnanar planted his foot at the place where the Lord’s left eye was on the Lingam, and

began to pull his left eye out, with his arrow. At once, Lord Siva caught hold of his hand and said: ‘My dear

child, Kannappa! Stop plucking your eye.’ The Lord repeated the word Kannappa thrice. Kannappar was thrice

blessed. Tinnanar became Kannappar, because he gave his own eye to the Lord. Lord Siva took him with both

Hands, and kept him on His right side. Kannappar regained his vision and lived as god himself. Sivagochariar

understood the true nature of devotion.

This story has an esoteric meaning, too. Nayanar had conquered all other evils: but, Anava Malam or egoism

had to be killed, too. The wild pig represents this. Supreme Bhakti dawned, the moment this was killed. In its

chase, the seeker is accompanied by good and evil (the two hunters Nanan and Kadan). Nanan (good)

described the glory of the Lord to him: Nanan represents good Samskaras. Kadan (the evil) had to be left

behind. The aspirant with good Samskaras, goes to His Presence. But, when he has to attain God-realisation,

even this has to be renounced. Hence, Nayanar, when he went to worship Him, went alone. Nayanar’s

parents (the hidden good and evil tendencies and worldly desires) tried but failed to take him away from

God. The Lord asked the priest to hide behind Him, while Tinnanar was in front: this means, true Bhakti is far

superior to mere ritual. Tinnanar’s readiness to pluck out his own eyes for His sake is total self-surrender or

Atma-Nivedan, the highest peak of devotion which immediately reveals the Lord in all His glory.