Sambandar is a word that has a lot of different meanings
(7th c.) One of the first of the Nayanars, a group of sixty-three poet-saints
from southern India who were devotees (bhakta) of the deity Shiva.
The Nayanars, along with their contemporaries the Alvars,
who were worshippers of Vishnu, drove the revival of Hindu religion via their
fervent devotion (bhakti) to a personal deity, as expressed in Tamil hymns.
Sambandar, like his contemporary Appar, was a vocal opponent
of the time's unorthodox sects, particularly the Jains, whom he despises in his
poetry.
The extent of his animosity may be demonstrated in a
well-established tale that, after turning the Pandya dynasty's monarch of
Madurai from Jainism to Shaivism, Sambandar was responsible for the impalement
of eight thousand Jain ascetics.
The Devaram, the most holy of Tamil Shaivite writings, is
comprised of the hymns of the three most prominent Nayanars—Appar, Sambandar,
and Sundaramurtti.
Also see Shaiva.
