The Shaiva world is indebted to Tirunaraiyur Nambiyandar Nambi for not only discovering the wonderful and incomparable Devaram hymns of Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar but also for detailing the history of the 63 Nayanmar Puranams mentioned in Sundarar's Tirutondar Puranam.

Nambiyandar Nambi has also composed many songs in the eleventh Tirumurai. He was born in an Adishaiva family and served as a priest at the Mukkannan temple in Tirunaraiyur. After his sacred thread ceremony (upanayana), he started learning the Vedas along with its auxiliaries.

One day Nambi’s father had to go out of town, so he entrusted the daily worship at the Polla Pillaiyar temple in that town with Nambi. The little child performed the rituals as he had learned. He finally placed the offerings (naivediya) in front of Ganapati. He did not know that his father usually placed the naivedya in front of the Lord symbolically and took it back.

The small child waited for Ganapati to eat the neivedya. Since the Lord did not eat it, he started crying thinking that he had made some mistake in the worship. He decided that if the Lord did not accept the food offering, he would take his life by breaking his head. The young child's unadulterated and sincere love melted the Lord's heart. Ganapati appeared and not only stopped the child from breaking his head but also ate all the food the child brought. As he was already late for school that day, he prayed to the Lord to teach him the lessons that had taken place in the school that day and save him from the teacher’s ire. This blessed child was taught the lesson by the Wisest Elephant god whom everyone worships to obtain the wisdom required to worship the unfathomable Lord Shiva!!

It happened the next day too and continued for a while. News spread like the fragrance of a jasmine flower. It reached the Chola Monarch Rajarajan. He came to Tirunaraiyur in a grand procession accompanied by ministers, courtiers and people, with offerings of bananas, honey, pound rice, appam (sweetmeat) and sesame balls for the Lord. In that festive town, the emperor paid obeisance to the young ascetic Nambiyandar Nambi, and asked him to offer the piles of bananas, mangoes and jackfruits along with other offerings to Lord Ganapati. The young child worshipped the Lord with purity and love. Ganapati accepted all those heaps of offerings with a single swipe of His trunk!

The astonished king lauded the child and out of his wonderful love for the Supreme Lord requested Nambi to help retrieve the Devaram hymns sung by the three great Shaivite Saints (Sambandhar, Appar and Sundarar). With full trust in Ganapati, the child promised to fulfil the request of the king. With tears of devotion, the child worshiped Lord Ganesha. To bring joy to Rajarajan and to revive the Devaram-s, the ever-compassionate Ganapati revealed that palm leaves with the Devara Tirupathikams were kept in a chamber behind the Nataraja at Chidambaram (Tillai). Lord Ganesha also told them how to identify the spot of the chamber. Lord Ganesha indicated through Nambi that  16000 hymns were sung by Tirunnasambandar, 49000 hymns by Tirunavukarasar and 39000 hymns by Sundarar.

When Nambi and the emperor went to Tillai and opened the particular chamber, they were shocked to find that most of the priceless songs had been devoured by termites!! The Lord's voice comforted them by saying, "Only those Devaram hymns needed for these times have been spared while the rest were eaten off by termites”. All they could recover was less than 10 percent of the full set of compositions. Texts written on perishable palm leaves were thus lost to us due to the lack of preservation. To prevent any further loss, the king arranged to engrave the songs, that were not destroyed by termites, on copper plates. The entire Shaiva world is forever indebted to these two great devotees for the preservation of the divine hymns.

At the king's request, Nambiyandar Nambi then compiled a Shaiva corpus of these Devaram-s along with other great works like Tiruvasakam, Tiruvisaippa and Tirumantiram as ten Tirumurai-s. Later, at the request of Rajarajan, Tirumukhapasuram and a few others were compiled into a collection, making it the eleventh Tirumurai. During the era of the Chozha king Kuloththunga II (Anapaaya), Tiruthonda Purana was compiled and added to the Tirumurai corpus as the twelfth Tirumurai. Through a descendent of Tirunilakanta Yazhpanar, the pann (melodic mode) of the Devara Pathikam-s were restored. With the blessings of Lord Ganapati, Nambi was able to grasp and narrate the summary of the lives of the 63 great devotees, mentioned by Sundarar, in his Tirutondar Tiruvantadi. He also chronicled the lives of Sambandhar and Appar through his prabandha compositions. Nambiyandar Nambi lived in the 10-11th century.

The following are Nambiyandar Nambi's works:

• Thirunaraiyur Vinayakar Irattai Mani Malai
• Koyil Thiruppanniyar Viruththam
• Thiruththondar Thiruvandhadhi
• Aludaiya Pillaiyar Thiruvandhadhi
• Aludaiya Pillaiyar Thiruchchanbai Viruththam
• Aludaiya Pillaiyar Thirumummanik Kovai
• Aludaiya Pillaiyar Thiruvulamalai
• Aludaiya Pillaiyar Thirukkalambakam
• Aludaiya Pillaiyar Thiruththokai
• Thirunavukkarachu Dhevar Thiruvekadhacha Malai

Har Har Mahadev

See Also:
1. Padhinoran  Thirumurai 
2. Sambandhar, Appar, Sundarar & other Nayanmars
3. Thirumurai Kanda Chozan
4. Thirumurai Kanda Puranam