SOUTH INDIA, VIJAYANAGARA PERIOD, CIRCA 15TH CENTURY

The Shaiva saint Manikkavacakar likely lived in the 9th century, more than a century after the last of the original Shaiva saints. For this reason, he is not classed among the traditional 63 nayanars, but devotion to this later saint was still fervent nonetheless. The hymns recount that Manikkavacakar was originally a minister to the King Varaguna of Madurai, who tasked him with purchasing a large group of horses for the kingdom's cavalry. Enroute on his mission, the young minister encountered the god Shiva disguised as a sagely guru. Enraptured by his teachings, Manikkavacakar used the money intended for the horses to construct a temple to Shiva at Perunturai. The enraged king expelled the young official from his kingdom, and so Manikkavacakar began his life as a wandering devotee, singing the praises of the lord Shiva in song and poem. The common people of Tamil Nadu, stirred by his devotion to the god, began to revere the wandering believer as part of a new group of saints, and like Sambandar or Chandesha before him, Manikkavacakar was eventually represented in sculpture, almost always shown with the book in one hand and the other in the gesture of teaching. For a similar example in the Madras Museum from the late Vijayanagar period, see V. Dehejia, Slaves of the Lord: The Path of the Tamil Saints, 1988, fig. 36.