Campatar is one of the three “masters” or “saintlords” of the bhakti religion popular in the Tamilspeaking region of southern India. Bhakti was a
sect of Hinduism particularly devoted to the god
´ Siva and emphasizing personal spiritual experience
above priestly ritual.
With APPAR and CUNTARAR, Campatar is the
author of the Tamil Tevaram (Garland to God), a
collection of hymns for worship that are considered sacred texts by devotees of Siva. The poems ´
are all composed in a traditional musical form
called a patikam (or “decad”), a lyric of generally
10 verses, though occasionally there are 11. The
songs relate to the mythological deeds of Siva, or ´
to sacred places where Siva dwells—most of them ´
refer to specific temples, and tradition says that
the three masters traveled from temple to temple
composing these hymns. They continued to be
sung at shrines devoted to Siva or in private wor- ´
ship. Characteristic of the hymns is their emphasis on a personal relationship with the god.
Campatar’s poems form books I-III of the seven
books of the Tevaram.
We know only legends about Campatar. One
such legend says that the goddess Parvati, consort of Siva, suckled the baby Campatar, and in re- ´
sponse he sang his first hymn. A more likely
tradition says that the Pandya queen Mankaiyarkkaraci sent Campatar into southern India to
save it from the Jainist “heresy.” He is said to have
reconverted the king Arikesari Maravarman to
Saivism (the worship of Siva). The zealous young ´
saint is also reputed to have encouraged the
slaughter of thousands of Jains who would not
be reconverted.
Campatar’s emphasis on the personal relationship with Siva is captured in these lines from a ´
hymn dedicated to the temple in Pulamankai:
Pure gold, first being,
living in grove encircled Pulamankai
he is my own.
(Peterson 1989, no. 18; ll. 3–5)
Bibliography
Peterson, Indira Viswanathan. Poems to Siva: The ´
Hymns of the Tamil Saints. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989.