Manikkavachakar

(9th c.) Tamil poet-saint who was a
devotee (bhakta) of the god Shiva and
the author of the Tiruvachakam (“holy
utterances”). He is considered the fourth
great figure in the Tamil Shaivite tradition, along with the Nayanar poetsaints, Appar, Sambandar, and
Sundaramurtti. Manikkavachakar’s
hymns bear witness to the intensity of
his individual religious experience and
are seen as the culmination of the earlier
devotional (bhakti) tradition. These
hymns are also the basis for the development of the Shaiva Siddhanta philosophical school, making him a pivotal
figure in southern Indian Shaivism. For
further information see Glenn Yocum,
Hymns to the Dancing Siva, 1982.