Tirunavukkarashu

(7th c.) This was the given name of the
Nayanar poet-saint most commonly
referred to as Appar (“father”). Appar
was one of the earliest of the Nayanars, a
group of sixty-three southern Indian
poet-saints who were devotees (bhakta)
of the god Shiva and who lived in southern India in the seventh and eighth centuries. Along with their contemporaries
the Alvars, who were devotees of
Vishnu, the Nayanars spearheaded the
revitalization of Hindu religion through
their passionate devotion (bhakti) to a
personal god, conveyed through hymns
sung in the Tamil language.