Sekkizhar

• Religion — Hinduism • Honors — Guru Puja in Vaigasi (May-June) • Flourished — 1133–1150 CE • Birthplace — Kundrathur, Jayankonda Cholamandalam, Chola Empire (now in Kanchipuram district, Tamil Nadu, India) • Philosophy — Shaivism • Notable Works — Periyapuranam • Native Name — Sēkkilān Mādēvadigal Rāmadēva

Sekkizhār was born into a Vellalar family as Arulmozhithevan, meaning the one of the divine language. He was a native of Kundrathur village (a suburb of present-day Chennai), a sub-division of Puliyur-kottam in Thondaimandalam. Sekkizhār was appointed by Kulothunga Chola II as his Prime Minister on account of his talents. His life is celebrated by Umapati Sivacharya in his fourteenth century work Sekkilhar Nayanar Puranam. Sekkizhār had the title Uttama Chola Pallavan and his brother held the title Tondaiman Pallavaraiyan. Sekkilhar is also called Ganga-kula tilaka (the glory of the Ganga race) and Bagirathi-kula tilaka (the glory of the Bhagiratha race) by Umapati Sivacharya in his work, the Sekkilar Puranam. The Guru Puja festival for Sekkilhar is celebrated annually in the month of Vaigasi-Poosam (May-June).

Kulothunga Chola II, then a young king, was a devotee of Shiva at Chidambaram and continued the reconstruction of the center of Tamil Shaivism that was begun by his ancestors. At the same time, he was very interested in the highly erotic Jain epic Jivaka Chintamani. Sekkilhar, upon noticing this, advised the king to instead turn his attention to the lives of the Shaiva saints as described by Sundarar in his Tiruthondar Thogai. The king thereupon invited Sekkilhar to expound the lives of the Shaiva saints in a great poem. He composed the Periyapuranam or the Great Narrative about the lives of the sixty three Nayanars or saints and would himself sing it in the Thousand Pillared Hall of the Chidambaram temple and arouse the latent Chola Shaiva zeal. According to folklore, when Sekkilhar sat pondering at Chidambaram temple as to how to begin his work, Shiva appeared and said his first verse should be: Kulothunga Chola II was so moved upon hearing the Periyapuranam that he placed the poem and Sekkilhar on the royal elephant and took them out on a grand procession around the streets of Chidambaram, the king himself waved the fly-whisks and showered Sekkilhar with honors. This work is considered the most important initiative of Kulothunga Chola II's reign. Although it is only a literary embellishment of earlier hagiographies of the Shaiva saints, it came to be seen as the epitome of Chola literary style. Among all the hagiographic Puranas in Tamil, the Periyapuranam (or Tiruttondar Puranam) stands first. The Periyapuranam is considered a fifth Veda in the Tamil language and it immediately took its place as the twelfth and the last book in the Shaiva canon.

• Illustration — Sekkilhar Peruman As per an inscription from Srivanjiyam, Sekkilhar was deified and provisions were made for the worship of his idol by a person called Anapaayan. There are temples dedicated to Sekkilhar. These include the Kundrathur Sekkilhar Temple at Kundrathur, Chennai, and the Devakottai Nagara Sivan Kovil (also called the "Sekkilhar Kovil") in the Chettinad region of Sivagangai district in Tamil Nadu, where Saint Sekkilhar is the procession deity.

The Sekkilhar Research Centre conducts research on his epic Periyapuranam and the period, art, culture, civilisation, rituals, socioeconomic conditions, and religion/secularism of the times and place surrounding it.