The word Thirumurai literally means the sacred book. It is a compendium of songs or hymns in the praise of Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 in the Tamil language

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

. In South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

, Shaivites have the Thirumurai as their religious text

History and background

The Pallava

Pallava

The Pallava dynasty was a Tamil dynasty which ruled the northern Tamil Nadu region and the southern Andhra Pradesh region with their capital at Kanchipuram...

 period in the history of the Tamil land

History of Tamil Nadu

The region of Tamil Nadu in modern India has been under continuous human habitation since prehistoric times, and the history of Tamil Nadu and the civilization of the Tamil people are among the oldest in the world. Throughout its history, spanning the early Paleolithic age to modern times, this...

 is a period of religious revival of Saivism by the Shaivite

Shaivism

Shaivism is one of the four major sects of Hinduism, the others being Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism. Followers of Shaivism, called "Shaivas," and also "Saivas" or "Saivites," revere Shiva as the Supreme Being. Shaivas believe that Shiva is All and in all, the creator, preserver, destroyer,...

 Nayanar

Nayanar

Nayanar can refer to:*Nayanars, Shaivite saints from Tamil Nadu, India.*Nayanar , an honorific title used by certain clans of Nair caste from the north Malabar region of Kerala, India.*Nayanar, title used by Isai Vellalar of Tamil Nadu...

s who by their Bhakti

Bhakti

In Hinduism Bhakti is religious devotion in the form of active involvement of a devotee in worship of the divine.Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Svayam Bhagavan.Bhakti can be used of either...

 hymns captured the hearts of the people. They made a tremendous impression on the people by singing the praise of Lord Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 in soul-stirring devotional hymns.

Brief Overview

Thirumurai: the twelve volumes of Tamil Shaivite hymns of the sixty-three Nayanars Nayanars The Nayanars or Nayanmars were Shaivite devotional poets of Tamil Nadu, active between the fifth and the tenth centuries CE...
1, 2, 3. Thevaram Thevaram Thevaram is a panchayat town in Theni district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.Thevaram located in the border of Kerala separated by western ghats-Demographics:...	Sambandar (Thirugnana Sambandhar)
4, 5, 6. Thevaram Thevaram Thevaram is a panchayat town in Theni district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.Thevaram located in the border of Kerala separated by western ghats-Demographics:...	Appar Thirunavukkarasar Tirunavukkarasar , , also known as Appar was a seventh century Saivite poet-saint of Tamil Nadu, one of the most prominent of the sixty-three Nayanars. He was an older contemporary of Sambandar...
7. Thevaram Thevaram Thevaram is a panchayat town in Theni district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.Thevaram located in the border of Kerala separated by western ghats-Demographics:...	Sundarar
8. Thiruvasakam and Thirukkovaiyar	Manikkavacakar
9. Thiruvisaippa & Thiruppallaandu	Thirumalikaittever Centanar Karuvurttevar Nampikatava nampi Kantaratittar Venattatikal Tiruvaliyamutanar Purutottama nampi Cetirayar
10. Thirumandhiram Thirumandhiram The Tirumantiram , is a Tamil poetic work written in the 5th CE by Tirumular and is the tenth of the twelve volumes of the Tirumurai, the key texts of Tamil Saivism. It is the first known Tamil work to use the term Shaiva Siddhanta and the earliest known exposition of the Saiva Agamas in Tamil...	Thirumoolar Thirumoolar Tirumular was a Tamil Shaivite mystic and writer, considered one of the sixty-three Nayanars and one of the 18 Siddhars...
11. Prabandham	Karaikkal Ammaiyar Ceraman Perumal Nayanar Pattinattu p-pillaiyar Nakkiratevar Nayanar Kapilateva Nayanar Thiruvalavaiyudaiyar Nampiyantarnampi IyyadigalkatavarkonNayanar Kalladateva Nayanar Paranateva Nayanar Ellamperuman Adigal Athiravadigal
12. Periya Puranam Periya Puranam Periya Puranam , that is, the great purana or epic, sometimes also called Tiruttontarpuranam is a Tamil poetic account depicting the legendary lives of the sixty-three Nayanars, the canonical poets of Tamil Shaivism. It was compiled during the 12th century by Sekkizhar...	Sekkizhar Sekkizhar Sekkizhar was a poet and scholar of Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta, a Saiva saint contemporary with the reign of Kulothunga Chola II. He compiled and wrote the Periya Puranam , 4253 verses long,recounting the life stories of the sixty-three Shaiva Nayanars, the poets of Shiva who composed the liturgical...

The Shaiva Tirumurais are twelve in number. The first seven Tirumurais are the hymns of the three great Shaivite saints, Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar. These hymns were the best musical compositions of their age.

• The first three Tirumurais are the extempore compositions of Sambandar

• The fourth, the fifth and the sixth Tirumurais are those of Appar

• The seventh Tirumurai consists of saint Sundarar's hymns

• The eighth Tirumurai consists of saint Manikkavasagar
  Manikkavasagar
  Manikkavacakar was a Tamil poet who wrote Tiruvacakam, a book of Shaiva hymns. Manikkavacakar was one of the poets of the Hindu bhakti revival: his work forms one volume of the Tirumurai, the key religious text of Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta. A minister to the Pandya king Varagunavarman II , he lived...
  
  's hymns

• The ninth Tirumurai has been composed by Tirumalikaittever, Sundarar, Karuvurttevar, Nampikatava Nampi, Kantaratittar, Venattatikal, Tiruvaliyamutanar, Purutottama Nampi and Cetirayar

• The tenth Tirumurai has been composed by Tirumular

• The eleventh Tirumurai has been composed by Karaikkal Ammeiyar
  Karaikkal Ammeiyar
  Karaikkal Ammaiyar , one of the three women amongst the sixty three Nayanmars, is one of the greatest figures of early Tamil literature. Her birth name was Punithavati. She was born at Karaikkal, South India, and probably lived during the 6th century...
  
  , Ceraman Perumal, Pattinattu p-pillaiyar, Nakkiratevar, Kapilateva, Tiruvalavaiyudaiyar, Nampiyantarnampi
  Nambiyandar Nambi
  Tirunarayur Nambiyandar Nambi was an eleventh-century Shaiva scholar of Tamil Nadu in South India who compiled the hymns of Sampantar, Appar and Sundarar and was himself one of the authors of the eleventh volume of the canon of the Tamil liturgical poetry of Shiva, the Tirumurai.Nambiyandar was...
  
  , Iyyadigal katavarkon, Kalladateva, Paranateva, Ellamperuman Adigal and Athirava Adigal

• The twelfth Tirumurai has been composed by Sekkizhar