What is "tevaram"

TheThe Tevaram denotes the first seven volumes of the Tirumurai, the twelve-volume collection of Tamil Śaiva devotional poetry. All seven volumes are dedicated to the works of the three most prominent Tamil poets of the 7th century, the Nayanars - Sambandar, Tirunavukkarasar and Sundarar. The singing of Tevaram is continued as a hereditary practise in some Shiva temples in Tamil Nadu.

In the tenth century, during the reign of Raja Raja Chola I, a collection of these songs was found abandoned in the Chidambaram temple, along with other religious literary works, and collated by Nambiyandar Nambi. It is during the Chola dynasty that Tamil Shaivism came of age and Tevaram, with its body of texts on rituals, philosophy and theology, was canonized. The 276 temples revered by these verses are called paadal petra sthalam and another 276 places having Shiva temples that are casually mentioned in the verses are classified as vaipu sthalam. It was Tevaram for Shaivism and Nalayira Divya Prabandam for Vaishanvism. There are 796 of these songs with a total of more than 8200 stanzas. The three poets were not only involved in portraying their personal devotion to Shiva, but also involved a community of believers through their songs. It is one of the important sources of Tamil Bhakti, a movement that inspired the agricultural community.