Sambandar

Sambandar
A copper alloy sculpture of Sambandar with forefinger pointing slightly up (symbolically towards Parvati and Shiva)
Personal
Born	6th–7th century Sirkazhiswaram, Chola Empire (present Sirkazhi, Tamil Nadu, India)
Religion	Hinduism
Organization
Philosophy	Shaivism, Bhakti
Religious career
Literary works	Tevaram
Honors	Nayanar saint, Muvar

Sambandar (Tamil: சம்பந்தர், romanized: Campantar), also referred to as Tirujnana Sambandar (Tamil: திருஞானசம்பந்தர், romanized: Tirujñāṉacampantar), was a Shaiva poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who lived sometime in the 7th century CE.^[1][2] According to the Tamil Shaiva tradition, he composed an oeuvre of 16,000 hymns in complex meters, of which 383 (384) hymns with 4,181 stanzas have survived.^[3] These narrate an intense loving devotion (bhakti) to the Hindu god Shiva. Sambandar died when he was sixteen years of age. The surviving compositions of the poet-saint are preserved in the first three volumes of the Tirumurai, and provide a part of the philosophical foundation of Shaiva Siddhanta.^[2][3]

He is one of the most prominent of the sixty-three Nayanars, Tamil Shaiva bhakti saints who lived between the sixth and the tenth centuries CE. He was a contemporary of Appar, another Shaiva poet-saint.^[4]