Cuntarar

(ninth century)

   Cuntarar, with APPAR and CAMPATAR, is one of the three major poet-saints of the bhakti sect from the Tamil language area of southern India. The bhakti were a reformist sect of ´Saivism, the religion devoted to ´Siva, one of the three great gods of Hinduism. With Appar’s and Campatar’s, Cuntarar’s hymns to ´Siva are included in the sacred text called Tevaram, of which Cuntarar’s hundred extant songs form the last book.Written in a traditional 10-verse lyric form called patikam, Cuntarar’s songs praise ´Siva and his holy temples, the shrines where singing the hymns of the Tevaram became a sacred tradition.

   Cuntarar was reputedly born in the Arcot district of India. He was a member of the priestly Brahmin caste, but married two very low-caste women. The bhakti sect in general called for the social reform of the Brahmin caste system. The sect also emphasized a personal relationship with God and eschewed the priestly rituals of Brahmin Hinduism.

   This personal relationship might not always be completely pleasant. Tradition says that, because of his failure to keep a promise made in the god’s name to one of his wives, Cuntarar was struck blind by ´Siva. This results in some bitter poetry concerning ´Siva’s harsh treatment of the poet. But Cuntarar’s sight was restored, and he writes a great deal about the love of God in personal language (the term bhakti, in fact, means “love of God”). Cuntarar’s songs consistently emphasize the mutual love between human beings and their God, and he shows God’s love for his people as never wavering, even if the people sin. To emphasize this loving relationship, in his poetry Cuntarar sometimes pictures himself as a woman married to ´Siva.He pledges his devotion to God that will last as long as he lives:

   I will think of the day on which

   I should forget you

   as the day of my death,

   the day when the senses fail,

   the day life leaves the body.

   (Peterson, 1989, no. 148)

   Cuntarar is said to have died at the young age of 32, a fact that might explain why his poetic output is only about a third that of the other two Tamil poet-saints, Appar and Campatar.

   Bibliography

   ■ Peterson, Indira Viswanathan. Poems to ´Siva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989.

   ■ Shulman, David Dean, trans. Songs of the Harsh Devotee: The Tevaram of Cuntaramurttinayanar. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania, 1990.