Thirugnana Sambanthar

Thirugnana Sambanthar was a young Saivite poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who lived around the 7th century CE. Sambandar was born to Sivapada Hrudiyar and his wife Bhagavathiar who lived in Sirgallhi in what is now Tamil Nadu. They were Saivite brahmins. When Sambandar was three years old his parents took him to the Shiva temple. There Shiva and his consort Parvati appeared before the child. His father saw drops of milk on the child's mouth and asked who had fed him, whereupon the boy pointed to the sky and responded with the song Todudaya Seviyan(The lord with earing), the first verse of the Tevaram. At his investiture with the sacred thread, at the age of seven, he is said to have expounded the Vedas with great clarity. Sambandar attained liberation (mukti) in "Visaka Nakshtara" in the Tamil month of "Visakam" at the age of sixteen soon after his marriage.