The history of Viranminda Nayanar (One of 63 devotees of Lord Siva)

Worshipping the Lord nicely decorated with the bow pinakam and the arrow pashuspatastram , the axe, the fire, the disc Sudarshana , the mace, the sword and crores of powerful arms, the valiant sage Parisurama who got the magnificent axe parashu as blessing for that, made the land very well known for its beauty - the land of mountains, the land of elephants of mammoth ivory, the land that worships Mahadeva - the kingdom of chera . There is this beautiful place called chenkunrur (now known as thiruchchenkoodu), the place where the Lord stands in the superior male-female (ardanar Ishwarar) form enjoying the sandal smell of the forests.

To illuminate the life of the traditional farmers of that town, viranmindar was born there in an agricultural family. Holding tight only the feet of the fire like God that are beyond the reach of words, he was dared to root out any bond that was an obstacle. Caring much for the true devotees. Superior is his fame who minds only the Merciful Lord. Praying the abodes of the Almighty who makes abode in the hearts of such devotees and saluting the slaves of the Lord before they could salute him, he travelled through many parts of the land and finally arrived at the town thiruvarur where the Lord rides the minds of the huge devotees also the big chariot in that town. He immersed himself in that beautiful shiva for whom the vedas became the chariot.

In the thiruvarur there was a hall called dhevaciriyam , where the great slaves of the blue throated Lord assemble and praise the simple and sweet Shiva. Blessed are those who had the golden opportunity to see them, hear them follow them and serve them! What else one requires to get liberation other than moving with those great bunch of fragrant followers !! Viranmindar prostrated to that people in the right path towards the Truth and stayed with them. One day when chundharar who considers himself as the servant of the servant of the servant of the Shankara went straight into the altar of the temple without saluting the devotees in the dhevachiriyam hall. Actually he was praying the Lord when can he get blessed by saluting those marvellous devotees. viranmindar who noticed sundharar proceeding without prostrating to the crowd of devotees said angrily, "That sundharan who didn't know to pay respect to the devotees is no longer one in us." "The Lord who blesses him who proceeds without saluting the servant also is not one among us", he continued out of his extreme respect for devotees. The Lord who accepts even the scoldings of the devotees as the praises done with the best-coined words enjoyed this love and angry words as well and blessed viranmindar. He gave the first line to Sundharar to sing the greatness of devotees. Sundharar composed that as the great gem thiruththondaththokai which is the basic source for this Skanda purana . What else can be more fame than saying that viranmindar was the principle person who was instrumental in getting the excellent thiruththondath thokai from Sundharar Living long in this world which is meant for love and worship, upholding the respect of the devotees, that great devotee viranmindar stayed in a right way under the graceful feet of the Lord heading the army of the God. Let the emphasis that is clearly given by viranminda nayanar for the respect one should give to the reverend devotees of the Lord stay in the mind.