The Shaiva Tirumurais are twelve in number. Main articles: Tevaram, Sambandar, Appar, and Sundarar The principal characteristics of the head-rhyming is influenced both by syllabic and moric prosody. The entire Tirumurai is in viruttam meter or lines of four. Tirumurai in anthology supersedes Sangam literature, which is predominantly secular in nature.

They made a tremendous impression on the people by singing the praise of Shiva in soul-stirring devotional hymns. The Pallava period in the history of the Tamil land is a period of religious revival of Shaivism by the Shaivite Nayanars who by their Bhakti hymns captured the hearts of the people. Tirumurai along with Vedas and Saiva agamas form the basis of Saiva Siddantha philosophy in South India and Sri Lanka. The response for the work was so tremendous among Saiva scholars and Kulothunga Chola II that it was included as the 12th Tirumurai. Sekkizhar's Periya Puranam, composed a century later, contains the life depiction of all the 63 Nayanmars. The contemporary Chola king was impressed by the work of Nambi and included Nambi's work in the eleventh Tirumurai. The eleventh is compiled by Karaikal Ammaiyar, Cheraman Perumal and others. Tiruvasakam and Tirukovayar by Manickavasagar are included as the eighth, nine parts are compiled as the ninth Tirumurai out of which most are unknown, and the tenth as Tirumandiram by Tirumular, the famous Siddhar. During the course of time, a strong necessity was felt by scholars to compile Saiva literature to accommodate other works. Nambiyandar Nambi compiled the first seven volumes by Appar, Sampandhar and Sundarar as Tevaram during the 12th century. Same way, two books titled ‘God lived with them’ and ‘They lived with God’ where the lives of Sanyasi devotees and householder devotees of Ramkrishna Paramhansa are narrated respectively, completes the study of Ramakrishna’s biography and nourishes our soul with hope.Thirumurai ( Tamil: திருமுறை, meaning holy division) is a twelve-volume compendium of songs or hymns in praise of Shiva in the Tamil language from the 6th to the 11th century CE by various poets in Tamil Nadu. Also books like these give us the context of the events we read in the saints biography and help us understand the saint deeper. But it is the experience of the devotees which gives us hope, that even ordinary and rusty ones like us can become pure one day by the grace of saints. The life and philosophy of saints are extraordinary and phenomenal. This is a book where one Sri Ganesan, after meticulous research, has written in English, the biography of 75 devotees of Ramana Maharshi, who actually lived with the Maharshi and gained spiritually. But if you ask me, I will recommend a book titled ‘Ramana Periyapuranam’. If you ask any devotee of Ramana Maharishi to recommend one book to understand Bhagavan they would recommend a book titled ‘Who am I?’. OM SRI GURUPYO NAMAHA RESPECTFUL PRANAMS TO SRI KANCHI MAHA PERIVA

Periya puranam in tamil pdf books