The Divine Play

The following story comes from the Saivite collection of stories called the Tiruvilaiyadal. Tiruvilaiyadal means divine play or divine games. The Tiruvilaiyadal consists of 64 stories of Lord Shiva’s appearance in the sacred and ancient city of Madurai in Tamilnadu, South India. This particular story is part of the life history of Saint Manickavasagar, who is a nayanar. Like Pusalar’s story this story also involves a saint, a king and God Shiva.

Madurai in its ancient days was the capital of the Pandiyan Kingdom. It was a famed city for its richness in religious culture, Tamil academia, agriculture and commerce. Madurai is also home to one of the biggest temple complexes in India, the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple, which is dedicated to God Shiva and His consort Meenakshi.

Before Manickavasagar nayanar turned his life’s quest to religion and became a saint, he was the Prime Minister (his name was Thiruvadhaoorar then) to the Pandiyan King of Madurai. The King was very fond of Thiruvadhaoorar and was secure in the trust he had for Thiruvadhaoorar. 

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