Lord Shiva and the STORY OF KANNAPPA NAYANAR
Kannappa Nayanar was one of the 63 Nayanmars or
holy Saivite saints. He was the staunch devotees of Lord
Shiva in the fifth centuries. He was named as Thinnan
by his parents.
He was born in Uduppoor, near present-day Sri Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh. He is born to the
chieftain of the hunting tribe, Nagan, who did a lot of
penance for his birth. Thinnan was strong from very
young age, hence he was named Thinnan (means
strong in Tamil).
After he grew up to a certain age, he was made as to the
chieftain of the tribe by his father. He was skilled in
archery and martial arts for self defence.
One day he went to the forest for hunting wild boars.
While hunting the boar he entered a beautiful area in
the forest where he found a Shiva Lingam. After
finishing the hunt, he came down to that place where
he saw the Lingam.
He decided to stay back there and
asked his companions to return to the tribe. He felt a
divine connection and an unexplainable bliss. He cooked
the boar and offered to Lord Shiva as prasadam.
Every day he would do the puja in his own way as he
didn’t know the rituals to be done. He would hunt an
animal and offer to the Lord, fill his mouth with water to
give bath to the Lord, pluck flowers and held them in his
hair.
The priest of the temple who used to come every day to
offer puja to the Lingam was surprised to see the meat
in front of the Lingam. First, he thought that some
animal must be doing this. But seeing this again in the
next morning, he was terrified and wanted to know
what was happening there. The priest gets a dream
where Lord Shiva tells him about his ardent devotee
Thinnan, and asks him to hide behind the bush next day
morning to see his true devotion and unconditional love.
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Next morning, as per told by the Lord, he hides behind
the bush.
He was surprised and agitated to see Thinnan
spitting a mouthful of water on the Lingam for
Abhishekam (ritual bath), offering flowers plucked from
his hair and keeping the hunted animal meat in front of
the Lingam. Suddenly, Thinnan saw blood oozing out of
Lord’s left eye. He tried to wipe it off, but it didn’t stop.
Then he went to the forest and got some herbs, made
medicine out of them and applied on Lord’s eye, but still
blood didn’t stop.
The priest was watching all of this
awestricken. Finally, without any thought, Thinnan took
out his arrow and plucked out his left eye and placed it
on top of Lord’s left eye, and the bleeding stopped.
Seeing such devotion, the priest couldn’t believe
himself.
But again the bleeding started from Lord’s right eye. But
now Thinnan knew the remedy so without any delay he
kept one foot at right eye so that he can locate the
place of Lord’s right eye after he plucks out his right
eye.
Almost about to pluck out, Lord interrupted him
and stopped him from plucking his right eye. Lord
appeared before him, blessed him with vision and
named him Kannappa (one who offered eye to the
Lord). The priest then understood that true love and
devotion is beyond all rituals and scriptures. From
then onwards he was considered as one of the 63
Saivite saints as Kannappa Nayanar.
On the southern hill of the Kalahasti Temple, there is
the shrine of Kannabeswara in his memory. It is
believed that Kannappa was the reincarnation of the
Pandava - Arjuna. Arjuna worshipped Lord Shiva for
seeking the Pasupathastra (a divine weapon) and failed
to recognize Shiva when He appeared before Arjuna in
the form of a hunter. Thus, due to this reason, Arjuna
had to be born as Thinnan/ Kannappa, the hunter and
adore the Lord before attaining final liberation.
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