Manikkavacakar

The songs of ninth-century Tamil mystic Ma​nikkavacakar are considered the epitome of Southern Saiva bhakti devotional expression and comprise the eighth book (more than a thousand songs) of the Thirumurai, regarded by followers as on par with the Sanskrit Vedas. Today, twelve centuries later, his words live in the hearts and tongues of devotees. Manikkavacakar wrote in Classical Tamil, and largely followed rules laid down in the Tolkaappiyam, a treatise on prosody and grammar composed some eight centuries earlier.