The Story of Nakkeerar and Thirumurugatruppadai

Nakkeerar lived in the 9th century AD during the Sangam period. His devotion for Lord shiva and Murugan are depicted in ThiruviLaiyAdal purANam and are enacted as a part of the Meenakshi Sundareswarer Temple festival celebrations at Madurai.

As related in Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam, the Pandiyan king was strolling in the royal garden. As he smells the flowers, he wondered whether women had naturally fragrant hair or whether the fragrance came from the flowers. He announces a prize of 1000 gold coins for anyone who could resolve his doubt.

A poor poet named Tharumi prays to Lord Shiva to make him get the reward. The Lord gives him a poem and asks him to take it to the King.
கொங்குதேர் வாழ்க்கை அஞ்சிறைத் தும்பி
காமம் செப்பாது கண்டது மொழிமோ
பயிலியது கெழீஇய நட்பின் மயிலியல்
செறியெயிற் றரிவை கூந்தலின்
நறியவும் உளவோ நீயறியும் பூவே.

Translated into English ( M. Shanmugam Pillai and David Ludden)
O bee,
with your hidden wings:
you have lived a life in search
of honey.
So tell me truly from what you have seen:
among all the flowers you know,
is there one that smells more sweet
than the hair of this woman,
with her peacock gait,
and close-set teeth,
and ancient
eternal
love?
When this poem is read in the court, Poet Nakkeerar finds fault with it and stops the Pandiyan king from giving the prize. Nakeerar protests that the flaw is in the claim that a woman could have a naturally fragrant hair and asserts that a woman's hair becomes fragrant only when she adorns it with flowers.

Tharumi is upset more by anyone finding fault with the Lord's poems than for being denied the prize. He approaches Lord Shiva who then comes to the court and challenges Nakkeerar. But Nakkeerar remains firm. Though Lord Shiva asks him if the hair of Ganapoongothai, the consort of Lord Kalathinathar, whom Nakkeerar worshipped, did not have a natural scent, the undaunted Nakkeerar asserts that it was so. Shiva opens the eye on his forehead (Netrikkan) to reveal his identity to the poet. Even then, Nakkeerar persists in his statement. As he cannot not bear the scorching heat emanating from the divine eye, he jumps into the water of the Golden Lotus Tank at Madurai. Then he undertakes a pilgrimage to Mount Kailasa. It was on his way to Kailasa that he encounters the demon Ayakrivan who imprisons him in a cave along with 999 other pious men to offer in a sacrifice. Nakkeerar prays to Lord Muruga to save his fellow captives from the impending danger, who kills the demon with his powerful lance and rescues the thousand men. Lord then commands him to compose poems and gives him the starting words 'ulagam uvappa' with which the poet then begins the Thirumurugatruppadai. This is the invocation song in Pathupattu (10 songs), being the first section of the 18 works of Sangam literature edited as Pathinenkeezhkanakku.

The place of captivity is believed to be the cave on the top of Tirupparankundram. Tirumurugatrupadai is included in eleventh Tirumurai, the collection of the sacred Saiva religious poetry.

Reference to Nakkeerar in Thiruppugazh: Kadimamalar, piraviyaana