Thirumular was a Tamil Shaivite mystic and writer, considered one of the sixty-three Nayanmars and one of the 18 Siddhars. His main work, the Tirumantiram, which consists of over 3000 verses, forms a part of the key text of the Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta, the Tirumurai. There is a interesting story of the birth of Thirumoolar And Rishi Sundaranatha.
According to legend, desiring to meet his old friend Sage
Agastya, Rishi Sundaranatha as he was then known, walked the long journey from
Kailasa to reach Podigai Hills in the Tamil country. He met Sage Agastya here
and had a fruitful journey and got his mission accomplished. On the return journey
to Mount Kailasa he spent time worshipping at various shrines among which was
the sacred temple at Tiruvavaduthurai. The renowned temple at Tiruvavaduthurai
stood on the banks of the perennial river Kaveri and after his holy dip, he
entered the temple and prayed to Bhagavan seated there with all delight. As he moved
out of the temple, his eyes fell on a sight, rare for the human eyes to come
across.
He saw several milch cows stand surrounding the dead body of
a man. One was trying to lick him back to life. Two others were affectionately
butting him with their small horns attempting to wake him up. Several others
were virtually in tears and belching out mow...mow, a language not too
difficult to decipher.
He moved closer to the scene, only to find that the
affectionate cows simply refused to find their way without their cowherd. And
it was already the cow-dust hour.
Since his mission was to bring peace in every perturbed
mind, be it human or animal or insect, he thought it was his bounden duty to
bring the dead cowherd back to life all to wipe away the tears of the cows.
As a siddha who had attained ashtama siddhi, he decided to
use one of the eight kinds of occult or supernatural powers achieved by hard
penance and constant practice, called prakamyam (the power to disembody and
enter into other bodies).
As per his decision, he moved to a secluded spot in the
woods, left his own body and entered the body of Moolan, the cowherd. The weeping
cows gamboled in joy at the very sight of the dead man awake. A few minutes ago
they were lowing with grief, but now they lifted their tails and gently moaned
in joy, all their grief gone. The resurrection of Moolan, the cowherd resulted
in the birth of Thirumoolar. Strange was the combination. A siddha’s soul in a cowherd’s
body.