The History of the Holy Servants of the Lord Siva

About the Book

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This work is a translation into modern English prose of the classical Tamil epic poem known as the Periya Purāṇam ("The Great History"), or the Tirut Toṇṭar Purāṇam ("The History of the Holy Servants", sc. of the Lord Siva). The original was composed in the second quarter of the twelfth century CE by Cēkkiḻār, a minister at the court of Kulottunga II, the reigning king of the Cōḻa dynasty in South India.

The epic contains the life stories of the sixty three Saivite saints, known as "Nāyaṉmār", most of whom lived during the sixth to eighth centuries CE. Their stories illustrate with great colour and vividness the lengths to which they were led by their fervent devotion to Siva. They were responsible for the conversion of the Tamil people from the prevailing Jain and Buddhist religions to Saivism. The struggle with those "alien faiths" forms the background to many of the most striking events recorded in the epic.

Of the sixty three Nāyaṉmār, the three saints whose lives are recorded at greatest length are Appar, Cuntarar and Campantar. These three composed the devotional hymns which form the collection of bhakti poetry known as the Tēvāram, which is used in worship in temples and private homes throughout the Tamil-speaking world to this day. Both the Periya Purāṇam, which recounts the lives of the authors of those hymns, and the Tēvāram collection are included in the canon of books held sacred by the Tamil Saivite community.

This Tamil bhakti literature constitutes the first Indian religious literature in a language other than Sanskrit. The Periya Purāṇam is a fundamental text for the study and understanding of this living tradition of spirituality. It has been described as "the national epic of the Tamils".

About the Author

Alastair Robin McGlashan is an Anglican priest, a Jungian analyst and student of Tamil. After studying classics at Oxford and theology at Cambridge, he taught for ten years at a seminary in South India, where he made acquaintance with the Tamil language and with Tamil culture. After his return to the UK, he served as chaplain in a psychiatric hospital, and subsequently worked as a Jungian analyst.

Since retirement, he has taken part in psychotherapy teaching programmes in the UK, Russia, and Poland, and at his former seminary in South India.

Other publications by the author:

Theology (English):

• Conversion — a comparative study Laity Department of the World Council of Churches, Study document no VIII, July 1960
• What the churches teach about the ministry Laity (bulletin of the Laity Department of the World Council of Churches, no 9) July 1960
• Conversion SPCK (Simeon Booklets no. VIII), 1964
• Conservative Evangelicals and the Ecumenical Movement Prism (no 87), July 1964
• A note on Ephesians 1.23 Expository Times, Jan. 1965
• Diakonia and the Diaconate The Churchman (vol. 84, nos. 1, 2) Spring, Summer 1970
• Living in a united church The Church Quarterly (vol. 3, no 3) Jan. 1971

Theology (Tamil):

• Commentary on the Epistles of St John Church of South India Tamil Theological Series, Palayamkottai, 1969
• Introduction to the grammar of New Testament Greek Tamil Theological Book Club, Christian Literature Society, Madras, 1972
• Textual Criticism of the New Testament, article in Companion to the Bible Tamil Theological Book Club, Christian Literature Society, Madras, 1973
• New Testament Introduction, part I (Gospels and Acts) Tamil Theological Book Club, Christian Literature Society, Madras, 1979
• New Testament Introduction, part II (Epistles and Revelation) Tamil Theological Book Club, Christian Literature Society, Madras, 1980

Analytical Psychology:

• Music as a symbolic process Journal of Analytical Psychology (vol. xxxii, no 4) 1987
• Symbolization and Human Development Religious Studies (vol. xxv, no 4) 1989
• Comment on E. Weisstub, "Self as Feminine Principle" Journal of Analytical Psychology (vol. xlii, no 3) 1997
• Cultural differences in the consulting room Indian Journal of Psychological Counselling (vol. 9, no 14) 2000
• The speck and the log - the mechanism of projection in church life Arasaradi Journal of Theological Reflection (vol. xiv, pp. 97-111) 2001
• The individuating supervisor in Wiener, Mizen and Duckham (ed.), Supervising and being supervised London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003
• La musique en tant que processus symbolique Cahiers Jungiens de Psychanalyse (no. 113) March, 2005
• Proces Indyviduacji Supervisora Psychotherapia nr 1(140) (2007)

Tamil studies:

• Amazing grace - the experience of grace in Christian and Hindu bhakti Theology (vol. cv, no 828) Nov/Dec. 2002
• The history of the holy servants of the Lord Siva — a translation of Cēkkiḻār's Periya Purānam Victoria (British Columbia), Trafford Publishing, 2006
• Sacred history, Saivite and Christian Theology
• The Tirutoṇṭar Tiruvantāti of Nampi Āṇṭār Nampi Journal of Indian Philosophy, vol. xxxvii, no 3 (2009)
• The development of a hagiographical tradition Journal of the Institute of Asian Studies, vol. xxi, no. 1 (Sept. 2009)
• The melting heart - religious experience in contemporary Tamil Savism Journal of Contemporary Religion, vo. xxv, no. 2 (May 2010)
• "The garland of limbs", a translation of Appar Tēvāram iv.9 The Long Poem Magazine, no. 4 (Summer 2010)
• The human predicament The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies (forthcoming)
• Violent devotion and depth psychology The Archive for the Psychology of Religion (forthcoming)