Appar sanctified all these temples by his verses and was also involved in cleaning of the dilapidated temples called uzhavaarappani. This was also the period of resurrection of the smaller Shiva temples. He was also involved in converting the Pallava king, Mahendravarman to Saivism. Lord gave the name 'ThiruNaavukkuArasar'. He prayed for relief at the Siva temple where his sister served and was cured by Lord. "Seeing the transient, ephemeral world he decided to probe into truth through renunciation." After a while, afflicted by a painful illness, Dharmasena returned home. Appar had travelled to nearby Patalipura to join a Jain monastery where he was given the name Dharmasena. Details of Appar's life are found in his own hymns and in Sekkizhar's Periya Puranam (the last book of the Tirumurai). He went away from home and stayed in their monastery and was renamed Darmasena. During boyhood, Appar was very much interested in Jainism and started studying its scriptures. She decided to lead an ascetic life and bring up her only brother. When his sister was about to end her life, he pleaded with her not to leave him alone in the world. His sister, Thilagavathiar was betrothed to a military commander who died in action. Īppar's (aka Tirunavukkarasar) was born in the middle of the 7th century in Tiruvamur, Tamil Nadu, his childhood name for Marulneekiar. His verses were set to tune by ThiruNeelaKanda Yaazhpaanar, who is set to have accompanied the musician on his yal or lute. ThiruGnaanaSambanthar merged with Lord around the age of 16 in 655 CE on the day of his marriage. The first volumes of the Tirumurai contain three hundred and eighty-four poems of Sambanthar (in 4181 stanzas), all that survive out of a reputed more than 10,000 hymns. A Sanskrit hagiography called Brahmapureesa Charitam is now lost. Information about Sambandhar comes mainly from the Periya Puranam, the eleventh-century Tamil book on the Nayanars that forms the last volume of the Tirumurai, along with the earlier Tiruttondartokai, poetry by Cuntarar and Nambiyandar Nambi's Tiru Tondar Tiruvandadi. On the request of queen of Pandya Nadu, ThiruGnaanaSambanthar went on pilgrimage to south, defeated Jains in debate, the Jains' provocation of Sambandar by burning his house and challenging him to debate, and ThiruGnaanaSambanthar 's eventual victory over them He was a contemporary of Appar, another Saiva saint.
ThiruGnaanaSambanthar is a 7th-century Holy Guru Paramaachariyaar(The great Teacher) born in SeeKaazhi, now wrongly called as Sirkali in Brahmin community and was believed to be breastfed by the goddess Parvathi, whereupon he sang the first hymn.