This song in Raga-Kiravani, is one of the four famous compositions of Tamil Poet Gopalakrishna Bharathi as rendered by his hero Nandanar a Dalit before Lord Nataraja. The story of Nandanar, as Bharati developed it, had considerable resonance with the Nationalist movement in India. Nandanar was an untouchable (dalit), and M. K. Gandhi, among others, saw his story as expressing the plight and aspirations of India's dalits. Others argue that Nandanar, with his burning desire to see Shiva at Chidambaram, captured the mood and paralleled the aspirations of Indian nationalists yearning for independence from Britain.
It seems the story of Nandanar is mentioned in the Sthala Puranam of Chidambaram. He was included as one of the 63 Nayanmar( Devotees of Shiva) and his story is also written in the Periya Puranam , which gives the story of all these 63 saints.
In the Chozha country in a small village called AAthanoor , Nandanar was born in a dalit caste called Pulayan (seventh century?) .He was living as a slave labourer to a Brahmin land lord along with his caste people. Since their caste was engaged in making of drum using animal skin (called Parai in Tamil) , this caste also was referred to as Parayar.
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