Kotpuli

Kotpuli is one of the sixty-three Nayanar saints of Tamil Shaivism, remembered as an army commander in Chola service from Nattiyattankudi in the Kaveri country. His legend is among the harshest in Sekkilar’s Periya Puranam, and the tradition tells it without apology.

The story

Kotpuli’s standing practice was to devote his earnings to Shiva, storing up paddy set apart for the temples and the feeding of devotees. Called away on campaign, he left the grain in the keeping of his household. A famine came, and his kinsfolk ate the consecrated store. When the commander returned and learned what had been consumed, he put the offenders of his own family to the sword, holding that grain given to Shiva had ceased to be food for any mortal use. For this terrible fidelity to the trust, the tradition counts him a saint.

In the canon

Kotpuli belongs to the generation of Sundarar, who knew him and names him in the Tevaram; the hymnist’s verses associate him with Nattiyattankudi, where a temple tradition preserves his memory. His chapter, like those of Kalikamba and Seruthunai, is hagiography at its most severe — the claim, pressed to the limit, that what belongs to the god is untouchable, whatever famine says and whoever the taker may be.