The Tamil Panar (or , ) were an ancient musical community of the Tamil area in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, attested from the classical Sangam texts onwards through medieval inscriptions. They sang their songs to the accompaniment of the yāl harp. __NOTOC__ In fact medieval inscriptions present evidence for their performing

Sanskrit drama The term Indian classical drama refers to the tradition of dramatic literature and performance in ancient India. The roots of drama in the Indian subcontinent can be traced back to the Rigveda (1200-1500 BCE), which contains a number of hymns in ...

and for singing and training temple dancers in

hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

temples.Palaniappan, S. "Hagiography Versus History: The Tamil Pāṇar in Bhakti-Oriented Hagiographic Texts and Inscriptions"
Hagiography Versus History”
2016. As Palaniappan states therein: "What is interesting about the traditional views regarding the social status of the Pāṇars is that they were not informed by any real data on the Pāṇars actually living in Tamil Nadu during medieval times. Such real data are indeed available to us from Tamil inscriptions, which present a drastically different picture of the social status of the Pāṇars".

Notable personages

Tiru Nilakanta Yazhpanar Tiru Nilakanta Yazhpanar was a Nayanar saint, venerated in the Hindu sect of Shaivism. He is generally counted as the sixty-first in the list of 63 Nayanars. While the first part of his name can be spelt as Tirunilakanta, Tirunilakantha, Tiru Ne ...

(7th century CE) *

Thiruppaan Alvar Tiruppan Alvar () was one of the twelve '' Alvars'' saints of South India, who were poet-saints known for their affiliation to the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism. The verses of the '' Alvars'' are compiled as the ''Naalayira Divya Prabandham' ...

(8–9th century CE)

References

Tamil history Tamil {{India-music-stub

Notable personages

See also

References