**By the grace of Shiva, I offer a few brief accounts of the 63 Nayanmars.**

**30. Ninracheer Nedumara Nayanar**

Sundarar in his work *Thiruthonda Thogai*, praises thus:

*"I am a servitor of the servitors of Ninra Ceer Netu Maara Naayanaar."*

King Nedumaran ruled the Pandyan Empire from the historic city of Madurai. Although he was a powerful and capable leader, he abandoned his ancestral devotion to Lord Shiva to embrace Jainism, a shift that influenced many of his subjects to do the same. This religious transition deeply troubled his wife, Queen Mangayarkkarasiyar, and his Prime Minister, Kulachiraiyar, who both remained secret devotees of Shiva. They eventually invited the child-saint Thirugnana Sambandar to the capital to challenge the prevailing influence of the Jain monks. Nedumaran was soon consumed by an incurable, burning fever and a painful hunch in his back (*he was referred as Koon Pandiyan*), which the monks' rituals only served to worsen.

When he finally allowed Sambandar to treat him. As the saint applied sacred ash and sang hymns to Meenakshi's Groom, the King’s fever vanished and his hunched back miraculously straightened, earning him the name Ninraseer Nedumaran, (m*eaning, The Great One who stands upright*). To solidify this spiritual victory, a series of trials followed, convinced by these miracles, Nedumaran returned to Shaivism and dedicated the rest of his reign to restoring temples and spreading the Bhakti movement.

The devotee who reclaimed his ancestral faith