Nayanmar 14 - Moorthy Nayanar

Moorthy  Nayanar (மூர்த்தி நாயனார்)

Birth place : Thiru aalavai (Madurai)

Star           : Aadi Krithigai

In Madurai, Moorthy Nayanar was doing the service of grinding sandal paste for Lord Sundareswarar everyday. At the time, the Pandya king of Madurai was defeated by a king from Karnataka. This Karnataka king was a follower of Jainism. He was against Shaivism and was giving trouble to the Shiva bhakthas in Madurai. He was troubling Moorthy Nayanar by ensuring that he did not get sandalwood to make the paste for the Lord.

This did not stop Moorthy Nayanar. In the absence of sandalwood, he scraped his elbow on the grinding stone offering his skin to the Lord instead. As blood flowed from the elbow, Lord Shiva gave darshan to Moorthy Nayanar asking him what he wanted. Moorthy Nayanar promptly said he wanted sandalwood to serve the Lord everyday as the king had put a stop to this. The Lord granted his wish saying “you take care of the kingdom”

Next day the Karnataka king died and since he did not have any successor as per the usual norms, an elephant was allowed to roam around the town with a garland to choose the King. The elephant garlanded Moorthy Nayanar and made him the King of Madurai. Showing his devotion to his Lord, Moorthy Nayanar accepted only the sacred ash for abhishekam, rudraksha as jewels and the matted hair as the crown to become the King. He requested that all the people of Madurai become Saivaites. He then ruled the kingdom for a long time before attaining the feet of Lord Shiva.