Periya Puranam

Sekkilar compiled and wrote the Periya Puranam or the Great Purana in Tamil about the life stories of the sixty-three Shaiva Nayanars, poets of the deity Shiva who composed the liturgical poems of the Tirumurai, and was later himself canonised and the work became part of the sacred canon.

[3][full citation needed] In order to wean Kulottunga Chola II from the heretical Chivaka Chintamani, Sekkilar undertook the task of writing the Periyapuranam.

[1][full citation needed] The study of Chivaka Chintamani by Kulottunga Chola II, deeply affected Sekkilar who was very religious in nature.

He exhorted the king to abandon the pursuit of impious erotic literature and turn instead to the life of the Shaiva saints celebrated by Sundaramurti Nayanar and Nambiyandar Nambi.

As a minister of the state Sekkilar had access to the lives of the saints and after he collected the data, he wrote the poem in the Thousand Pillared Hall of the Chidambaram temple.