[4] Information about Sambandar comes mainly from the Periya Puranam, the eleventh-century Tamil book on the Nayanars that forms the last volume of the Tirumurai, along with the earlier Tiruttondartokai, poetry by Sundarar and Nambiyandar Nambi's Tiru Tondar Tiruvandadi.

His father saw drops of milk on the child's mouth and asked who had fed him, whereupon the boy pointed to the sky and responded with the song Todudaya Seviyan, the first verse of the Tevaram.

According to Cort, Sambandar clearly explains this through his hymn praising the power of the namah sivaya mantra:[9] It guides to the good path, all those who melt with love, and flow with tears as they chant it.

In effect, states Cort, "the essence of the Veda" displaces the Vedic text itself through the tradition pioneered by Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar.

[12] One of the first anthologies of moovars hymns called the Tevara Arulmuraitirattu is linked to Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta philosophy by grouping ninety-nine verses into 10 categories.

[12] The category headings are God, soul, bond, grace, divine initiation, methodology, enlightenment, bliss, mantra and liberation - correspond to Umapthi's work, Tiruvarutpayan.

[13] The hymns of Sambandar include criticism and allegations of persecution of the Shaiva community by Jain monks, along with a "bitter anti-Jain polemic".

The Buddhists denied the "existence of soul", states Nilakanta Sastri, while the Jains recommended "asceticism and suffering" – a period in Tamil culture where such "pessimism" must have been the ethos.

Thus, the Shaiva poet-saints such as Sambandar and Appar emerged with an optimistic, cheerful celebration of Shiva, soul and life with music and songs.

This evolution is embedded in the mythohistory of Shaiva legends, which accuse Jain monks of scheming and torturing Sambandar, Appar and others, followed by a reversal.

These legends, states Richard Davis, are better studied as symbolic conflict of ideas, a competition for patronage and transformation of Tamil social ethos through a Brahmin-peasant alliance.

[16] The Shaiva literature and songs characterize Jain monks and their ascetic lifestyle as false doctrines with no emotional or spiritual value in this or the next life.

They offer a new vision to the Tamil society and culture where devotion to Shiva temple, community and loving engagement to life is the path to liberation.