Manikkavacakar was a 3rd-century Tamil saint and poet who wrote Thiruvasagam and Thirukkovaiyar, books of Shaiva hymns. Tamil scholars and researchers share that he was a minister to the Pandya king Nedunjeliyan II and lived in Madurai he was a minister to the Pandya king Arikesari. He is revered as one of the Nalvar, a set of four prominent Tamil saints alongside Appar, Sundarar and Sambandar. The other three contributed to the first seven volumes of the twelve-volume Saivite work Tirumurai, the key devotional text of Shaiva Siddhanta. Manikkavacakar's Thiruvasagam and Thirukkovaiyar form the eighth volume. These eight volumes are considered to be the Tamil Vedas by the Shaivites, and the four saints are revered as Samaya Kuravar His works are celebrated for their poetic expression of the anguish of being separated from God, and the joy of God-experience, with ecstatic religious fervour. In his expression of intimacy to God, Manikkavacakar mirrors the sentiments expressed by his fellow Bhakti period saints referring to the Lord as the "Divine Bridegroom" or the Nityamanavaalar, with whom he longed to be united in "divine nuptials". From Wikipedia (