Vaishnava hymnist saints, the Nayanmars and the Alvars, became wedded to the Vedic traditions
The Saiva saint, Manikkavachakar is the first among the Nayanmars to refer to this form
Tirugnana Sambandar and Appar, the 7th-century Tamil Saivite poet Nayanmars, venerated Nelliappar in ten verses in Tevaram, compiled as the First Tirumurai.
In the Tamil land the Saiva and
Vaishnava hymnist saints, the Nayanmars and the Alvars, became wedded to the Vedic traditions
and traversed the whole area visiting shrines, singing hundreds of devotional hymns in Tamil and rousing the people.
The Saiva saint, Manikkavachakar is the first among the Nayanmars to refer to this form
and aspect of Siva' s dance and the small Tiruvalisvaram panel( c. AD 890) is perhaps the first to capture the imagery in stone.
Among the existing specimens in the various museums of the world and in the temples of South India, may be seen many fine figures of Siva in various forms accompanied by his consort Parvati and the other gods, demigods and goddesses of the Saivaite pantheon,
Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi, the Nayanmars, other Saiva saints and many more.