home. His sister gave him Tiruneeru (sacred ash) and the five syllable mantra "namaccivaya" (Namah Shivaya). Then they went together to a Shiva temple in Atikai, where he spontaneously composed his first hymn of Tevaram. As he sang the second verse, he was miraculously cured of his stomach illness. Thereafter, he came to be known as Navukkaracar (from Skt: Vagisa, "king of speech") or more popularly just Appar. He had thus left Jainism, and become a devout Shaiva. Appar's hymn are intimately devotional to Shiva, but occasionally include verses where he repents the Jain period of his life. In Tevaram hymn IV.39 and others, he criticizes the Jain monastic practice of not brushing teeth, the lack of body hygiene, their barbaric ascetic practices, the doctrine of pallurai (anekantavada) as self-contradictory relativism, the hypocrisy of running away from the world and work yet begging for food in that same world, and others. Bhakti Appar largely stayed at Atikai with his sister before visiting other Siva temples to sing in praise of Siva. He heard of Thirugnana Sambandar and went to Sirkali to meet him. Thiru GnaanaSambandar respectfully addressed Navukkarasar as Appar (father) and he and Appar travelled together singing hymns. Appar is said to have traveled to about a hundred and twenty-five temples in different cities or villages in Tamil Nadu. He died in Sadhaya Nakshtra in the Tamil month of Chithirai at Tiru Pukalur Siva temple at the age of 81. Appar's Tevaram The Tamil Shaiva tradition believes that Appar extolled Siva in 4,900 hymns (49,000 stanzas). Of these 313 hymns (3,130 stanzas) have survived, later compiled in the fourth, fifth and sixth volumes of the Tirumurai, the Tamil poetic canon of Shaiva Siddhanta. The compilation of these books is generally ascribed to Nambiyandar Nambi (10th century CE). Some of Appar's hymns set to various Panns, the melodic modes of Ancient Tamil music – the rest are set to Tirunerisai and Viruttam metres. In the last four decades of his life, he visited on foot no less than 125 shrines of Shiva, scattered over a territory of a . He was the only one of the four kuravars to visit the shrine at Tirukokarnam on the western coast of India. He sang 312 decads comprising 3,056 stanzas of devotion. All the songs in the Tevaram (called pathikam, Tamil:பதிகம்) are believed to be in sets of ten. The hymns were set