Sambandar (7th century) was a poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who composed some 16,000 devotional (bhakti) hymns to the Hindu god Shiva. He was one of the sixty-three Nayanars (or Nayanmars; “teachers of Shiva”) in the 6th-8th century. Sambandar was born in Sirkazhi, Tamil Nadu, to Shaivite Brahmin parents. When he was three years old, and had already have mastered the Vedic scriptures, they took him to a Shiva temple where Shiva’s wife Parvati manifested and fed Sambandar milk. When his father asked who had fed him, the child pointed to the sky, the abode of the gods. Sambandar died at the age of sixteen at his wedding.
Sambandar is similar to images of the dancing Krishna as a child. The iconographic difference is that Sambandar points his right forefinger to the sky whereas Krishna holds a ball of butter (see M.87.124). His left arm is extended in the elephant trunk dancing pose (karihasta mudra). Both images are naked, wear ornaments, and perform the charming (lalita) dance posture standing on the right leg with the left leg raised.
A comparable representation, attributed to the 12th century, is in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington (F1976.5).
