Consider the following statements about Nayanars:

1. They are the devotees of Vishnu.

2. Tevaram is the name of the entire anthology of Nayanar hymns.

3. There were no female Nayanar saint poets.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

• Bhakti cult, as a religious movement, opened a new chapter in the history of Tamil Nadu in the early medieval period. A strong wave of Tamil devotionalism swept the country from the sixth through the ninth centuries. The form was in hymns of the Nayanmars and the Alvars. The saints of Saivism and Vaishnavism simplified the use of Tamil language with the application of music. They brought the local and regional ethos into the mainstream. Alvars (totally 12) and Nayanmars (totally 63), came from different strata of Tamil society, such as artisans and cultivators.

• The poet Karaikkal Ammaiyar (Tilakawathi), and the Pandya queen Mangayarkkarasiyar were prominent female Nayanmar saints.

• The prominent Saiva poets include Tirunavukarasar (Appar), Tirugnanasambandar and Sundarar, and Manikkavasagar. Nambi Andar Nambi compiled their hymns into an anthology of eleven books, towards the end of the tenth century. The first seven books, commonly known as Tevaram, contain the hymns of Sambandar (I to III), Appar (books IV to VI) and Sundarar (book VII) and Manikkavasagar (book VIII).

• Sekkilar’s Periyapuranam is the twelfth thirumurai of the Saiva canon. It is a hagiography of the sixty-three Nayanmars but contains an undercurrent of historical information as well. This collection of 12 books is named Panniru Tirumurai. The Periyapuranam relates many stories about Nayanmars and the miraculous episodes in their lives.