Iyannar who? Sapta Kanigal who?

[Janar]

Hi everyone!

Last week, my family and I offered prayers in our nearby temple to Iyyanar and the sapta kannigal. I have tried to look up on them in the internet but i could not find much. Anyone knows any legends or stories about them? N if u cld talk about Karuppanasamy i would be interested as well :)

[pavalamani pragasam]

kaaval deiyvangal! All along the highways in Tamil Nadu we can see huge Iyyanar statues riding on the horse, standing at the entrance to the villages keeping guard as believed by the naive, innocent,pious rural people.

[Janar]

Thnx , do u know or anyone else know any Iyannar stories?

[kalnayak]

There is a belief that Iyanar of Tamilnadu is same as that of Ayyapan of Sabarimalai, but Ayyapan got his full life story known to the world. Have you seen the Iyanar, Karuppu and other kaval Deivangal uses Thiruneeru like Saivists (Shiva bhakthas). Since Ayyappan is son of both Shiva and Vishnu (Mohini), he uses the Thirunaamam.

[Malayalathaan]

Yes, Ayyanar is the same as Ayyappan.
If you go to Sabarimalai, Karuppusamy stands as a guard for the pathinettam padi.
There are different forms of karuppusamy, like Sangilli Karuppan who is also worshipped in the Caribbean. He used to be a warlord/robin hood. Basically a lot of them are martyrs.

[Madh@va]

A brief intro on Sapta Kanigal aka Saptamatrikasis is found here (http://www.hinduwebsite.com/numbers.asp)