Chandesa

A devotee of the Hindu deity Shiva and one of the sixty-three Nayanars, he was a canonical poet-saint of Saivism in ancient and medieval Tamil Nadu. According to the twelfth-century Tamil text, Periyapuranam, he was a staunch follower of Shiva and even attacked his own father to protect the milk pots gathered for the deity. The artistic depiction of him receiving Shiva’s benediction is known as Chandesanugrahamurti. In southern India, particularly in Tamil Nadu, idols of Chandesa bearing an axe are installed in smaller shrines within Shiva temples and he is worshipped as a guardian of the temple and its possessions.