அமர்நீதி நாயனார்Amaraneedi Nayanar

The Life

Amaraneedi was a rich cloth-and-jewel merchant of Pazhaiyarai who set up a charity shed at Thiruvidaimarudur, freely giving fresh loincloths (kovanam) to Saiva ascetics. Shiva came as a brahmachari carrying two loincloths and left one in the merchant's keeping, then returned demanding its exact replacement by weight after mysteriously making it "lost." Amaraneedi placed a new cloth on the scale, but the ascetic's single loincloth outweighed it; he heaped on more cloths, then silks, then gold, jewels and all his riches, yet the pan would not rise. At last, humbled, he offered himself, his wife and child upon the scale. The balance became a divine chariot, and Shiva, revealing Himself, bore the family to His heavenly abode.