Sambandar, also referred to as Thirugnana Sambandar (Tamil: சம்பந்தர்), Tirujnanasambanda, Campantar or Ñāṉacampantar, was a Saiva poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who lived sometime in the 7th century CE. He was a child prodigy who lived just 16 years. According to the Tamil Shaiva tradition, he composed an of 16,000 hymns in complex meters, of which 383 (384) hymns with 4,181 stanzas have survived. These narrate an intense loving devotion (bhakti) to the Hindu god Shiva. The surviving compositions of Sambandar are preserved in the first three volumes of the "Tirumurai", and provide a part of the philosophical foundation of Shaiva Siddhanta.