Sattainathar temple, Sirkazhi (also called Brahmapureeswarar temple and Thoniappar temple) is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva located in Sirkali, Tamil Nadu, India.The temple is incarnated by the hymns of Thevaram and is classified as Paadal Petra Sthalam. It is an ancient temple complex with three different Shiva shrines in three stories.

The Bhramapureeswarar shrine is housed in the lower level. Brahmapureeswarar is accompanied by Ambal Sthira sundari/Thiripurasundari or Thirunilainayaki in Tamil. The second-level houses Periyanakar with Periyanayaki on a Thoni, hence the name Thoniappar. Sattainathar/Vatukanathar is also housed here. There are 22 water bodies associated with this shrine. Three different forms of Shiva are worshipped here, the Shivalingam (Bhrammapureeswarar), a colossal image of Uma Maheswarar (Toniappar) at the medium level, and Bhairavar (Sattanathar) at the upper level. The temple is associated with the legend of child Sambandar who is believed to have been fed by Parvathi on the banks of the temple tank. The child later went on to compose Tevaram, a Saiva canonic literature on Shiva and became one of the most revered Saiva poets in South India.

Sambandar was a young Saiva poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who lived around the 7th century CE. He is one of the most prominent of the sixty-three Nayanars, Tamil Saiva bhakti saints who lived between the sixth and the tenth centuries CE. Sambandar’s hymns to Shiva were later collected to form the first three volumes of the Tirumurai, the religious canon of Tamil Saiva Siddhanta. He was a contemporary of Appar, another Saiva saint.

Sambandar was born to Sivapada Hrudiyar and his wife Bhagavathiar who lived in Sirkazhi in Tamil Nadu. They were a saivite Brahmins who at that point of time professed Rig veda. The group of servitors wore tuft on top of their head with a tilt towards right, as seen in all murals and statues of sambandar and also finds mention in the related hagiographies of that period and also of the later periods like that of arunagirinathar. According to legend, when Sambandar was three years old his parents took him to the Shiva temple where Shiva and his consort Parvati appeared before the child. The goddess nursed him at her breast. His father saw drops of milk on the child’s mouth and asked who had fed him, whereupon the boy pointed to the sky and responded with the song Todudaya Seviyan – the first verse of the Tevaram. At his investiture with the sacred thread, at the age of seven, he is said to have expounded the Vedas with clarity. Sri Sankaracharya who lived in the subsequent century has also referred to sambandar in one hymn of Soundarya Lahari, praising him as a gifted Tamil child (Tamil sisu) who was fed with milk of divine gnosis by goddess Uma.