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Legend has it that the Lord himself provided Sekkizhar with the first feet of the first verse as a divine voice from the sky declaring "உலகெலாம்" (ulakelam: All the world). As a minister of the state Sekkizhar had access to the lives of the saints and after he collected the data, he wrote the poem in the Thousand Pillared Hall of the Chidambaram temple. The king thereupon invited Sekkizhar to expound the lives of the Saiva saints in a great poem. He exhorted the king to abandon the pursuit of impious erotic literature and turn instead to the life of the Saiva saints celebrated by Sundaramurti Nayanar and Nambiyandar Nambi. The study of Chivaka Chintamani by Kulottunga Chola II, deeply affected Sekkizhar who was very religious in nature. In order to wean Kulottunga Chola II from the heretical Chivaka Chintamani, Sekkizhar undertook the task of writing the Periyapuranam. In the end he realises the transiency of possessions, renounces his kingship and finally attains Nirvana by prolonged austerity ( tapas). However Kulottunga II was also enchanted by the Jain courtly epic, Chivaka Chinthamani an epic of erotic flavour ( sringara rasa) whose hero, Chivaka, combines heroics and erotics to marry eight damsels and gain a kingdom. He continued the reconstruction of the center of Tamil Saivism that was begun by his ancestors. Kulottunga Chola II, king Anabaya Chola, was a staunch devotee of Lord Siva Natraja at Chidambaram. Sekkizhar was a poet and the chief minister in the court of the Chola King, Kulothunga Chola II.

Among all the hagiographic Puranas in Tamil, Sekkizhar's Tiruttondar Puranam or Periyapuranam, composed during the rule of Kulottunga II (1133–1150 CE) stands first. Sekkizhar compiled and wrote the Periya Puranam or the Great Purana in Tamil about the life stories of the sixty-three Shaiva Nayanars, poets of the God Shiva who composed the liturgical poems of the Tirumurai, and was later himself canonised and the work became part of the sacred canon. It provides evidence of trade with West Asia The Periya Puranam is part of the corpus of Shaiva canonical works. It was compiled during the 12th century by Sekkizhar. The Periya‌ purāṇa‌m ( Tamil: பெரிய‌ புராண‌ம்), that is, the great purana or epic, sometimes called Tiruttontarpuranam ("Tiru-Thondar-Puranam", the Purana of the Holy Devotees), is a Tamil poetic account depicting the lives of the sixty-three Nayanars, the canonical poets of Tamil Shaivism. The twelve volumes of Tamil Śaiva hymns of the sixty-three Nayanars