Appar Tirunavukkarasar Nayanar ( "King of the Tongue, Lord of Language"), also known as Appar "Father", was a seventh-century Saiva Tamil poet-saint, one of the most prominent of the sixty-three Nayanars. He was an older contemporary of Thirugnana Sambandar. His birth-name was Marulneekkiyar: he was called "father" by Sambandar, hence the name Appar.