Shaiva Siddhanta
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Shaiva Siddhanta (
This tradition is thought to have been once practiced all over India, form the scriptural canon of Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta.
Today, Shaiva Siddhanta has adherents predominantly in South India and Sri Lanka.
Etymology
Monier-Williams gives the meaning of siddhanta as 'any fixed or established or canonical text-book or received scientific treatise on any subject ... as .. Brahma-siddhanta ब्रह्म-सिद्धान्त,... Surya-siddhanta, etc.' The name of the school could be translated as "the settled view of Shaiva doctrine" or "perfected Shaivism."[citation needed]
History
This section needs additional citations for verification. (November 2019) |
Shaiva Siddhanta's original form is uncertain. Some[
Ontological Categories
Shaiva Siddhanta believes in three different categories, which are distinct from each other:[10]
- pati ("Lord"), is Siva himself and cause of emission, maintenance, re-absorption, concealment and grace.
- pasu ("Soul"), is individual Soul, distinct from Siva, but bound because of impurities.
- pasa ("Bond"), the three impurities - anava (darkness), karma (deed) and maya (delusion).
The soul gains experience through its action (rituals), which removes the three impurities, but the liberation is realized only by the grace of Lord Siva.[10]
Four stages
According to Shaiva Siddhanta texts, there are four progressive stages of Siva bhaki for a path to attain moksha:[11]
- dāsamārga, offering service to devotees of Siva in different ways such as cleaning temple, weaving flower garlands for the image of Siva, praising Lord Siva.
- satputramārga, a true son's way, offering personal devotion by preparing pūjā and performing meditation.
- sahamārga, offering devotion by practicing yoga.
- sanmārga, the way of truth and reality and the highest way, offering devotion by knowledge of God, experiencing the bliss of liberation and becoming one with God.
Tamil bhakti
Tirumurai | ||
---|---|---|
The twelve volumes of Tamil Śaiva hymns of the sixty-three Nayanars | ||
Parts | Name | Author |
1,2,3 | Thirukadaikkappu | Sambandar |
4,5,6 | Thevaram | Thirunavukkarasar
|
7 | Thirupaatu | Sundarar |
8 | Thirukkovaiyar |
Manickavasagar
|
9 | Thiruvisaippa &Tiruppallaandu |
Various |
10 | Thirumandhiram |
Thirumular
|
11 | Various | |
12 | Periya Puranam | Sekkizhar
|
Paadal Petra Sthalam | ||
Paadal Petra Sthalam | ||
Rajaraja I | ||
Nambiyandar Nambi |
From the 5th to the 8th century CE Buddhism and Jainism had spread in Tamil Nadu before a forceful Shaiva
The Bhakti movement should not be exaggerated as an articulation of a 'class struggle'; there is nevertheless a strong sense against rigid structures in the society.[13]
Tamil exclusivist reform Saiva Siddhanta:
The exclusive Tamil reformist Saiva Siddhanta are people living in a community faced with strong nationalist ideas. In that way their beliefs in a religious way and their beliefs in a political way were mostly intertwined. Maraimalai Adigal and his religious belief in the Saiva Siddhanta, for example, were heavily influenced by the Tamil Nationalism and especially by the party of the Shivaistic Revivalist, which he and his mentor had a part in creating. In Adigals belief system you can see how the Saiva Siddhanta that he relies his core beliefs on is mixed with his and the Revivalists core political to a very an individual tamilic Saiva Siddhanta Tradition. For example, though the Saiva Siddhanta in itself is not anti-Brahmanic Adigal develop it into having that tendency. That way his religious teaching in the Saiva Siddhanta strengthens his pro-Tamil and pro-shivaism attitude. It helps him and the Revivalists to establish their idea of the "pure Tamil", by becoming a religious tradition not reliant on any ties to older traditions by becoming itself the oldest tradition.[14]
Denominations
Adi Shaiva Siddhanta:
In the 12th century, Aghorasiva, the head of a branch monastery of the Amardaka order in Chidambaram, took up the task of formulating Shaiva Siddhanta. Strongly refuting monist interpretations of Siddhanta, Aghorasiva brought a change in the understanding of Siva by reclassifying the first five principles, or tattvas (Nada, Bindu, Sadasiva, Isvara and Suddhavidya), into the category of pasa (bonds), stating they were effects of a cause and inherently unconscious substances, a departure from the traditional teaching in which these five were part of the divine nature of God.
Aghorasiva was successful in preserving the rituals of the ancient Āgamic tradition. To this day, Aghorasiva's Siddhanta philosophy is followed by almost all of the hereditary temple priests (Sivacharya), and his texts on the Āgamas have become the standard puja manuals. His Kriyakramadyotika is a vast work covering nearly all aspects of Shaiva Siddhanta ritual, including the daily worship of Siva, occasional rituals, initiation rites, funerary rites, and festivals. This Aghora Paddhati of Shaiva Siddhanta is followed by the ancient gruhasta Adi Shaiva Maths of Kongu Nadu[15] and the temple Sthanika Sivacharya priests of south India.
Meykandar Sampradaya:
In Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta, the 13th century Meykandar, Arulnandi Sivacharya, and Umapati Sivacharya further spread Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta. Meykandar's twelve-verse Śivajñānabodham and subsequent works by other writers, all supposedly of the 13th and 14th centuries, laid the foundation of the Meykandar Sampradaya (lineage), which propounds a pluralistic realism wherein God, souls and world are coexistent and without beginning. Siva is an efficient but not material cause. They view the soul's merging in Siva as salt in water, an eternal oneness that is also twoness. This later Sampradaya is followed by the 18 cardinal non Adi Shaiva sanyasi Adheenam Maths in Chola, Pandya, Nadu and Tondai Nadus.
Tamil exclusivist reform Saiva Siddhanta:
This colonial new age movement was initiated by the Tamil purist nationalist Maraimalai Adigal. This school is followed by modern Maths dating from the colonial age likes of the Perur Adheenam (Circa 1895 initiate of the then Arasu Palli caste headed Mayilam Bommapuram Lingayat Adheenam) of Coimbatore which holds Lingayatism as the 'primeval' form of Shaiva Siddhantism . This modern sampradaya aims to 'rid' Shaiva Siddhantism of the two former earlier traditions which follow the Vedic and Agamic texts and Adi Shaivas thereby 'purifying' Saiva Siddhanta with the Dravidian movement related Tamil Nationalist undertones.
Modern Shaiva Siddhanta:
Post colonial and contemporary movements like that of Bodhinatha Veylanswami's Shaiva Siddhanta Church have stressed upon reforming orthodox Shaiva Siddhanta of the pre-colonial era by initiating the non Shaivite born, both Indians and westerners. This movement also rejects animal sacrifices mentioned in the Siddhantic Vedic and Agamic scriptures.
Saiva Siddhanta today
Saiva Siddhanta is practiced widely among the Saivas of southern India and Sri Lanka, especially by members of the Adi Shaivas, Kongu Vellalar,[15] Vellalar and Nagarathar communities of South India.[16] It has over 5 million followers in Tamil Nadu, and is also prevalent among the Tamil diaspora around the world.[citation needed] It has thousands of active temples predominantly in Tamil Nadu and also in places around the world with significant Tamil population [citation needed] and also has numerous monastic and ascetic traditions, along with its own community of priests, the Adishaivas, who are qualified to perform Agama-based Shaiva Temple rituals.
Theology
Texts
The texts revered by the southern Saiva Siddhanta are the
Early theology
Siddhas such as Sadyojyoti (c. 7th century[20]) are credited with the systematization of the Siddhanta theology in Sanskrit. Sadyojyoti, initiated by the guru Ugrajyoti, propounded the Siddhanta philosophical views as found in the Rauravatantra and Svāyambhuvasūtrasaṅgraha. He may or may not have been from Kashmir, but the next thinkers whose works survive were those of a Kashmirian lineage active in the 10th century: Rāmakaṇṭha I, Vidyākaṇṭha I, Śrīkaṇṭha, Nārāyaṇakaṇṭha, Rāmakaṇṭha II, Vidyākaṇṭha II. Treatises by the last four of these survive. King Bhoja of Gujarat (c. 1018) condensed the massive body of Siddhanta scriptural texts into one concise metaphysical treatise called the Tattvaprakāśa.
Later theology
The culmination of a long period of systematisation of its
Monastic orders
Three monastic orders were instrumental in Shaiva Siddhanta's diffusion through India; the Amardaka order, identified with one of Shaivism's holiest cities, Ujjain, the Mattamayura order, in the capital of the Chalukya dynasty, and the Madhumateya order of Central India. Each developed numerous sub-orders. Siddhanta monastics used the influence of royal patrons to propagate the teachings in neighboring kingdoms, particularly in South India. From Mattamayura, they established monasteries in regions now in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra and Kerala.
In today's Tamil Nadu, there are both the ancient grhasta Amardaka lineage Aghora Paddhati Adi Shaiva Maths and the sanyasi non Adi Shaiva Meykandar Sampradaya Adheenams (monastic) today. Adi Shaiva Maths numbering around 40 are usually centred in Kongu Nadu[15] and the 18 Adheenams in Tondai Nadu, Chola Nadu and Pandya Nadu.[26]
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References
- ^ Xavier Irudayaraj,"Saiva Siddanta," in the St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India, Ed. George Menachery, Vol.III, 2010, pp.10 ff.
- ^ Xavier Irudayaraj, "Self Understanding of Saiva Siddanta Scriptures" in the St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India, Ed. George Menachery, Vol.III, 2010, pp.14 ff.
- ^ "Shaiva-siddhanta | Hindu philosophy". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 18 March 2017. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ^ Flood, Gavin. D. 2006. The Tantric Body. P.120
- ISBN 978-81-208-1569-8.
- ^ Flood, Gavin. D. 2006. The Tantric Body. P.34
- ^ a b Flood, Gavin. D. 1996. An Introduction to Hinduism. P.168
- ^ S. Arulsamy, Saivism - A Perspective of Grace, Sterling Publishers Private Limited, New Delhi, 1987, pp.1
- ^ See Alexis Sanderson's The Lākulas: New evidence of a system intermediate between Pāñcārthika Pāśupatism and Āgamic Śaivism. Ramalinga Reddy Memorial Lectures, 1997. In: The Indian Philosophical Annual 24 (2006), pp.143-217.
- ^ OCLC 50516193.
- OCLC 70251175.
- ^ Dominic Goodall, The Parākhyatantra. A Scripture of the Śaiva Siddhānta, Pondicherry, French Institute of Pondicherry and Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, 2004, pp.xxix-xxxiv.
- ^ Flood, Gavin. D. 1996. An Introduction to Hinduism. P. 170
- ^ Vaitheespara, Ravi. 2010. Forging the Tamil caste: Maraimalai Adigal (1876-1950) and the discourse of caste and ritual in colonial Tamilnadu.
- ^ a b c "Saivacharyas honoured". www.tamilartsacademy.com. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ "Kongu Vellalar Sangangal Association". www.konguassociation.com. Archived from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
- ^ "The Shaiva Siddhanta". shaivam.org. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ^ "Vaidhika Shaiva Siddhanta". shaivam.org. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
- ^ Flood, Gavin. D. 1996. An Introduction to Hinduism. P. 169
- ^ See Alexis Sanderson, "The Date of Sadyojyotis and Brhaspati." In Cracow Indological Studies 8 (2006), pp.39–91. (Actual publication date 2007.)
- ^ Alexis Sanderson, "The Saiva Exegesis of Kashmir", pp.242-248, in Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, edited by Dominic Goodall and André Padoux, Pondicherry, French Institute of Pondicherry and Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient, 2007.
- ^ Dominic Goodall, Problems of Name and Lineage: Relationships between South Indian Authors of the Shaiva Siddhanta, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 10.2 (2000).
- ^ Extant lists are presented by Dominic Goodall in Appendix III of Bhatta Ramakantha's Commentary on the Kiranatantra, Pondicherry, French Institute of Pondicherry and Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient, 1998, pp.402-417.
- ^ This is one of the few demonstrably pre-10th-century scriptures of the Shaiva Siddhanta to have been completely translated into a European language: Michel Hulin, Mrgendragama. Sections de la doctrine et du yoga, Pondicherry, French Institute of Pondicherry, 1980, and Hélène Brunner-Lachaux, Mrgendragama. Section des rites et sections du comportement, Pondicherry, French Institute of Pondicherry, 1985.
- ^ This manual, called the Kriyakandakramavali or Somasambhupaddhati, has been edited, translated and richly annotated by Hélène Brunner and published in 4 volumes from the French Institute of Pondicherry in 1963, 1968, 1977 and 1998.
- ^ https://sengol1947ignca.in/new-parliament-drupal/web/sites/default/files/2023-05/PG3-PDF-EN-REVISED%20%20ADHEENAM%20ENGLISH%20BROCHURE.pdf
Sources
- Flood, Gavin (2005). The Tantric Body: The Secret Tradition of Hindu Religion. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1845110110.
External links
- Southern Schools of Śaivism, by Surendranath Dasgupta
- Siddha Saivism - Philosophy and Practices
- Studies in Saiva-siddhanta, J.M. Nallaswami Pillai, 1911
- K. Ganesalingam, Notes on Saiva Siddhanta Philosophy
- Oxford Bibliographies, Saiva Siddhanta
- ŚANKARA - SIVAISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA - KASHMIR - LINGÂYATS
- Excellent discussion on latest research with 2 leading scholors
- Jangam Lingayat