Saiva Siddhanta

Shaiva Siddhanta () is a form of Shaivism popular in a pristine form in Tamilnadu and Sri Lanka and in a Tantrayana syncretised form in Vietnam and Indonesia (as Siwa Siddhanta). It propounds a devotional philosophy with the ultimate goal of experiencing union with Shiva. The former draws primarily on the Tamil devotional hymns written by Shaiva saints from the 5th to the 9th century CE, known in their collected form as '' Tirumurai''. Tirumular, an aide of the prime Sangam age Vedic rishi Agastya, is considered to be the propounder of the term Siddhanta and its basic tenets in his ''magnum opus''. 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. This is an earliest known Aghora Paddhati system of Shaiva Siddhanta of Adi Shaivas '' matha''s in Kongu Nadu. The Brahma Sutra Bhashya of Śrīkaṇṭhācārya Śivācārya is a further Agamic philosophical foundation of the philosophy in a Srauta Vedic Vedantic Shiva advaita perspective. Meykandar (13th century) was the first systematic philosopher of the school in a dualistic dvaita Vedantic perspective.

The normative rites, cosmology and theology of Shaiva Siddhanta draw upon a combination of Tamil Agamas scriptures. In the Sri Lankan Sinhalese society, king Rajasinha I of Sitawaka converted to Saiva Siddhantism, and made it the official religion during his reign, after a prolonged domination of Theravada Buddhism following the conversion of king Devanampiya Tissa. This Sinhalese Saiva Siddhanta led to the decline of Buddhism for the next two centuries until being revived by South East Asian orders aided by Europeans, but left vestiges in the Sinhalese society. In the continental south East Asian Ramayanas, Phra Isuan (from Tamilised Sanskrit Isuwaran) is considered the highest of gods, while Theravada Buddhism is the dominant philosophical religion. Here Shaiva Siddhanta is the practical religion while Theravada Buddhism is the philosophical overarch. In the Nusantaran Siwa Siddhanta, Siwa is syncretised with the Buddha in a Tantrayanic form called Siwa-Buda. A similar form is observed in the Chams of Vietnam where the community has diverged into the Shaiva Siddhantic Balamons and the tantrayanic acharyas ( Cham: Acars) becoming the Bani Cham Muslims. This is due to the fact that the Indian Bhakti era philosophical and the subsequent royal Shaiva Siddhanta reaction against Buddhism failed to reach south east asia in which Theravada Buddhism, Tantrayana Buddhism and later Islam filled the role of philosophical Shaiva Siddhanta.

Meanwhile in Tamil Nadu, after the Kalabhra interregnum, the Tamil states of the Pandyas and Pallavas reemerged, reviving the Saivite and Vaishnavite native religions. Further, the Saivite saint Thirugnanasambandar theologically defeated 8000 Sramanas with Buddhist names among them. When they started an insurrection, they were impaled by Koon Pandiyan at Samanatham near Madurai. Mahendravarma Pallava under Appar, a revert Saivite saint retrieved and reclaimed the Sramana encroached monuments and wrote Mattavilasaprahasana, a comic play on the heretical (non Vedic) sects of the time including Buddhism. Bhagavadajjukam by Baudhayana of the same reign ridiculed the Sramana sects within Hinduism, the sannyasins. These events are considered to be the ushering in of the Bhakti era in India which resulted in the routing of the nastika religion Buddhism and the near decimation of Jainism in India.

This tradition is thought to have been once practiced all over Greater India, but the Jain, Buddhist and consequent Muslim subjugation of North India restricted Shaiva Siddhanta to the south where it was preserved with the Tamil Shaiva movement expressed in the '' bhakti'' poetry of the Nayanars which was the first reaction against the nastika philosophies.Flood, Gavin. D. 1996. An Introduction to Hinduism. P.168 It is in this historical context that Shaiva Siddhanta is commonly considered a "southern" tradition, one that is still very much alive. The Tamil compendium of devotional songs known as ''Tirumurai'', the Shaiva Agamas and ''"Meykanda"'' or ''"Siddhanta"'' Shastras,S. Arulsamy, ''Saivism - A Perspective of Grace'', Sterling Publishers Private Limited, New Delhi, 1987, pp.1 form the scriptural canon of Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta.

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.

Karen Pechilis defines the term Shaiva Siddhanta as "the end of the knowledge of Shiva" signifying its culmination. Similar to Vedanta, which is the culmination of the Vedas, Shaiva Siddhanta makes a claim to be the authoritative interpretation of the knowledge of Shiva.

History

Shaiva Siddhanta's original form is uncertain. Some hold that it originated as a monistic doctrine, espoused by Kashmiri northern shaivites (date unknown). South India is another theorized location of origin, where it was most prevalent. It seems likely to others, however, that the early Śaiva Siddhānta may have developed somewhere in India, as a religion built around the notion of a ritual initiation that conferred liberation. Such a notion of liberatory initiation appears to have been borrowed from a Pashupata (''pāśupata'') tradition. At the time of the early development of the theology of the school, the question of monism or dualism, which became so central to later theological debates, had not yet emerged as an important issue.

Ontological Categories

Shaiva Siddhanta believes in three different categories, which are distinct from each other:

# ''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'' (ego), ''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.

Four stages

According to Shaiva Siddhanta texts, there are four progressive stages of ''Siva bhaki'' for a path to attain '' moksha'':

# ''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

From the 5th to the 8th century CE Buddhism and Jainism had spread in Tamil Nadu before a forceful Shaiva bhakti movement arose. Between the 7th and 9th centuries, pilgrim saints such as Sambandar, Appar, Sundarar 63 nayanmars used songs of Shiva's greatness to refute concepts of Buddhism and Jainism. Manikkavacakar's verses, called '' Tiruvacakam'', are full of visionary experience, divine love and urgent striving for truth. The songs of these four saints are part of the compendium known as '' Tirumurai'' which, along with the Vedas, Shaiva Agamas, and the Meykanda Shastras, are now considered to form the scriptural basis of the Śaiva Siddhānta in Tamil Nadu. It seems probable that the Tirumurai devotional literature was not, however, considered to belong to the Śaiva Siddhānta canon at the time when it was first composed: the hymns themselves appear to make no such claim for themselves.

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.

Philosophical Synthesis: Influence of the Six Darśanas

While Shaiva Siddhanta is fundamentally an Agamic and theistic tradition, its scholastic development between the 9th and 13th centuries CE shows deep engagement with the six classical schools of Hindu philosophy (''Ṣaḍdarśanas''): Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa, and Vedanta. Theologians such as ''Sadyojyoti'', ''Aghora Sivacharya'', and Meykandar drew selectively from these traditions to articulate a robust metaphysical framework and refine the epistemological foundations of the Siddhanta system.Bhairav, R. "The Integration of Darshanas in Saiva Siddhanta." ''Indian Philosophical Review'', Vol. 42, 2002.

A comparative view of their influence is shown below:

Through this integration, Shaiva Siddhanta established itself as both a devotional path and a rigorous philosophical system. The blending of Vedic rationalism and Agamic theology allowed it to contest other metaphysical systems, particularly Advaita Vedanta, while still appealing to Vedic authority.

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.

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 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.

Khmer Shaiva Siddhanta (extinct):

In the Angkorian Khmer empire, Shaiva Siddhanta flourished until the royal patronage of Theravada Buddhism and the subsequent fall of the empire's God-king Siddhantic hierarchy.

Cham Shaiva Siddhanta:

In Cham society, the Shaiva Siddhanta - Tantrayana divide resulted in the divergence of the society into the Shaivites becoming Balamon Hindus and tantrayanists converting into the Bani Cham Muslims.

Nusantaran Siwa Siddhanta:

In Majapahit nusantara, Siwa Siddhanta syncretised into the Tantrayana Siwa-Buda portrayed by Nagarakretagama. It still survives in the Agama Hindu Dharma. This synthesis is portrayed by the Kakawin Sutasoma derived national motto of Indonesia: ' Bhinneka Tunggal Ika'.

Sinhalese Shaiva Siddhanta (extinct):

In the Sri Lankan Sinhalese society, king Rajasinha I of Sitawaka reverted to Saiva Siddhantism after a prolonged domination of Theravada Buddhism following the conversion of king Devanampiya Tissa.

King Rajasinha arranged the marriage of his Tamil minister Mannamperuma Mohottala to a sister of a junior queen known as the "iron daughter" He converted to Shaiva Siddhanta He was reported to have settled Brahmans Adi Shaivas and Tamil Shaivite Velalars at significant Buddhist sites such as Sri Pada, etc. The ''Velala Gurukkals'' acted as religious mentors of the King and strengthened ''Shaiva Siddhantism'' at these centres. Under the advice of Mannamperuma Mohottala, he razed many Buddhist religious sites to the ground. Buddhism remained in decline thereafter until the formation of the Siam Nikaya and Amarapura Nikaya with the support of the Portuguese and Dutch East India Company respectively.

Traces of the era exist in temples like Barandi Kovila (Bhairava-andi kovil) in Sitawaka and the worship of other Shaivite deities by the Sinhalese, like the syncretic Natha deviyo, Sella kataragama and others.

Tamil exclusivist 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, Vellalar and Nagarathar communities of South India. It has over 5 million followers in Tamil Nadu, and is also prevalent among the Tamil diaspora around the world. It has thousands of active temples predominantly in Tamil Nadu and also in places around the world with significant Tamil population 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.

The Encyclopedia of Saiva Religion, a ten-volume Saivite publication released in 2013, documents 990 Saivite institutions of Saiva Siddhanta. While many emerged after the 19th century, traditional centers like Thiruvaduthurai Adheenam, Dharmapuram Adheenam, and Thiruppanandal Kasi Math, founded in the 16th and 17th centuries, remain influential.

Kumaragurupara Desikar, a Tamil Saivite poet says that Shaiva Siddhantha is the ripe fruit of the Vedanta tree. G.U. Pope, an Anglican Tamil Scholar, mentions that Shaiva Sidhantha is the best expression of Tamil knowledge.

Theology

Texts

The texts revered by the southern Saiva Siddhanta are the Vedas; the twenty-eight Saiva Agamas; Shaiva Puranas; the two Itihasas which form the ritual basis of the tradition; the twelve books of the Tamil Saiva canon called the Tirumurai, which contains the poetry of the Nayanars; the Aghora Paddhati, a codified form of all the above and additionally the Saiva Siddhanta Shastras for the Meykandar denomination.

A widely quoted and often given classical status, anonymous verse in Tamil Saiva Siddhanta expresses the relationship between the Vedas, Agamas, and Tamil literature:

Early theology

Siddhas such as Sadyojyoti (c. 7th century) 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 theology appears to have taken place in Kashmir in the 10th century, the exegetical works of the Kashmirian authors Bhatta Narayanakantha and Bhatta Ramakantha being the most sophisticated expressions of this school of thought.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. Their works were quoted and emulated in the works of 12th-century South Indian authors, such as Aghorasiva and Trilocanasiva.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). The theology they expound is based on a canon of Tantric scriptures called Siddhantatantras or Shaiva Agamas. This canon is traditionally held to contain twenty-eight scriptures, but the lists vary,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. and several doctrinally significant scriptures, such as the ''Mrgendra'',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. are not listed. In the systematisation of the ritual of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Kashmirian thinkers appear to have exercised less influence: the treatise that had the greatest impact on Shaiva ritual, and indeed on ritual outside the Shaiva sectarian domain, for we find traces of it in such works as the Agnipurana, is a ritual manual composed in North India in the late 11th century by a certain Somasambhu.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.

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 and the 18 Adheenams in Tondai Nadu, Chola Nadu and Pandya Nadu.

In the Sinhalese areas of Sri Lanka, the ''Tamil Velala Gurukkal'' either returned back or merged with the priestly ''Kapurala'' caste but retaining their Tamil surnames with a few persisting in places like the Sella Kataragama temple. In Indonesia, Siwa Siddhanta syncretised with Tantrayana survives as Agama Hindu Dharma. In Indo-China, Shaiva Siddhanta survives as an uninstitutionalised worship of Shiva as an ancestral God of gods: Phra Isuan (Tamil: Isuwaran), while in Vietnamese Cham, it flourishes within the Balamon section.

References

Sources

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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

{{Hindu Culture and Epics

Shaiva sects
Bhakti movement
Hindu tantra
Theistic Indian philosophy
Tamil philosophy