Shaiva Siddhanta ()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. (Tamil: சைவ சித்தாந்தம் "Caiva cittāntam") is a form of Shaivism from South India and Sri Lanka that propounds a dualistic philosophy where the ultimate and ideal goal of a being is to become an enlightened soul through Shiva's grace.Flood, Gavin. D. 2006. The Tantric Body. P.122 It draws primarily on the Tamil devotional hymns written by Shaiva saints from the 5th to the 9th century, known in their collected form as Tirumurai. Meykandadevar (13th century) was the first systematic philosopher of the school. The normative rites, cosmology and theology of Shaiva Siddhanta draw upon a combination of Agamas and Vedic scriptures.Flood, Gavin. D. 2006. The Tantric Body. P.120
This tradition is thought to have been once practiced all over India, but the Muslim subjugation of North India restricted Shaiva Siddhanta to the southFlood, Gavin. D. 2006. The Tantric Body. P.34 where it merged with the Tamil Shaiva movement expressed in the bhakti poetry of the NayanarsFlood, Gavin. D. 1996. An Introduction to Hinduism. P.168 which was the first reaction against the nastika philosophies. Today, Shaiva Siddhanta has adherents predominantly in South India and Sri Lanka, and in a Tantrayana syncretised form in Indonesia (as Siwa Siddhanta).
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
Origins and early influences 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.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. 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.
Kashmiri origins or influences
Siddhas such as Sadyojyoti (c. 7th centurySee Alexis Sanderson, "The Date of Sadyojyotis and Brhaspati." In Cracow Indological Studies 8 (2006), pp.39–91. (Actual publication date 2007.)) 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.
Tamil bhakti (7th-9th c.)
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: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. the hymns themselves appear to make no such claim for themselves.
Tirumular (8th c. CE?), 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.
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.Flood, Gavin. D. 1996. An Introduction to Hinduism. P. 170
Formulation and sytematisation (12th-15th c.) 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.
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 (13th century) was the first systematic philosopher of the school in a dualistic dvaita Vedantic perspective. In Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta, the thirteenth 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 thirteenth and fourteenth 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.
The Brahma Sutra Bhashya of Śrīkaṇṭhā (11th-15th c.) is a further agamic philosophical foundation of the philosophy in a Srauta Vedic Vedantic Shiva advaita perspective.
Early Modern Period
Sri Lanka In the Sri Lankan Sinhalese society, king Rajasinha I of Sitawaka (r. 1581 to 1592) 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.
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 SiddhantaMayadunne and Rajasinha I The Island - May 20, 2011 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.