i happenned to just browse through a book in connemara library's permanent book fair.. dont remember the name of the book or the author...
the book calls our very own pallavas as belonging to the caste called "Pallar"..
is it so???
though from the learned group here , i understand that the origins or pallavars are still not clear, the pallar calling was surprising to me...
also a lot of controversial topics in the book like worship of lingam as phallic symbol... no presence of shivan during vedic times, only vishnu etc., was there..
could not buy the book as it was out of my budget, though i felt that it was pure anti vedic in nature, written with a lot of vengeance....
sivan is the supreme and does the 5 activities ( ainthozhil) like creatng(padaithal),preserving(kaathal),destroying(azhithal),hiding(maraithal),granting(arulal).....
these five activities are done through brahma(creating),vishnu(preserving),rudran(destroying), the rest two are taken care by sivan himself...
i.e. the first three are delegated and the rest directly taken care by himself..
now , iam not meaning any offence to anybody worshipping vishnu as the supreme.. just shared what i read..
anyways, there is only one God.. "ekam sadh vipraah bahuthaah vadhantih:"
also, the soundarya lahari mentions that shivan and rudran are different, though i dont remember the exact slokam..
When manickavasagar praises "triyambakeswarar" he says "moovar nindru etha aadhi moorthigatku arulpurindha devadevan".. talks about the trinity of brahma vishnu rudran benefitting from the grace of sivan..
now iam not getting into whether naalvar were against vedic worship or not...
here please note that inspite of being in the north the trayambakeswar temple and the somnath temple are built in the "aagama tradition" rather than the vedic tradition which prevails in the north
For your info - Kanchi mahaswami also written in his deivathin kural in an article - Eswaran, Sivan and Rudran. He had mentioned as according to saiva - they are different. When coming to the Indipendent Shanmadas ( Not the Adavitic shanmadas - where all are equal and manifestation of brahman) Saiva calls the supreme as the Sadasiva and Brahma , Vishnu and Rudra as 3 different entity under him The Vaishnava calls the supreme as Paravasudeva : The brahma andRudra are his assistants doing the other 2 works. The vishnu who protects and the paravasudeav are one and the same. In saktham - In one concept the Lalitha Tripurasundari is the supreme and her husban is the Kameswara. They are the supreme pair - kameswara Kameswari lording over Brahma Vishnu and Rudra. Adisankara explains this concpt in soundaryalahari. It is worshipping the Nirguna Brahman in Saguna form. In another Saktha principle, the Goddess is wife of the rudra/siva in trinity and alsothe supreme. In Abirami andadi this is explained as " Thavale ival sankaranar manaimangalamam Avale avarthamkku annayum ayinapadiyal ivale kaduvular yavarkkum mel..... It is a very complex subject and have to be read with various understanding. This differences is the root of the various siddantas in Sanatana Dharma. I was surprised to learn about the 4 type of vaishnavams yesterday and still have not come out of that.