to continue.... is patajali is same one who wrote yoga sutra? if so he could have lived in 300BC(as per indian philosophy by s.radhakrishnan)he could have lived only in haryana or pujab. how come he appear in 5th century with a pallava?
when did the dheekshidhars arrive in chidambaram. must be in 5th century after karaikal ammayar and before appar. in my opinion the dheekshidhars created a concept of vyagrapadha and colluded it with patanjali. the dheekshidhars must have been well versed in yoga sastra and they should have mixed it with the indegenous dancing cult (nataraja).
the nataraja must be a conquerer of the earlier aboriginal snake worshiping religion and hence he wears it in his neck. the term puliyoor justifies the tiger skin around the natarajas loin. muyalagan is an aborigine who the invading dravidian hero nataraja symbolically presses his feet.
the chidambaram temple today has all the three elements. 1.the aboriginal austro-asiatic cult(the bootha ganas) 2. the dravidian element that spread across south-asia 4000 years ago (nataraja) 3.the aryan vedic element(dheekshidhars,rgveda chanting and the yoga philosophy)
in my opinion saiva doctrines include the synthesis of all the three streams therefore it survives even today as a practised religion- unlike the extinct religions like pasupatham in upper india.