Ponniyin Selvan Varalaatru Peravai

freinds and madam.katherine,

since my childhood i was brought in temple environs. i have wondered what this ling and nandi were?. and used to think the pali peedam are for sacrificing animals.

this lingam-nandi-palipeedam arrangament was in mind all through my school years and colleges even though i did not seek answer. these were the times i was in christian institutions.

back to annamalai i started to read saiva siddhantam like any average chidambrian would do at his early middle age. by this time annamalai library came to my help.

the answers were very deep and had psychoanalaytic connotations. i shall put it brief:
1. linga=pathi=super ego
2.nandi=pasu=ego
3.pali peedam=sacrificial pedestal=pasam
pathi-pasu-pasam makes the core of the saiva siddhantham. this is called the ontogenic triads of saiva siddhantha.

later sigmund freud's theories came only in 20th century. but this pathi-pasu -pasa concept is probably 2000 year old and the symbolic reprresentation of these into the idol form are 1600 year old practice. this field is called hermeneutis and PAUL RICOUER of france had come out in large way on this. in fact post modernism philosophy deals a lot with hermeneutics.

saiva siddhantha had excellent development and was in its greatest form by 13-14 centuries when students from all over southeast asia came to study it to chidambaram. object relation theories and self theories were found out in 1960s by american psychologists but they were well pronounced in chidambaram by 13th century.

the adheenams on the banks of cauvery were great institutions which kept advancing the till 19th century.

"the wild elephant disappears when i see the wood
the wood disappears when i see the elephant"
thrumoolar 5th century AD.

gandhibabu