after a whole two weeks of reading 14 pandara sastras, my interest in saiva doctrines have become even more intense.
the saiva siddhantham books are 1.12 thirumurais: thevaram(first 7 murais written by appar,sambandhar,sundharar) thriruvasakam(by vasakar) thiru mandhiram(thirumoolar) peria puranam (sekkizhar) collection of writings (9&11 thirumurais)
the thiru murais )except the 10&12 th are sthothrams. they do not have high philosophical connotations.
the 10th murai thirumandhiram was written by a mysterious author thirumoolar. it is a tamil translation of the 9 siva agamas. it contains important aspects of siva agams of the 5-6th century. it is considered to be one of the earliest works of saiva treatises.
the peria puranam was written by sekkizhar who was a minister under kulothunga chola compiled the stories of 72 saivite zealots(63+9).
the saiva siddhantham had its next phase from 1250 AD. HERE MEYKANDAR PLAYSED PIVOTOL ROLE leading the saiva siddhantha sastra phase. the books of him and his followers were collected to be 14 books
they are 1.sivagnana bodham 2.thiruvundhiyar 3.thiruvarutpayan 4.sivgnana siddhiyar 5.sivaprakasam 6.iruba irupathu 7.kodikkavi 9.sangarpa niragaranam 10.potri pahrodai 11.thrukalitru padiyar 12.vina venba 13.nenju vidu thoodhu 14.unmai neri vilkkam
these 14 sastra phse extended upto 1350. the books were written by meykandar,arul nandhi,umapathisivam,manavagam kadanthar, uyyavandha dhevar, thruviyaloor uyyavandha thevar.
the next phase in saiva movement was the adheenam phase. by this time avadu thurai adheenam (monastery) was estabilished and it started functioning as an university. the pontiffs have written books which became the next phase of development. the thiruvaduthurai pandara texts are: 1,2,3:dhasakariam 4.sanmarga siddhiar 5.sivasrama thelivu 6.siddhantha pahrodai 7.ubadhesa pahrodai 8.panchakra pahrodai 9.siddhantha sigamani 10.ubaya nittai venba 11.nittai vilakam 12.ubadhesa venba 13.adhisaya malai 14.namachivaya malai
thes books were written by ambalavana dhesikar, dhakshinamoorthy,velapar and swaminatha desikar.
the subsequent phase i began in 1750. here important works were based on the notes written to original texts. these are hence secondary works. important among them was sivagnana mamunivar's sivagnana mapadiam.
later from 1850 the saiva siddhantha was led by eminent people like arumuga navalar, thiru.vi.ka, maraimalai ...etc.
it is to be noted that thayumana swamigal(1650s) and vallalar(1850s) broke away from the mainline saiva trdition and they are called reformist saivam. vallalar's efforts were almost analogous to lutherian reforms in christianity.
contemporary saiva phase:
21 st century sees the development of fresh enthusiasm to SS by tamil diaspora in americas and europe. ironically much of these are from srilankan tamils. estabilishment of meykandar adheenam in london,kwai adheenam in hawai...are a few examples.
thiruvaduthurai saiva contact classes: around 63 centres in various places of south india and malaysia conduct saiva siddhantha classes for two years. this done under the guidance of avaduthurai adheenam. so for 20000 people have graduated from these programmes.
saiva works in the net: the malaysian internet scientist mrs.subasinikanakaretnam's tamil heritage foundation, has brought out saiva works in the net. [email protected] by dr.k.loganathan has brought out important explanations of saiva siddhantham in english.