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    தமிழ்

    About this site

    An introduction to Saiva Siddhanta, the philosophy and way of worship of Tamil Saivism, laid out as a journey round Arunachala.

    Who made it

    Conceived and made by Karthik Manoharan. Built using Claude & ChatGPT. Every page is reviewed by the author before it is marked published.

    The writing is offered in the spirit of a discourse: accurate to the tradition, warm, and with everyday examples. It is not a substitute for a teacher. Where the site explains something in its own words, it says so ("As a teacher might explain it").

    How to use it

    Begin at the foot of the hill and walk the rounds in order, one teaching at a time, at your own pace. Each round has an outer path of teachings and, behind the hill, an inner path of stillness and practice. You can also open any page directly; the path only suggests.

    How this path works

    The site is laid out as a journey round Arunachala: nine rounds, walked clockwise, each a little higher than the last.

    • Each teaching is a lamp on the path. Read it and answer the few questions at its end, right or wrong, and its lamp is lit. A lit lamp shows how far you have walked, not how well you have understood.
    • Each teaching holds one gem for each of its sections, and one for its questions at the end, so some teachings hold more gems than others. The gem beside a section's heading lights as you read it.
    • Part way round, the gate inward leads behind the hill to the inner path: a little stillness, something to carry, a small practice. What happens there is yours alone and is never recorded.
    • The gate outward brings you back to the front of the hill to walk the rest of the round.
    • When every lamp of a round is lit, its lotus blooms: one circuit of the hill is complete.
    • The rounds above are in mist until you reach them. Any page can still be opened; the path only suggests.
    • Nine rounds lead to the summit, where the lamp is lit. The hill and its rounds are this site's own picture of an order of reading; the tradition does not lay them down, and reaching the summit marks the end of the reading, not a spiritual attainment.
    • Your journey is kept only on this device. A journey code carries it to another.
    • Some pages stand beside the path. When a lamp is lit, its page may offer one; reading it lays a small flower by that lamp. A flower lights nothing and is never needed.

    Principles

    Sources and acknowledgements

    The figures are cut from photographs of Chola bronzes in open museum collections and shown as silhouettes in the site's colours:

    Each text's page lists the sources it drew on.

    Your privacy

    There are no accounts, no tracking and no advertising. Your journey (which lamps are lit) and the temples you mark as worshipped are kept only in your own browser, on your own device. They are never sent anywhere. If you move to another phone or computer, a short journey code carries your lit lamps with you.

    Copyright

    © 2026 Karthik Manoharan. The site's own writing, renderings and design are the author's. The Tamil verses quoted are from classical texts in the public domain.

    The writing and renderings may be shared and quoted with credit to the author, but not for commercial use, under the licence CC BY-NC 4.0.

    Corrections and comments

    If you find a mistake, in a verse, a fact or a word, or have a suggestion, please say so.Send a correction or comment · Corrections

    What you send comes to the site's author by email and is not stored on the site.

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