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சைவ சித்தாந்தம்
Saiva Siddhanta is the philosophy and way of worship of Tamil Saivism. It teaches that God, the soul and the bond that holds the soul are all real and eternal, and that Siva's grace frees the soul to live in His presence. This site introduces the tradition and gives each of its canonical texts a page of its own: the twelve Tirumurais of devotional song and the fourteen Meykanda Sastras of doctrine.
"Siddhanta" means "the settled conclusion": the view that stands after the others have been examined.
The tradition rests on three realities, each without beginning:
Pati
பதி
Siva, the Lord: pure being, awareness and bliss. He creates, sustains and withdraws the world out of grace, for the sake of souls.
Pasu
பசு
The soul: countless in number, eternal and conscious, but bound, so that it cannot know itself or Siva on its own.
Pasam
பாசம்
The bond: the impurities of ego, karma and maya that hold the soul. Maya is also a remedy: it gives the soul a body and a world in which to ripen.
Siva gives souls bodies and worlds so that, through experience, their impurities ripen. When a soul is ready, Siva comes to it as a guru, and grace removes the bond. The freed soul does not dissolve into Siva: it lives in union with Him, as itself, in love and in His service.
The tradition has two streams that belong together. The Tirumurais are thothiram, hymns of praise sung by the saints. The Meykanda Sastras are , doctrine set out by reasoning. Tradition holds that the Sastras state in reasoned form what the saints knew and sang. Both rest on the and the Vedas.
The philosophy guide explains the doctrine step by step: the three realities, the three impurities, the states of the soul, the 36 tattvas, the paths of worship and liberation.
Twelve collections of sacred song and fourteen treatises of doctrine: the canon of Saiva Siddhanta.
Hymns and sacred poetry of Tamil Saivism, gathered by Nambiyandar Nambi. The Periya Puranam was later added as the twelfth.
Tevaram தேவாரம் · 1–7
The hymns of the three Tevaram saints, sung in temples every day.
Tiruvasagam to Periya Puranam · 8–12
Manikkavasagar, the hymns of nine later poets, Tirumular's Tirumantiram, forty shorter works, and the lives of the saints.
The doctrinal canon, written between the 12th and 14th centuries and centred on Meykandar's Sivagnana Bodham.
The first six · 1–6
The two earliest Sastras, Meykandar's Sivagnana Bodham, and the works of his disciples.
Siddhanta Ashtakam (Umapathi's eight) சித்தாந்த அட்டகம் · 7–14
Eight works by Umapathi Sivachariyar, fourth in Meykandar's line of teachers.
The Sastras in study order
Begin with the first and go on in order. The rest can be studied alongside.
Alongside
The other Sastras can be studied in parallel, in any order.
The Tirumurais
The hymns can be read in any order. The Tevaram, sung in the temples every day, is a natural place to begin.
Oldest first. Dates are approximate; where scholars disagree, the card says so.
7th century
10th century
12th century
13th century
14th century
Temple scripture, then the singing saints, then a compiled canon, then a reasoned philosophy, kept alive by the monasteries into the present.
The Agamas
The Saiva (twenty-eight principal ones, by tradition) lay down temple worship, ritual, yoga and doctrine. Siddhanta takes them as its scriptural root.
Karaikkal Ammaiyar
The earliest poet in the canon. Her hymns to Siva as the dancer of the cremation ground are in Tirumurai 11.
Sambandar and Appar
Travelling from shrine to shrine and singing hymns, they revive Saivism in the Tamil country. Their songs become the core of the .
Sundarar and Manikkavasagar
Sundarar's hymns include a list of Siva's devotees, later expanded into the Periya Puranam. Manikkavasagar's Tiruvasagam is dated variously, most often to the 9th century.
The canon is compiled
Tradition says that at the request of the Chola king Rajaraja I, Nambiyandar Nambi recovered the Tevaram hymns from a sealed room at Chidambaram and arranged the hymns of the saints into eleven Tirumurais.
The Periya Puranam
Sekkizhar, a minister at the court of Kulottunga II, tells the lives of the 63 . His work becomes the twelfth Tirumurai.
The Meykanda Sastras
From Tiruvundiyar to Meykandar's Sivagnana Bodham and Umapathi's eight works, the doctrine is set out systematically, and the line of four is established.
The Adheenams
Saiva monasteries such as Tiruvavaduthurai and Dharmapuram preserve the texts, teach the doctrine, train and publish editions. They continue this work today.
Sivagnana Swamigal
His great commentary on Sivagnana Bodham, the Dravida Mapadiyam, becomes the standard for later study.
Print and revival
Arumuga Navalar of Jaffna (1822–1879) edits and prints the texts and founds schools. J. M. Nallaswami Pillai translates the Sastras into English and edits the journal Siddhanta Deepika (from 1897).
Siddhanta is lived in the temple before it is studied in a book.
Temples
The Tevaram saints sang at 274 shrines, the padal petra sthalams, still visited by pilgrims. In Saiva usage, Chidambaram is simply Koyil, "the Temple".
Oduvars and pann
Temple singers, the , sing the Tirumurais at the end of worship each day, in the old Tamil melodic modes called .
Festivals
Arudra Darshanam in the month of Margazhi, Maha Sivaratri, and processions of the sixty-three saints, such as the Arupathu Moovar festival at Mylapore. Each saint is also remembered on their own day with a guru puja.
Ash and the five syllables
Sacred ash on the forehead, the rudraksha bead, and the five-syllable mantra Na-Ma-Si-Va-Ya () mark daily Saiva life.
Four who sang, four who taught, and the sixty-three whose lives show the many ways of love for Siva.
The four , whose hymns form the heart of the Tirumurais.
Tirunavukkarasar (Appar)
திருநாவுக்கரசர் (அப்பர்)
7th century CE
Tirujnanasambandar
திருஞானசம்பந்தர்
7th century CE
Tirukkadaikkappu (Tevaram) · Tirukkadaikkappu (Tevaram) · Tirukkadaikkappu (Tevaram)
Manikkavasagar
மாணிக்கவாசகர்
disputed; commonly placed in the 9th century CE
The four , teacher and disciple in turn, who set out the doctrine.
Maraignana Sambandar
மறைஞான சம்பந்தர்
13th–14th century CE
Umapathi Sivacharyar
உமாபதி சிவாசாரியார்
early 14th century CE
Sivaprakasam · Tiruvarutpayan · Vinaa Venba · Potrippahrodai · Kodikkavi · Nenju Vidu Thoothu · Unmai Neri Vilakkam · Sankarpa Nirakaranam
Kings and potters, hunters and Brahmins, women and men: the came from every walk of Tamil life. Sekkizhar tells their lives in the Periya Puranam (Tirumurai 12). Their images stand in the corridors of most Siva temples in Tamil Nadu.
An introduction for readers with some background, written with care for accuracy and for the tradition.
Saiva Siddhanta · a study site. Every page is reviewed before it is marked published.