4 minutes

What is Saiva Siddhanta?

Saiva Siddhanta is the way the Tamil people have loved Siva and understood Him: with the heart in song, and with the mind in reasoning.

Saivism is the worship of Siva. It is one of the oldest living streams of Hindu faith, and it has taken many forms across India. Saiva Siddhanta is one of these forms. More than a thousand years ago its teachers were explaining the Saiva Agamas in Sanskrit, in many parts of India, from Kashmir in the north to Chidambaram in the south. In the Tamil country it grew into the tradition this site follows: the hymns of the Tamil saints, and the fourteen Meykanda Sastras, written in Tamil from the twelfth century onward. It is still the faith of most Tamil Saivas in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka and wherever they have settled.

The word Siddhanta means "the settled conclusion". It is what remains standing after every question has been asked and every other view has been examined. So Saiva Siddhanta means "the settled truth about Siva".

✦Two streams, one river

The tradition's sacred writing flows in two streams.

• The songs. The saints walked from temple to temple and sang to Siva. Their hymns were gathered into the twelve Tirumurais. They are still sung in temples every day.
• The reasoning. Later teachers set out the same truth as a careful philosophy, answering questions and objections. These are the fourteen Meykanda Sastras.

Behind both stand the Agamas, the scriptures of Saiva worship and doctrine.

✦What it asks of you

Saiva Siddhanta does not ask you to switch off your reason at the temple gate. Its great text, Sivagnana Bodham, begins with an argument, not a command. Nor does it ask you to be a scholar before you can pray. It asks for both: a loving heart and a questioning mind.

Next, the songs, books and saints the tradition rests on; then its foundation: three things that are real.

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