Sandhya bhasa

[GANESANS at cl.uh.edu]

3/30/97


           Siddha Tradition: References
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Tamil Nadu has a continuous tradition, at least from
sixth century (Tirumantiram of Tirumular), of employing
twilight speech. From 12th century onwards, Siddhars like
Civavaakkiyar embrace "street language" to attack establishment.
There is a separate school of medicine, called siddha medicine,
in south india. Srividya saktism of South India mainly employs
sanskrit texts.

1) K. Zvelebil, The Siddha quest for immortality,
Mandrake of Oxford, 1996, 190 p.

2) K. Zvelebil, The poets of the powers: magic, freedom, renewal.
1993, Integral Pub., California. (I edition: 1973, Rider)

3) R. Venkatraman, A history of the tamil siddha cult,
Madurai, 1990, 283 p.

4) T. N. Ganapathy, The philosophy of the tamil Siddhas,
N. Delhi, 1993, 232 p.

5) D. R. Brooks, Auspicious wisdom: the texts and tradition of Srividhya Sakta
tantrism in South India, 1992, SUNY

6)  D. R. Brooks, The secret of the three cities: an introduction
to Hindu Sakta tantrism, Univ. Chicago, 1990

7) D. G. White, The alchemical body: siddha tradition in medieval
india. Univ. Chicago press, 1996, 596 p.


Regards,
N. Ganesan