canon of "Saiva Siddhaanta

[C.R. Selvakumar]

Thank you for your kind reply Dr. Goodall.

@
@Response to questions about the "Saiva Siddhaanta
[..]

@be late.  Incontrovertible, though, are the following three kinds of
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@evidence:---
~~~~~~~~~

   I'm sorry, it is not clear to me what this incontrovertible
   evidence points to.
@
@1) a tantra's being transmitted not just in South Indian, but also in
@early Nepalese and/or Kashmirian manuscripts.
@
@2) the existence of substantial attributed quotations by demonstrably
@early authors that are still traceable in the extant work that bears
@the same name
@
@3) the survival of early commentaries.
@
@Using these criteria we can arrive at a (shortish) list of
@pre-tenth-century Siddhaantas.  These too are disparate in theology
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   I'm just curious - are some of these pre-fifth-century ?

@and style and may have been composed over a number of centuries and in
@widely separated parts of India.
@
@The problems of the stratigraphy of the Saiddhantika canon are adverted to
@in the more recent articles of Mme. Brunner (e.g. `The Four Paadas of
@"Saivaagamas', pp.260--78 in The Journal of Oriental Research, Madras
@1986--92) and in Professor Sanderson's `The Doctrine of the
@Maaliniivijayottaratantra', an article in <Ritual and Speculation in Early
@Tantrism---Studies in Honour of Andre' Padoux> edited by Teun Goudriaan
@(SUNY 1992).  (The same article, by the way, shows how difficult it is to
@talk about `Kashmiri Saivism' as though it were a single and entirely
@separate tradition and in part answers your question about its earliest
@sources.)

   Thanks for the references.
@
@A fuller discussion and a presentation of some evidence is to be found in
@my own book (in press)  esp. on pp.xxxvi--xlvii:---
@
@Bha.t.ta Raamaka.n.tha's Commentary on the Kira.natantra---volume I:
@chapters 1--6---critical edition and annotated translation.
@(Publications du de'partement d'indologie 86.1). pp. cxxv, 487.
@
@Dominic Goodall
@

   Selva