canon of "Saivasiddhaanta

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

Re: Tirumular,

> Both his language (as was pointed out by Vaiyapuripillai, the
>editor of a number of volumes of Madras University's Tamil Lexicon, in
his
>History of Tamil Literature) and also the syncretic character of his
>religiosity (he included not just Saiddhaantika ideas, but also the
>"Sriicakra and the "Sriividyaa, for which the first Sanskrit sources
are
>relatively late) suggest that he should be assigned rather a late date
>than an early one.

Could it be that the Sanskrit texts of SrIvidyA tradition essentially
recast the vernacular texts into Sanskrit? Not that this is very helpful
for fixing Tirumular's date, but there is the possibility that he is
earlier than most of the important Sanskrit texts of SrIvidyA.

What is the influence of the pASupata tradition on Kashmiri and Tamil
Saiva texts? There is a close relationship between pASupatas and the
naiyAyikas/vaiSeshikas, who were all ISvara-kAraNa-vAdins. It would be
difficult to trace texts like the ritual paddhatis to the pASupatas, but
then the many kAyArohaNa Siva temples in the south and the dIkshA
ceremony are of pASupata origin.

Vidyasankar

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