canon of "Saiva Siddhaanta

[Dominic Goodall]

By `incontrovertible evidence' I meant evidence for a tantra's
predating the 9th--10th-century Kashmirian lineage of
Raamaka.n.tha II, whose writings systematised the "Saiva Siddhanta.

I don't believe that there is any firm evidence that dates any of the
Siddhaantatantras to the fifth century or before.  The earliest dated MS
of a Siddhaantatantra to survive is that of the Paarame"svaratantra (819
AD).  Some other Nepalese palm-leaf MSS might just predate it (e.g.\
perhaps that of the Ni"svaasatattvasa.mhitaa or that of the
Sarvaj~naanottara), but certainly not by many years.

Filliozat is of the opinion (see p.xvi of his <Le Tantra de
Svaya.mbhuu---vidyaapaada---avec le commentaire de Sadyojyoti>, Geneve
1991) that Raghuva.m"sa 10:26 refers to Siddhaantas with the word
aagama:--

bahudhaapy aagamair bhinnaa.h panthaana.h siddhihetava.h|
tvayy eva nipatanty oghaa jaahnaviiyaa ivaar.nave||

But this is far from compelling, to my mind, because no writers (with the
possible exception of Saiddhaantikas writing in Tamil from the time of
Aru.lnandi) privilege the term aagama to refer exclusively to
Saiddhaantika scriptures.

The first inscriptions that definitely refer to the "Saiva Siddhaanta
appear in the 7th century, e.g., one at the Kailaasanaatha temple in
Kaa~ncii, from which one can infer that the Pallava king Narasi.mhavarman
II had received diik.saa into the cult from verse 5d
"saivasiddhaantamaarge "sriimaan atyantakaama.h k.satasakalamala.h.
(Atyantakaama was one of the king's biru.das).  The same verse further
qualifies him as "saktik.su.n.naarivarga.h, which is presumably intended
to mean both `the group of whose enemies were crushed by his spear' and at
the same time `the group of whose [internal] enemies [viz. the senses]
were crushed [and so brought under control] by [a descent of "Siva's]
power'.  [For arivarga in this sense, cf. Raghuva.m"sa 4:60.  A descent of
"Siva's power ("saktipaata) is a necessary prerequisite for receiving
diik.saa.] The whole verse is, I think, quoted in Filliozat's introduction
to the English version of his edition and translation of the
Svaayambhuvasuutrasa"ngraha recently published from the IGNCA in Delhi
(edition not to hand).

Dominic Goodall