pANini's inspiration and dakSiNAmurti

[Mani Varadarajan]

Lakshmi Srinivas wrote:
> PS: BTW, there is a similar reference to dakshinamurti in the
> Divyaprabandham too:
>
> neRivAcal tAnEyAyninRanai aindu
> poRivAcal pOrkkadavam cArtti aRivAnAm
> AlamaranIzal aRam nAlvarkkanRuraitta
> Alamamarkandattaran.  (poy.   div. 2085)
>
>  It is remarkable as it is one of the few benign references to Siva in
> the entire Vaishnava canon ;-)))
      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This may be a joke, but I feel obliged to reply.
In general, the Divya Prabandham has very
few abusive references to Siva. [The poetry of
Tondaradippodi and Tirumangai Alvar do contain several
abusive references to Buddhists and Jains]. I do not
recall a single one off the top of my head, unless a
description of Siva as "the naked Lord" (nakkapirAn)
counts.  While the Alvars clearly place Vishnu at the
top of the heap, Siva is pictured generally as a major
deity who is respected but not worshipped.

When taken out of context, certain statements from the
first three Alvars and Nammalvar even tend toward identifying
Siva and Vishnu as one.

It is a myth that the Alvars regularly abuse Siva.

Mani