Vaishnavism & Saivism

Krishna Kalale kkalale1 at SAN.RR.COM
Thu Dec 9 03:13:58 UTC 1999


Dear friends,

I have a question. This is purely out of intellectual curiosity. I would
like to know if there are any literature, either historic or preferably
dialectics between Vaishnavism and Saivism.  Particularly I like logical
books that give pramanas or quote appropriate scriptures for support.  All
I need are the source books and some scriptural commonality between the
schools that deal with such polemical issues.   I have come across a number
of polemic literature between systems of philosophy - Samkhyas, Buddhists,
Jainists, Advaita, Visistadvaita, Dvaita etc.  However,  I have not come
across polemical books between Vaishnavism and Saivism.  The only few works
I know were writtten by "Sri Appayya Diksita", Sri Madhvacharya, Sri
Ramanujacharya,  Sri Vedanta Desika etc.regarding this subject.  Except Sri
Appayya Diksita, the other authors were from Vaishnava schools.  I would
like to know more about Saiva Literature which deals with this subject in
particular.  Historically,  I am aware of some hostilities.  I am not
interested in these issues but just objective academic writings.

There may be some tamil works on this topic, which I am not familiar with.
 Personally I prefer sanskrit books since I am not comfortable in tamil.
However, I would like to know tamil works also so that somehow I will get
help from others to understand the view points.  I am aware that in some
Alwar pasurams this subject is dealt with.  Are there similar works in
Nayanmar's compositions?

thanks

Krishna Kalale





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