dakSiNAmUrti stotra, and Tamil and Kashmir zaivisms

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 5/30/99 3:52:52 AM Central Daylight Time,
vsundaresan at HOTMAIL.COM writes:

>  5. The text of sundara pANDya (a pre-Sankaran author) seems to be
>  unavailable, except in quotations in later vedAntic authors. The author may
>  be the same as one who is called dra(m)viDAcArya by many authors.

Many thanks to Vishal Agarwal for pointing out many interesting details about
Sundara Pandya. There is an incomplete Tamil translation of Sanskrit Sundara
Pandyam which U. V. Saminathaiyar consulted in his edition of nampi's
tiruviLaiyATal dealing with the Madurai myths of ziva. Unfortunately, the
Tamil cuntarapANTiyam has not been printed. I will not be surprised if the
Tamil translation (c. 1563 AD) gives some useful information regarding the
Sanskrit original.

What is becoming obvious is that the so-called "dark age" of the kalabhras of
Tamil country was not "dark" at all. There must have been quite a bit of
creative interaction between the Tamil country, especially the Madurai and
Potiyil region, and north India when Tamil literary and religious concepts
from Tamilnadu were transmitted to north India through the medium of
Sanskrit. (The similarities seen between sundarapANDya and Kalidasa (reported
by Vishal Agarwal) adds further support to my views regarding these.) It is
not really surprising, however. cilappatikAram has a brahmin pilgrim who
meets the hero kOvalan2 in the Tamil country and later meets the Chera king
on the southern bank of the Ganges.

>  The reverse influence, from
>  Tamil Nadu to Kashmir, that you posit may not go very well.

In a message dated 5/31/99 9:25:08 PM Central Daylight Time,
ramakris at EROLS.COM writes:

>By the 12th century, daxiNAmUrti was quite famous as a teacher. His
>name comes up in the Agama-s and even the late Vishnuite Bhagavata
>Purana tries to coopt him as a Vishnuite teacher! So, madhurAja yogins
>comments are not very surprising.

As Ramakrishnan says, it may not be surprising. But as I discussed in an
earlier posting, many Agamas and Bhagavata may be products of Tamil/Malayalam
region or South Indian. But in madhurAja's zloka we have a clear instance of
a Kashmiri text where the daKSiNAmUrti concept originating in the Tamil
zaivism is recognizably used.

Regards
S. Palaniappan