dakSiNAmUrti stotra, and Tamil and Kashmir zaivisms

[N.Ganesan]

S. Vidyasankar asked:
 >Could you tell us about the significant features of the Tamil
 >dakshiNAmUrti devotional cult? Was Siva-dakshiNAmUrti primarily
 >viewed as a guru, rather than as the creator? Was there a great
 >emphasis on Siva's teaching through silence (mauna-vyAkhyA), and
 >on Siva as a youth teaching old disciples (vRddhAH zishyAH, gurur
 >yuva)? What do the Tamil sources say? Finally, had
 >the dakshiNAmUrti conception entered Chera land in early times,
 >or did it remain confined to Madurai and the pANDyan kingdom?

 >It is a central feature of Sankara's advaita vedAnta that silence
 >is the supreme teaching of the Atman (re: the story of bashkala
 >quoted in his bhAshya). This is also a central feature of Sanskrit
 >texts like the dakshiNAmUrti upanishad etc. Siva teaching through
 >silence is a powerful symbol for advaita vedAnta, and there is no
 >reason why this should not have been so from the earliest times.

Once I gave the TiruviLayATal purANam poem starting as "collAmal
colli" which explains Dakshinamurti teaching thru' silence.
Palaniappan gave some examples from Tevaram on this concept.

But Shiva teaching through silence goes back to Classical
Tamil sangam era. Take the Kalittokai poem 1.

In this poem of Shiva and Parvati dancing together and which cannot
be post-dated than 3rd century CE, Shiva's qualities
are described. Here "Shiva teaches Vedas to Brahmans,
holds Ganga in his hair, destroys the tripura,
teaches through silence, transcends all the teaching
as understood by humans and is a ferocious fighter"
(an approximate translation for the first 3 lines).

Looking at the words "kURAmal kuRittu atan2 mEl cellum kaTum kULi",
Shiva teaching through silence and transcending all that
teaching as understood by humans becomes clear.

     ARu aRi antaNarkku aru maRai pala pakarntu,
     tERu nIr caTai karantu, tiripuram tI maTuttu,
     kURAmal kuRittatan2 mEl cellum - kaTu kULi!
     mARA pOr maNi miTaRRu eN kaiyAy! kEL in2i -

     paTu paRai pala iyampa pal uruvam peyarttu nI
     koTukoTTi ATum kAl kOTu uyar akal alkul
     koTi purai nucuppin2AL koNTa cIr taruvAL O!

     maNTu amar pala kaTantu matukaiyAl nIRu aNintu
     paNTaragkam ATum kAl paNai ezil aNai mel tOL
     vaNTu araRRum kUntalAL vaLar tUkku taruvAL O!

     kolai uzuvai tOl acaI kon2Rai tAr cuval puraLa
     talai agkai koNTu nI kApAlam ATum kAl
     mulai aNinta muRuvalAL mun2 pANi taruvAL O!

Regards,
N. Ganesan




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