Aurobindo about Advaita

Tue Jun 15 19:53:09 UTC 1999

KovilUr Matt is very recent. The volume of advaita works
is tiny in Tamil and their dates are pretty recent.

Regards.
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>As far as Tamil works, Saiva Siddhantam and Sri Vaishnavism
>are only ancient. May be, TattuvarAyar (17/18th century),
>Pirabodha Candrodayam's translation (18th cent.), kaivalya
>navaneetham are the only advaita works in Tamil compared
>to several 100 times of Saiva Siddhanta and Sri Vaishnava
>works.

Perhaps, but this may simply be due to the preference for Sanskrit when it
comes to composing works. Certainly, the influence of Advaita was seen in
Tamil country from very early times, and it was not restricted to Smarta
Brahmins. From more recent times, we have the Koviloor Math
(www.koviloor-madalayam.org), established and maintained totally by
non-Brahmins till the present day. The founder was from the Nagarattar
community, and his guru was a weaver (caste?). The motivations behind this
institution seem purely religious, with no political agenda.

Vidyasankar

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