आगमे शैवे विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

Source: TW

Many H, if they have heard of the Śaiva Siddhānta at all, are supposed Śaivam to be a uniquely Tamilian theological school with its origins in the 13th century—a school that has a body of only in Tamil theological works but how true is it? 🧵

While, it is true that Siddhānta has primary survived in recent centuries only in the Tamil region, but while the Tamils developed this tradition and enriched and modified it in various ways over the centuries, it was certainly not a Tamil creation.

Long before the 13th century the Śaiva Siddhānta was the name of a theological school who’s corpus of literature was entirely in Sanskrit Language: a body of scriptural texts (āgama/tantra/siddhānta) as well as a body of exegetical literature, ritual manuals (paddhati) etc. It is striking that this literature is today found transmitted almost exclusively in manuscripts from the far South of India in Tamil to the far of North, in Nepal and Kashmir where it’s early treasury were written.

We know from Inscriptional records that Śaiva Siddhānta was once spread throughout Indian subcontinent & beyond, reaching Southeast Asia, as two of its scriptures, the Niśvāsa and the Sarvajñānottara, are mentioned in a 10th-century Cambodian inscription. Tho detailed study on the spread of Śaiva Siddhānta is necessary, I will provide inscriptional records to demonstrate how and when the Siddhāntika might have spread & testify to its presence well before the 13th century across the East, West, North, and South of the subcontinent.

Due to recent scholarship by Prof. Goodall (École française d’Extrême-Orient), Isaacson (University of Hamburg), Sanderson & Diwakar Acharya (Both from University of Oxford), Nirajan Kafle (Ashoka University), Dr. Ganesan (Institut français de Pondichéry), Hans Bakker & Others.. We are sure that the Niśvāsa corpus is surely the earliest text corpus of this tradition, and the Mūlasūtra (/Niśvāsamūla), is certainly the earliest work within that corpus, was composed somewhere at c. 400 ce, which also provides a date for this tradition.

Returning to the history of Śaiva Siddhānta, We know that it was already a well established monastic tradition as a great number of inscriptions testify it’s prominent position under King Śivagupta Bālārjuna in Dakṣiṇa Kosala during his long reign from circa 590 to 650 ce.

Starting with a grant to an Sadāśivācārya, it tells us that he is the disciple of a disciple of the ‘brother’ of Sadyaḥśivācārya who was from the Āmardaka matha one of the 4 mother institution to which Saiddhāntika branch-lineages traced their authority.

We also knows another Inscriptions which refers in one of its fragment to Ācārya Aghorajyoti of rare Jyoti gocara of the Śaiva Siddhānta For Gocara, one can refer to this -…?

With Śivagupta’s wife initiation into Śaiva Siddhānta & the involvement of Astraśiva in Bāleśvara complex. Prof. Natasja Bosma argued that Śivagupta was also an initiated king and that Vyāpaśiva or Astraśiva were his rājagurus.

During the same time, this tradition was already prominent enough to call forth from the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti in his Pramāṇavārttika, Pramāṇasiddhi 258cd–260ab at some time between approximately 550 and 650, an attack on Śaiva Siddhānta & Bhagavān Sadyojyoti’s view.

Thus, During the first half of that century, we find our first works of learned Saiddhāntika exegesis in Kashmir, by Bhagavān Sadyojyotis and Bṛhaspati whom Śrī Rāmakaṇṭha acknowledges at the beginning of his Mokṣakārikāvṛtti as the “founding fathers” of Siddhānta Lineage.

Coming back to South India, By the 700s the Saiddhāntika Śaivam was already a well-established tradition in the south of the Vindhyas. As there is three records of giving Saiddhāntika initiation to major rulers:

The Cālukya king Vikramāditya in 660ce who received dīkṣā from Guru Sudarśanācārya in Niśvāsa Corpus. For expression of “Maṇḍala of Śiva” see this -
the Eastern Gaṅga king Devendravarman in 682/3 by Guru Pataṅgaśivācārya who is also mentioned as “mastered in Vedas, Vedāṅga, Purāṇa, Itihāsa, Nyāya & [Śaiva] Siddhanta”
and the Pallava king Rājasiṁha at some time between 680 and 731.

Thus, We can safely conclude that Siddhānta Śaivism was already a well established monastic tradition by time of Tirujñānasambandhar or authors of Tēvārams in South India well before Meykaṇṭār or 14 Tamil Scriptures in South India.

Please note that I have tried to replicate the exact words of Sanderson, Goodall, Bosma, and others who are associated with well-known institutions.

If anyone disagrees with any of them, please quote a historian, scholar, or research journal from a reputable big institute that says these interpretations are wrong.

Muh Twattar sources by those “fact-checker”, with half-baked knowledge of their own state’s epigraphical records, who have a certain hatred for the Śaiva Siddhānta religion and try to act as historians, do not count. (So, better stay aware of this thread)