There is a synopsis of Shaiva Siddhant in tritiya paad of Narad Puran.
This Adhyāya even paraphrases, IIRC, a lost śloka from Bhārgavottara, a lost Siddhāntāgama:
varṇāśramācārān
manasāpi na laṅghayet ||
yo yasminnāśrame tiṣṭhan
prāpto dīkṣāṃ śivātmikām |
sa tasminneva saṃtiṣṭhan
śivadharmaṃ ca pālayet
Dravidoid subversion
Source: TW
A good question. Current ecosystem of siddhAnta in TN has been hijacked to a significant extent by dravidianist ideologues who portray shaiva siddhAnta as the “original dravidian religion” that was destroyed by Aryan vedism….Nevertheless, the proper tradition still survives.
Now follows a narrative that would not be liked by many: The fact is that those who had undergone AcArya abhiSeka among the Adishaiva brAhmaNas (patronized & adored by chOzhas) are the ones who had initially controlled the giving of initiations & wrote important treatises. The Adishaiva AcAryas were gRhastha-s (As mandated by tradition) & current ones still maintain this rule. However, one must note that the siddhAntAgamas were extremely generous in giving each varNa an adhikAra to give dIkSA within itself–an unprecedented act of open-mindedness. You can read the practical consequences of that move here in a piece I wrote before.
The major AdhInam-s: madurai, dharmapuri, tiruvAvADutuRai, tirupanantAL, kovilUr, tiruvaNNAmalai kuNRakuDi (NRa uttered as NDra), tiruvaiyARu, vELAkkuRicci & many others are all headed by those belonging to vELALa or shaiva chettiyAr jAtis, both being known as sacchUdras. madurai AdhInam (founded by the incomparably exalted saint, shrI j~nAnasambandha svAmin) has become degraded & the head of kuNRakuDi AdhInam is a hardcore dravidianist. Today, dharmapuri, tiruvAvADutuRai & tirupanantAL are among the institutions still doing good work for shaivam.
(Dharmapura Ādhīnam’s Head has made multiple statements over last few years criticizing anti-Skt, anti-Veda attitudes & supports Vedāgama Pāṭhaśāla for Brāhmaṇa kids.)
रविलोचन-टिप्पनी
Madurai adheenam was certainly not found by jnanasambandha. It is a lie which has been manufactured to give it a hallowed status.
That adheenam has no temple in the madurai region. It has a few temples in chola desha. It was essentially a branch of another adheenam which became independent and then claimed a more exalted status.
So, wait. What happened to the Adishaiva gRhastha-s? Their status declined not long after the fall of the very last chOzhas & pANDyas, & further suffered with the coming of vijayanagara/nAyakka takeover of TN. They were disenfranchised. Matter of fact, I have actually read webpages where Adishaivas remember, even TODAY, with great resentment, the disenfranchisement (stripping of their status as the highest initiating gurus, acquisition of their maThas by nAyakkar-sponsored brAhmaNas of a different sect, etc)… It is an extremely interesting part of history and one which has far-reaching and profound consequences on the trajectory and intellectual quality of siddhAnta shaivam in TN, though it was not the only factor.
This disenfranchisement by newcomers coupled with the Adishaiva brAhmaNas’ disinclination towards monastic institutions & their relative distance from vedAnta that had become a leading marker of prestige in that era had substantially contributed to their decline as a community. This decline, coupled with the Agamika provision allowing a 4th varNa AcArya to initiate someone of his own varNa, helped facilitate a massive shift in influence to yatis belonging to the sacchUdra groups, in contrast to gRhastha Adishaiva brAhmaNas.
This is not to deny a great number of scholars belonging to the dominant sacchUdra group their dues. Many of them were first-rate scholars of the siddhAnta Agamas & masters of both saMskRta & tamizh, proving that brAhmaNas were not the only ones producing elite intellectuals. This glorious tradition the sacchUdra shaivas retained up to rather recent times. dharmapuri AdhInam supported excellent Agama scholars of sacchUdra origin & lanka produced a genius named Arumuga nAvalar. I will cite the names of some of these works tomorrow.
sachChUdra elevation
Source: TW
Make what you will of this comment, but the loss of a traditional & rich, formal system like सैद्दान्तिक-शैवम् & consequent perversion of शिव as some “innocent”, carefree, hippie god has resulted in a loss of stature for शिव & शैवम्.
वेदसारमिदं तन्त्रं
तस्माद् वैदिक आचरेत् ।
वेदान्तार्थमिदं ज्ञानं
सिद्धान्तं परमं शुभम् ॥
-श्रीमन्मकुटागम
“वेद’s essence is this तन्त्र (सिद्धान्तम्); thus one should act in वैदिक [way];
वेदान्त’s essence is this ज्ञान (शिवज्ञानम्); सिद्धान्तम् is supremely auspicious!”
वर्णाश्रमाचारान् मनसापि न लङ्घयेत् ॥
यो यस्मिन्नाश्रमे तिष्ठन् प्राप्तो दीक्षां शिवात्मिकाम् ।
स तस्मिन्नेव संतिष्ठन् शिवधर्मं च पालयेत्
- श्रीमद्भार्गवागमः,
Lost text quoted by one of the greatest आचार्य-s of सिद्धान्त— लक्षद्वयाध्यापक-श्रीमदघोरशिवाचार्य.
Unlike some वेदबाह्य-“शैव” sects, which gave rites based on alcohol & certain unspeakable degeneracies which, thankfully, were obscured in TN by सिद्धान्तम्, the सिद्धान्तम् promoted a “good” & truly auspicious approach to life. It made teetotalism mandatory. If you are a सिद्धान्ती, you can’t drink. An entire agrarian class, traditionally assigned to the 4th वर्ण, attained a massive rise in status by eschewing alcohol &, of their own volition, meat as well.+++(5)+++ Their members even became संस्कृत scholars.
Imagine a tamizh scholar of सच्छूद्र background in the late 1500s acquiring संस्कृत scholarship in गौडदेश & coming back to TN to write a संस्कृत commentary on a complex आगम text. The सिद्धान्तम् has an exceptional role in the production of a non-ब्राह्मण धार्मिक elite class. Forgot to mention; said scholar was from Jaffna, Sri Lanka (Jñānaprakāśa - Lankan VēLāLa).
I’m always irritated when Hindus themselves look at शैवम् as something exotic, hippy & non-वैदिक. One of the most famous tamizh saints, अरुणगिरिनाथर्, traces his own past debauchery (before being saved by स्कन्द) to not honoring the reciters of the शिवागम & वेद.
Today, many Hindus are conditioned to think “वेदान्त schools are orthodox, शैव religion is a hodgepodge of weird magic & hippie pot smoking culture”.
But before शंकर, earliest of the major वेदान्ती-s was even born; somewhere in काश्मीर, an imaginary opponent asks this question to someone defending the validity of the वेद. Who was he? He was महामुनि, भगवान्-सद्योज्योति, the earliest known सिद्धान्ताचार्य from काश्मीर. He gives us 2 reasons as to why, as a सिद्धान्त-शैव, it is so important to defend the वेद from नास्तिक-s.
*Translation should be accurate. Anyone wishing to point errors may do so.