[tamil] Meykandar,Tradition and Authority
Civajnanam Tradition and Authority
by
Dr.K.Loganathan
university Sains Malaysia
Dravidian Philosophic Tradition
When we view the growth and development of Dravidian Philosophy right from
the Prevedic Sumero-Dravidian times, we
can recognise two basic tendencies that we can call Siddhantic and
Viddhantic. Both words are derived from the
Sumero-Tamil root: sid- meaning to recite, learn, understand etc. to which
are related such terms as cittam, cintai, cittu,
cittar, and cettu. We can also derive such terms as vid- vittai veda and so
forth from the same root. But here by Siddhanta we
mean the sciences and by Viddhanta ideological systems where man sets himself
to construct various conceptual systems
through the power of imagination alone. The Viddhantic includes the Vedantic
but more comprehensive. Thus while the
Siddhantic leads to an UNDERSTANDING of the world and hence EXISTENCE and the
birth of theorias (note: not the
theories of positive sciences) i.e. a deep understanding of the world or a
DARSANA of TRUTH, the Viddhantic leads to
various conceptual fabrications or ideological systems satisfying in some
ways. In this sense and in a very simplistic way, we
can view the philosophical battle in the Tamil country as between these two
forms of thinking with Siddhantic constituting
the central tendency. If for Greeks and the West man is a rational animal,
for the Dravidian man is a learning-teaching
animal, i.e. pedagogic. The Dravidian entelechy, the moving principle is that
of pedagogy.
In the 13th century Meykandar accomplishes what no other philosopher, even to
this day, has accomplished, viz. Fundamental
Ontology (anatip poruLial) i.e. Pati Pacu and Pacam as ANATI- metaphysical
realities ALREADY THERE uninaugurated
or unoriginated. This notion was first announced by Thirumular in the 7th
century itself but which remained simply a notion
and not a fundamental philosophical TRUTH till the time of Meykandar. Under
the impact of Meykandar?s brilliant
achievement, there was a great outburst of philosophical and scientific
activities. It cannot be an accident that the Siddhas
became very active and productive in areas other than philosophy and
metaphysics- in psychology, physiology and human
anatomy, pharmacology, medicinal sciences, psychotherapy and many others
subsequent to Meykandar. Meykandar appears
to have given the Fundamental Ontology that all sciences need.
The pedagogic nature of the Dravidian sciences led to the identification of a
LOGIC inherent to it and we find the rigorous
expression of it in the Civanjanabotham of Meykandar. The divisions of
Pramanaviyal, ilakkanaviyal, catanaviyal and
payanial defines the rational structure of the pedagogic sciences and because
of which the subsequent treatises on S.Sid were
cast into these forms. Since Fundamental Ontology i.e. the Pramanviyal and
Ilakkanaviyal termed collectively also as the
Pothu, the universal, once accomplished is accomplished forever, metaphysical
inquiries as such came to a close. However
in the matters of Catanaviyal there cannot be such a final and conclusive
achievement. The cariyai kriyai yokam and jnanam
and related matters became the main focus and we find the Siddhas competing
very effectively with the Saiva Philosophers.
Within the main stream S. Sid tradition , we have the 16th cent.
Tattuvappirakasam of probably Sikazi Tattuva Nathar as a
very significant achievement in this line of inquiry. Because the LOGIC
inherent to the pedagogic systems was not
explicitly formulated by Meykandar, and that provided by Arunandi was not
entirely satisfactory, there were also interesting
investigations into this. While many texts produced are lost, we are
fortunate to have Pati Pacup Pacap Panual of Kankatti
Marainjana Sambanthar as a record of the logical investigations of the
period. We can also include the following texts as
truly S.Sid. in the sense that they keep to Fundamental Ontology of
Thirumular-Meykandar: the texts of CiRRampala
NadikaL such as TukaL Aru Potham and TukaL Arupothak Kattalai of possibly one
of his students,; the Sathya jnana Potham
and many others of Civanjana Vallal, the Cataciva Rupam of CattaiNatha
Vallal, the Saiva Samaya Neri and others by
Kankatti Marainjana Sambanthar, the Pancathikara Villakam of Sithambaranar
and numerous brilliant texts by the Siddhas
which are slowly becoming available to the world.
NO AUTHORITY IN SIDDHANTA.
A close scrutiny of these texts makes it abundantly clear that in this
Siddhantic i.e. pedagogic scientific tradition there is NO
AUTHORITY OTHER THAN THE AUTHORITY OF TRUTH. All investigations are
hermeneutic- interpretive studies of
TEXTS and TEXT ANALOGUES which always come with a DUALITY of structure, the
Surface Structure that constitutes
the phenomenal component of experience and Deep Structure, the hidden the
noumenal but which is the Nimitta Karana, the
Agentive Cause. Whenever there is an enigma , there is a TEXT of some kind
that we do not understand, there is
IGNORANCE in us about its content. Then we try to destroy this ignorance by
the exercise of some UTTTIES, and gain a
vision of the D.S elements that in fact agentively fabricate the phenomenal
S.S elements. We gain LUMENS , variously
called uLLoLi, CiRcakti etc that confers clarity of understanding and hence
subjective certitude. A penetrating
decompositional analysis of this primary process of philosophic experience,
as already undertaken by Meykandar shows that
in such processes there is SHOWING and because of which there is SEEING on
the part of the anma. When the anma SEES
as shown and only as shown, TRUTH is apprehended and a feeling of certitude
is also experienced along with it. When a
person endeavors unfailingly along these lines, he is helped by the
PANCAKRITTIYAMS of SIVA, the BEING. It is Civa
who thus instructs the anmas, and the WORLD PLAY is enacted by HIM in the
assembly of Tillai precisely for this purpose.
As long as the anmas continue their pedagogic odyssey, through countless
births and deaths always mindful that what one
ought to gain is TRUTH and nothing else, there will a come a time when BEING
will confer MUKTI and release the anma
from phenomenological circulation that, in fact, can be interminable.
We must remember that Civa is present in the soul of every man instructing
each according to his own pakkuvam, or
readiness to learn. Everyone is guided all along by the ever present BEING
and hence when all our hermeneutic efforts are
consistent with the inner guidance that is always available, we shall
develop, progress and succeed in accessing higher
modes of being in the world. And in this the experiencing of TRUTH is very
important. When we experience something with
apodictic certainty, indubitable and absolutistic, we are also given to
understand that we are moving in the RIGHT direction,
travelling along the RIGHT PATH that Thirumular called Sanmarkkam and
Thirunjanasambanthar ThiruNeri. The san-
markkam is path (markkam) of gaining lumens (san)
Philosophical inquiries, no matter how profound and penetrating, can only
emplace us on the RIGHT PATH, secure a way of
life in which we experience TRUTH and nothing else. They cannot do more than
that. A profound knowledge of a
philosophical system is nothing more than good scholarship. When a
philosopher ceases to LIVE IN TRUTH, he will not
develop as an individual and become closer to Civa, i.e. lose pacuttuvam and
gain in Civattuvam. Such an individual will be
avidly scholastic but not wise. Even philosophical texts such as
Civanjanabotham, can only set us on the path of ThiruNeri,
by justifying that way of living as the RIGHT one. An understanding of the
text in itself is not attaining MUKTI which is
always the exclusive privilege of Civa to confer.
If this is the case then we must draw out an immediate implication of this.
If it is the exclusive privilege of BEING alone to
confer MUKTI, then we cannot set up any scripture or rituals such as the
Cambava Tikkai as authoritative in itself and hence
also any person who may be the producer of such scriptures and manager of
such rituals . CIVA is a living presence and only
HE and no other can confer MUKTI and that too only for the deserving .
The absolute authoritativeness of BEING follows from the fact that it is HE
who is the cangkara karanan, the agency of
destructive -generative processes in the world and without which there can no
changes let alone developments. The
cangkaram are acts of episodisation where when something, say X , is
episodised, another, say Y, is allowed to show itself up
as there now in place of the earlier X. The episodised or historicalised,
i.e. put as now in the past, is not annihilated or
destroyed but rather assimilated into the fabric of Y and so in a way
retained. Such episodisations are universally present and
all of them have as their component processes the pancakrittiyams but we can
SEE them only within the framework of
hermeneutic scientific glances as Meykandar painfully shows in the first
sutra of Civanjana Botham. As we pursue inquiries
within this hermeneutic glances firmly well entrenched, we meet TEXTS after
TEXTS with each new TEXT more
comprehensive and deeper than the earlier. In the end the whole world is
taken as a TEXT and metaphysical inquiries
entered into. It is at this point that Fundamental Temporality, Fundamental
Intentionality (aaNai) and so forth are met with
and FUNDAMENTAL ONTOLGY as such established. It is here too the presence of
BEING is noted through first noting the
universal presence of episodisation i.e. the pancakrittiyams and because of
which BEING is known as cangkara Karanan,
Antham-Athi and so forth.
As we investigate anything whatsoever within the framework of the notion of
Hermeneutic Science, BEING enacts unknown
to us, episodisations- cangkarams- within our understanding facilitating
thereby learning and hence development through the
destruction of ignorance caused to be there by anava malam and so forth. The
Malams are the Dark Forces that always act to
pull the anmas towards the evil, ignoble, bestiality, ignorance, stupidity,
sloth and what not. The hermeneutic scientific way
of being in the world is that which ensures that we are in the CANNITHI or
PRESENCE of BEING so that we are graced
with episodisations continuously and because of which there is gaining of
LUMENS and hence learning as such.
The Undermining of Siddhantic Tradition
The Dravidian philosophic tradition suffered a tremendous set back from the
beginning of the 17th cent, the
century of some great Siddhas and Saiva philosophers. The decline of the
Cholas and the general pessimism that came to
prevail made the Viddhantic ideas rather attractive, a drug of a kind to
sooth the pains of continuos humiliation at the hands
of foreigners. But the seeds of Viddhantic development was laid by Kannudaya
Vallal, who actually began as a strict Saiva
Siddhanti but drifted away with his formulation of philosophical methodology
as consisting that of Sruti, ukti and anubavam.
For him the Sruti was the Hymns of Thirunjana Sambanthar and he argued that
such sruties are authoritative thereby
undermining the pedagogic scientific character of genuine Saiva Siddhanta. He
in fact coined the hybrid term
Vedanta-siddhantam to distinguish his system from that of Meykandar. The 16th
cent. Smartha Brahmins, Corubananthar and
Tattuvarayar seized upon this opening and quickly displaced the Thirumurai as
Sruti and emplaced the Upanisads especially
the Mahavakkiyas. The 16th cent Corubasaram, Corubavunthiyar and the numerous
works of Tattuvarayar such as
Tattuvamirtham, Amirthsaram and so forth and later Kaivalya Navaneetham of
Tandavaraya Suvamikal signify the growth of
the Viddhantic tradition going well beyond AthiSankara himself in the
subtlety of analysis. In the 19th cent. it is works on the
Viddhantic tradition that remain quite outstanding despite the attempts of
Somasundara Nayakkar. Arumuga Navalar and
many others to arrest this unhealthy development.. The Vivekacudamani of
Sankara became the model and numerous texts,
brilliant in many ways, such as Subanuva Rasayanam of Sundara Swamikal, the
Vedanta Ilakanam of Caccithananthar, the
Ilakkanavirutthi of an unknown author , the Motca Sathanam of Ramanatha
Yogikal and numerous others were composed and
studied avidly submerging the Siddhantic tradition or at least weakening it
considerably. Also Vedanta tradition ceases to be
that of Smartha Bramins only- it became the main philosophy of leading Tamil
thinkers.
The Death Of Saiva Siddhanta Tradition
It can be seen that in all these Vidhhantic texts the notions Sruti Ukti and
Anubavam continue to be paraded as constituting
the Logic of philosophical inquiries, however the choice of Sruti is not that
of Thevaram as it was the case with Kannudaya
Vallal but rather either the Upanisads or the writings of Sankara. Though
towards the end of the 19th cent. such valiant
individuals as Somasundara Nayakkar, Sundara Sivaccariyar, Arumuga Navalar,
Pampan Swamikal and many others put up a
battle to arrest the decline of Siddhanta and the rise of Viddhanta, it
appears to have had no effect at all necessitating the
frontal attack by Periyar in the early 20th. Century.
Recent developments in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere indicate that the hermeneutic
scientific spirit of true Siddhanta tradition
is dead and it is the authoritarian Viddhanta thinking that reigns supreme.
Even the Atheenams meant to keep alive the
scientific spirit of Saiva Siddhanta have failed in it miserably. The notion
of TRADITION has now been raised to the level
of an Authority so that such Atheenams demand compliance and submission
failing which the right to call oneself a
civajnani is not confered. The attainment of Civajnanam is seen as a matter
of undergoing certain diksas and the
Atheeenams self-arrogating to itself a position of AUTHORITY through
maintaining the rights over these diksas.
In such a decay and degeneration of Siddhanta tradition, the spirit of open
ended and free inquiry i.e. the practice of
Hermeneutic Sciences can never flourish. The literary productions become
simplifications, which in fact effect dilutions,
tedious and repetitious commentaries or empty eulogies. New depths are not
accessed and if at all, the persons in authority ,
the Atheenams and others actively discourage their proliferations for fear of
losing their own authoritative positions. The
practical and urgent problems are bypassed or ignored as any active and
meaningful analysis will lead to the birth of new
ideas. As it stands today the Siddhanta tradition has become a DEAD
tradition, lacking in vitality and enterprise.
This is the situation in which we are right now and with which we cannot be
complacent. Come what may we must dismiss
all authorities except the authority of TRUTH and press our hermeneutic
inquiries into areas untreated earlier. A tradition is
alive only to the extent it is productive of new ideas.
We must also note a peculiarity about the Siddhantic Tradition . It is a
tradition that detraditionalises an individual. It
encourages freedom and autonomy so that in the end an individual becomes
totally autonomous like our Appar, unafraid of
any earthly power. The siddhantic tradition in being essentially pedagogic
DEVELOPS educationally an individual so that
he is emplaced in ThiruNeri after which Civa Himself takes over. No man
should aspire to be CIVA himself or to pretend to
do what only CIVA can do viz. confer MUKTI.
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DrK.Loganathan
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