IFP – PUBLICATIONS HORS SÉRIE 11

PASSAGES: RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN

TAMIL AND SANSKRIT

Edited by
Kannan M.
Jennifer Clare

INSTITUT FRANÇAIS DE PONDICHÉRY

TAMIL CHAIR
DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY
Comité de lecture

Prof. François Gros

Director of Studies, École pratique des Hautes Études, Paris
Dr. P. R. Subramanian
Chief Editor, Mozhi Trust, Chennai

© Institut français de Pondichéry, 2009 (ISBN: 978-81-8470-176-0)

Published by the French Institute of Pondicherry and
Tamil Chair, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies,
University of California at Berkeley
Typeset by Mrs. T. V. Kamalambal, IFP
Cover Illustration:
Kāraikkālammaiyār. Tiruvālaṅkāṭu.
Bronze, Photo: IFP. Neg. No. 7985-9 (14.06.1978)
Cover design: N. Ravichandran, IFP
Printed at All India Press, Pondicherry
 Sanskrit and Tamil in the service of Śaivism
T. Ganesan

From a very early period in the history of the Tamil country Sanskrit and Tamil
were used together for the propagation of the Śaiva religion.1 To cite the most well
known instance, the earliest Śaiva saint, Tiruñā­acampantar born in a family of
gveda Brahmins, sang the glory of Śiva in melodious and devotion-inspiring
Tamil while making pilgrimages to numerous Śaiva holy places. We know of
others, such as Appar,2 Kāraikkāl Ammaiyār, Cuntarar, etc. who have done the
same. Language was never a barrier or an impediment to the spread of religio-
philosophical doctrines nor to that of the arts and sciences. While the common and
popular devotional aspects were expressed in the medium of Tamil the scientific
and textual authority were in Sanskrit. Taking the case of Śaivism (which is
applicable as well to other religions) Veda and the Śaiva texts (which comprises the
āgama corpus and the devotional corpus, Tēvāram) are held to be its foundation.
As mentioned by Cēkki©ār at the beginning of the section called Tiruñā­a-
campantarpurāṇam of his opus magnum Tiruttoṇṭarpurāṇam, “Tiruñā­a campantar
took incarnation in this world to restore and propagate Vedic practices (vētaneŸi) as
well as the Śaiva religion which is a branch of the Vedic religion (caivattuŸai)”.3
The Śaiva religion was in the early period an integral part of Vedic religion as
vouchsafed by no lesser authorities than the Nāya­mār devotees such as
Tiruñā­acampantar, Tirunāvukkaracar in their immortal Tēvāram hymns and
Tirumāḷikait tēvar, Kaṇṭarātittar and others of a slightly later period.

• Śaiva philosophical texts

One of the earliest texts expounding āgama doctrines in Tamil is Ñā­āmirtam of
Vākīcamu­ivar who, in all probability, lived in the 12th century. In the introductory
part of his work he states that he is giving the nectar of āgamic doctrines in Tamil
after churning the milky ocean of āgama-s.
Aruḷnantiśivācārya of the 13th century carried the spread of Śaivasiddhānta
religio-philosophical system further by writing an elaborate commentary,

1
In fact, Buddhist and Jaina teachers, some of whom living in south India, started composing
their texts both in logic and those intended to propagate their religion, in the Sanskrit language
whose earliest canons were in Pali and Ardhamagadhī.
2
Appar says that Śiva is the source of the āriyam (Sanskrit) as well as drāviḍam (Tamil).
¬Ã¢Âõ ¸ñ¼¡ö ¾¢Ã¡Å¢¼õ ¸ñ¼¡ö . . .
3
§Å¾¦¿È¢ ¾¨Æò§¾¡í¸ Á¢Ì¨ºÅòÐ¨È Å¢Çí¸ . . .
164 T. Ganesan

Civajñā­acittiyār, on the Civañā­apōtam of Meykaṇṭār. He expounded the

Śaivasiddhānta as based on the veda-s and the āgama-s, and, following in the
footsteps of the great nāya­mār devotees; he categorically states that there are only
two textual corpus—the Vedic and the Śaiva. He goes on to say that, while the
former is the basic and foundational (potu), the āgama-s are special type of
literature (ciŸappu) that were revealed to persons of divine merit (śaktinipātar) and
Aruḷnanti adds that all others types of texts are subsumed by these two.4
Aruḷnanticivācārya was called Sakalāgamapaṇḍita according to traditional
accounts. But the substantiation and the proof that he was really a
sakalāgamapaṇḍita is brought out beyond any doubt only by Nigamajñānadeśika in
his great work Śivajñānasiddhisvapakṣadśṭāntasaṃgraha his guru (also called
Nigamajñāna) also had the title āgamapaṇḍita as is known from the colophons of
some of his works such as the Śaivaṣoḍaśakriyāprakāśikā, jīrṇoddhāradaśaka, etc.
For almost each verse of the Civañāvacittiyār Nigamajñāna brings in many parallel
passages from the āgama and other Śaiva texts as supportive evidence.5
In the 14th-15th centuries texts such as the Tattuvappirakācam, Tattuva-
viḷakkam were composed which fully expound the āgama doctrines in Tamil.
Campantacaraṇālayar, the author of the Tattuvaviḷakkam, states in his introduction
that he is composing this text in Tamil in order that those who do not know the
Sanskrit language can also understand the subject matter expounded in the Śaiva
āgama-s which were taught by Śiva on the Kayilai mountain (verse, 3).6
TiruneŸiviḷakkam of unknown authorship, probably belonging to the 14-15th
century, says that the text explains the Śaivasiddhānta concepts based on the
utterances of the nāya­mār-s and the Śaivāgama corpus thus making them a single
unified scriptural base.7

4
§Å¾áø ¨ºÅá¦ÄýÈ¢Ãñ§¼ áø¸û
§ÅÚ¨ÃìÌõ áÄ¢ÅüÈ¢ý Ţâó¾ áø¸û
¬¾¢áø «¿¡¾¢«ÁÄý ¾ÕáÄ¢ÃñÎõ
¬Ã½áø ¦À¡Ð ¨ºÅõ «ÕﺢÈôÒ áÄ¡õ
¿£¾¢Â¢É¡ø ¯Ä¸÷ìÌõ ºò¾¢¿¢À¡¾÷ìÌõ
¿¢¸úò¾¢ÂÐ ¿£ûÁ¨È¢¦É¡Æ¢ ¦À¡Õû §Å¾¡ó¾ò
¾£¾¢ø ¦À¡Õû¦¸¡ñΨÃìÌõ áø¨ºÅõ À¢Èáø
¾¢¸úâ÷Åõ º¢Å¡¸Áí¸û º¢ò¾¡ó¾ Á¡Ìõ (º¢ò¾¢Â¡÷, 267).
5
For more details refer to T. Ganesan, 2008: Two Śaiva Teachers of the sixteenth century:
Nigamajñāna I and his disciple Nigamajñāna II, Publications of the French Institute,
Pondicherry, Hors Série, 9.
6
º£Ã¡÷ ¸Â¢¨Äò ¾¢ÕÅ¡öÁÄ÷ó¾ º¢Å¡¸Áí¸ü
ȡáöÅРż¦º¡üÀ¢ýÈ¡÷ì ¦¸Ç¢¾õ ¦Á¡Æ¢¨Âî
º¡Ã¡¾ÅÕó ¾òÐÅ»¡Éó ¾¨ÄôÀξü
§¸Ã¡÷ ¾Á¢úî ¦ºöÔÇ¡ý ¨ÁÂȣà ¦ÅØÐŧÉ.
7
ÁÕǢɢ¨Ä ¦¸¼Åؾ ¸¡Æ¢§Åó¾÷
Å¡¸£º÷ Åý¦È¡ñ¼÷ Å¡¾çÃ÷
 Sanskrit and Tamil in the service of Śaivism 165

The 16th century in Tamil Nadu saw voluminous productions of Śaiva texts in
Tamil as well as in Sanskrit. Several teachers were proficient in both languages and
many of their Tamil works were adaptations of Sanskrit originals. Nigama-
jñānadeva, also known as MaŸaiñā­acampantar, and his nephew cum disciple,
Nigamajñānadeśika are notable among them. These two authors worked in
collaboration for the wide propagation of śaivism: The disciple comments on some
of the important Tamil works of his teacher and composes textual compendia as
commentaries to his teacher’s works containing parallel verses from the vast āgama
and the purāṇa corpus with the principal aim of establishing the authoritativeness of
the literary works of his spiritual teacher.
Both of these wrote texts elucidating all the branches of Śaivism. For them,
Śaivasiddhānta encompasses, apart from the caryā, kriyā, etc. that are enjoined and
explained in the āgama-s, the broader ones such as the sthalapurāṇa and various
other religious acts of service like dāna, religious vows (vrata-s), serving the
devotees of Śiva, etc. which serve as the foundation of śaivism for the common
man. Further, in the history of Śaivasiddhānta in Tamil Nadu it was MaŸaiñā­a-
campantar who was the first to compose CaivacamayaneŸi which is the first text
written in Tamil explaining the daily rites of a Śaiva initiate and based entirely on
the Śaiva āgama-s such as the Sūkṣmāgama.

• Sthalapurāṇa-s
By composing the Tamil adaptations of sthalapurāṇa-s, such as the Aruṇakiri-
purāṇam and KamalālayacciŸappu8 which extol the Śaiva holy places of Tiru-v-
aṇṇāmalai and Tiruvārūr respectively Nigamajñāna has made the ideas contained in
the original texts easily accessible to the common man. Through the medium of
these texts he has endeavoured to spread the simple and fundamental ideas of the
Śaiva religion to the masses.
In the same way, the Tamil adaptation of the Śivadharmottara, one of the
earliest texts of Śaivism earned Nigamajñāna great fame. It is among his
masterpieces containing as it does all the basic concepts pertaining to the religious
and social practices of an ardent Śaiva. For many centuries this text and the other

¦¾ÕÇ¢¿¢¨Äî ¦ºó¾Á¢úôÀ¢ý ¦ºøž¡¸î

º¢Å¡¸Áò¾¢ý ¸Õò¾¸Ä¡î ¦ºö¾¢Â¡¸
. . .
þ¾ý§À÷ Óò¾¢ì
¸¡É¾¢Õ ¦¿È¢Å¢Çì¸ Á¡Ì Áý§È. (TiruneŸiviḷakkam, verse 12).
8
Nigamajñāna states at the beginning that he is composing this Tamil adaptation of the
Kamalālayapurāṇam at the request of many of the local brahmins and Śaiva devotees.
166 T. Ganesan

one, Śivadharma, were very widely studied in many parts of India.9 They have been
the source of fundamental views of Śaiva religion based on supreme devotion to
Śiva. Persons belonging to all walks of life—a common man, a person who wants
to worship Śiva with so many ingredients, a king,10 a religious mendicant, a person
interested in earning merit (puṇya), a person interested in constructing temples for
Śiva, and he who wants to preserve the āgama corpus by putting them into written
manuscripts—can derive benefit from these two texts.11 Service to fellow human
beings is very much inculcated in these texts.
There are other texts of Nigamajñāna in Tamil, such as the Cōmavāra-
kaŸpam, MakācivarāttirikaŸpam, MācacivarāttirikaŸpam, etc. which are unique to
Tamil Śaiva religious literature. Since they explain in detail the performance of
these vows, their significance and all other related matters. For this Nigamajñāna
has adapted into Tamil some chapters of the Skanda and other purāṇa-s that deal
with these vows. Through these texts he conveyed the most important aspects of
these vows to all including those who do not possess enough knowledge in Sanskrit
or of the purāṇa-s. In all these attempts at Tamil adaptations of the āgama and the
purāṇa texts Nigamajñāna’s aim seems to inculcate strong faith and devotion in the
ritual practices of Śaivism as well as to make them widely popular by rendering
them accessible to the ordinary men.
Of a slightly later period, we have the Tamil adaptations composed by the
great Pandya kings – Varakuṇarāma­, Varatuṅkarāma­, Ativīrarāma­ – of the
Liṅga-purāṇa, Vāyusaṃhitā, Brahmottarakhaṇḍa, Kūrmapurāṇa which are Śaiva
purāṇa-s that have been serving as the basic texts for the common men.
If we look at the practice of singing the glories of most of the Śaiva saints
and ācārya-s at the beginning of their literary compositions, it is Nigamajñāna who
comes first. For we notice that in many of his Tamil Śaivasiddhānta philosophical
compositions, such as Paramōpatēcam, Patipacupācappa­uval, CaṅkaŸpanirā-
karaṇam, Nigamajñāna dedicates one verse paying obeisance to each of the Śaiva
saints beginning with Sambandhar, and Maṇivācakar, Tirumāḷikaittēvar, Kāraikkāl-
ammaiyār, Haradatta, the great devotee of Śiva, and the Śaiva santānācārya-s. This
clearly shows an attempt to bring into a single group all the devotees of Śiva that
lived in Tamil Nadu from about the 4th century to the 11th century (Kāraikkāl-

9
Many of the medieval smti compendia have drawn a great deal from these two texts.
10
In the Śivadharma there are many passages that extol the greatness and the merits of such
devotional acts as growing flower gardens and worshipping Śiva with different sweet smelling
flowers grown there. One may plausibly conclude that the kings, especially the Chola kings
who gave large endowments for the growing of flower gardens around many Śiva-temples were
very much influenced by texts such as the Śivadharma.
11
Scholars of Chola history well know that many Chola kings instituted endowments in some of
the great Śiva temples for the exposition (vakkāṇittal) of the text of Śivadharma.
 Sanskrit and Tamil in the service of Śaivism 167

ammaiyār to Haradatta) as well as the santānācārya-s (Meykaṇṭār and Aruḷnanti-

śivācārya).12

• Incorporation of Tamil traditions into the śaiva daily rites

Nigamajñānadeśika in one of his greatest compendia, Ātmārthapūjāpaddhati,
explains the daily obligatory rites that a Śaiva ācārya must perform. After
describing in a very detailed fashion the worship of Śiva that the ācārya should do
at home Nigamajñāna states that he should visit the Śiva-temple and bow down
before the various deities reciting their dhyānaśloka-s. He further says that after that
he may also recite Vedic mantra-s, sing hymns13 in as many as eighteen languages
including Tamil. The Kāmikāgama prescribes that one may recite the Veda and the
hymns in as many as eighteen languages, sing musical compositions and perform
dance before Śiva.14

• Teaching the āgama-s

We find very interesting informations in the Śivadharmottara about the formal
teaching of the āgama-s by the ācārya to his disciples. In explaining the āgama-s
the ācārya may use Sanskrit or Prākt or any other regional languages easily
comprehensible to the student.15 Thus we may clearly see that the guru is supposed

12
For him the Śaiva religio-philosophical system is entirely baed on the Vedic corpus (including
the Upaniṣad-s), the Śaivāgama corpus, the Śaiva purāṇa-s (including the sthalapurāṇa-s), the
exclusively Śaiva texts such as the Śivadharma and the Śivadharmottara, and the entire range
of Śaiva TirumuŸai (the Tamil devotional hymns of the devotees par excellence of Śiva called
nāya­mār) and of course, the texts that are grouped under Meykaṇṭacāttiram.
13
The Śivadharmottara speaks highly of singing the glories and the names (nāmasaṃkīrtana) of
Śiva which, it holds, is highly beneficial and brings immense results:
नामसीतनािप  ूसन े िशव यः .
कयााु  तमारं न त िवफलं भवते .्
े
वदायनम ोऽपाठािदकं त ु वा .
14

इतरा िािवडभाषां गाननयतं ृ ु त ु वा .

अादशमहाभाषों गानं वा पिरकयते .्
15
ृ
संृतूाकतािदतशोिचतभाषापे ैः िशानप ु ैवाैः
 ...
संृतैः ूाकतैवा ृ  ैः दशभाषाूकारज
े ु ः) .
े (समवै
ैः (नाना) दश
ूाकतूभवैृ ः शा ैः ोकै  संृतैरिप .
अऽ लौिककशने यः िशमनपतः ु .
े
दशभाषापायै ु  तथाभतागम ू रै िप .
े
ूदशवितिभः  सवदशान  े ्
बोधयधः े ु .
The Śivadharmottara in a different context asks what the use is of those sentences that express
sentiments such as attachment (rāga), aversion (dveṣa), untruth (anṛta), anger (krodha) and lust
(kāma) even if they are in Sanskrit and couched in sweet sounding words?
े ृ
रागषानतबोधकामतृ ु
ानसािर यत .्
े ु
वां िनगूढहतात ् ु 
तभािषतमतु े.
े
संृतनािप िकं तने मृना लिलतने च .
168 T. Ganesan

to impart the teachings of the agama-s clearly to the student irrespective of the
language and he is free to choose any language that is easily understandable to
students.16
For another well-known work called CaivacamayaneŸi composed by the guru
Nigamajñāna I, his disciple Nigamajñāna II brought out a voluminous compendium,
again, of parallel āgama and purāṇa verses, in order to prove that the
CaivacamayaneŸi fully accords with and is based on the Śaiva āgama corpus.17 We
can say that this is a basic reference text in the sphere of Śaiva obligatory and
occasional rites and that a text of this nature is the first of its kind in Tamil. The
same remark also applies to the Tamil texts composed by MaŸaiñā­acampantar on
some of the Śaiva vrata-s as we have seen earlier.
These are some of the important and far-reaching contributions of
Nigamajñānadeva and his disciple in the domain of Śaivism based on their literary
compositions in Tamil and Sanskrit.
Next, we turn our attention to Śivāgrayogī belonging to the Suryanarkoil
Śaiva monastery who was a contemporary of Nigamajñāna. He also composed
many important texts in both the languages for the propagation of Śaivasiddhānta
religion and doctrine. He is rightly famous for his commentary in maṇipravāla style
on the Civañā­acittiyār which is, in all probability, the only text of its kind in Śaiva
literature. In the introductory verse, 12 of his text, CivaneŸippirakācam Śivāgrayogī
clearly says that he is briefly explaining the fundamental teachings of
Śaivasiddhānta as given in the Śaiva āgama corpus.
In the late 17th century, Veḷḷiyampalavāṇattampirā­, one of the monks of the
Dharmapuram Mutt, who was very well read in the āgama-s and other allied
literature and who was a prolific writer,18 has translated six chapters of the
jñānapāda of the Mṛgendrāgama19 into Tamil verse.

16
Himself the translator of some of the very important Śaiva texts, such as Śivadharmottara, the
sthalapurāṇa-s, and the author of the CaivacamayaneŸi which gives the quintessence of the
āgamic teaching in Tamil it is but apt that Nigamajñāna stress the importance of teaching the
āgama-s in Sanskrit or any other language that is ‘understandable to the students’.
17
From the introductoy verses of the Śaivāgamaparibhāṣāmañjarī (ŚPM) we know that the
monastery situated at the south-eastern side (āgneyyāṃ diśi) at Chidambaram where
Nigamajñāna and his disciples were residing was filled with the manuscripts of āgama and
ू 
other literature. Cf. आगममरौघ ैरापणमठमिरम ।् (ŚPM, 0: 4b)
18
His very elaborate commentary (pērurai) in Tamil on Muttiniccayam, one of the important texts
of his teacher, Guru Ñā­acampantar, has earned him great fame. In this commentary he cites
passages from many āgama-s and other texts, mostly bearing on the doctrinal intricacies of
Śaivasiddhānta system.
19
Mṛgendrāgama is one of the important āgama texts whose section dealing with the
philosophical doctrines (jñānapāda) has influenced to a great extent, the later development of
doctrines of the Śivajñānabodha school. Cf. K. Sivaraman, Saivism in Philosophical
 Sanskrit and Tamil in the service of Śaivism 169

In this way the both Sanskrit and Tamil languages were utilized as compli-
menting each other throughout the history of Śaivasiddhānta in Tamil Nadu by
many of the greatest Śaiva teachers during the most crucial periods in the religious
history of south India. This practice was very helpful in widely propagating the
Śaiva religio-philosophical doctrines to the ordinary people as well as to the erudite.

Perspective. A Study of the Formative Concepts, Problems and Methods of Saivasiddhanta,

Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi, 1973. pp. 31-32.