Tradition · Shaiva philosophical school

Śaiva Siddhānta

Also known as Saiva Siddhanta, Shaiva Siddhanta, Saiva Siddhantam

Date

from about the 10th century

Function

Sacred site & pilgrimage

Tradition

Tirumurai; Meykandar Shastras; Shaiva Agamas

Confidence

Established / referenced

Worth knowing

It is the reason Tamil Śaiva temples are run the way they are: Āgamic ritual performed by trained hereditary priests, Tēvāram hymns sung by ōduvārs in the sanctum, and a monastic corporation rather than a family trust standing behind the whole arrangement.

Connections (2)

• Pilgrimage order ofThiruvāvaduthurai Ādhīnam

  The ādhīnams are what Śaiva Siddhānta has instead of a church: monastic corporations that own land, run Tamil and Sanskrit colleges, administer groups of temples, and train and post the priests and the ōduvār singers who staff them. Thiruvāvaduthurai and Dharmapuram are the two largest, both on the Kāveri within a few kilometres of each other, and their authority over ritual practice is recognised across Tamil Nadu's temple administration.

• Canonised by textChidambaram

  Śaiva Siddhānta holds that God, souls and bondage are all real and permanently distinct, so liberation is release from bondage rather than dissolution into the divine — a direct refusal of Advaita on the point that matters most. Its scripture is the Tamil Tirumurai beside the Sanskrit Āgamas, which is why Chidambaram and the delta temples sing Tēvāram in the sanctum and why the hymns have the standing of revelation rather than of devotional poetry.

Sources

Wikipedia, “Shaiva Siddhanta”. Sangeet Natak Akademi and Ministry of Textiles documentation, and the standard field studies.

• Wikipedia — Shaiva Siddhanta