शिवज्ञानबोध (मेय्कण्डार - शैव सिद्धान्त का आधारभूत दार्शनिक सूत्र ग्रन्थ)

INTRODUCTION. v

explanations enter; and the passages, will certainly lose their
meaning unless it is viewed in its proper place, as for instance, in
regard to the purport of the 2nd Sutra of the first Adhyaya, the
objection of the translator (p. xcii), which is perfectly cogent, will
lose its point, if it is not taken as a definition of God but as in-
volving the proof of the existence of God. The Sutra, "Brahman
is that whence the origination and so on (i. e. the sustentation
and reabsorption) of this world proceed," is exactly the same as
the first Sutra of Sivagnana Botham and the same meaning is
conveyed by the first Kural of Thiruvalluvar also. In passing,
I may refer the reader to the Swetaswatara Upanishad, translated
by Dr. Roer, the philosophy of which is exactly the same as
herein expounded, though the learned doctor puzzles himself as
to what this philosophy could be which is neither Vedanta, nor
Sankhya nor Yoga and yet reconciles or attempts to reconcile all
these doctrines.
Coming back to the Agamas, very little is known regarding its
antiquity from the point of view of the European Scholar. The
Nyayikas use the word Agama Pramana, where we would now say
Sruti Pramana, meaning Revealed Word, the word of God or of
the highest authority. So that the Agamas should go back far
behind their time. As the popular phrase runs, Vedagama Purana
Itihasa Smrities, its period should be fixed after the Vedas
and before the rest of the group. Observes Rev. Hoisington,
the first translator into English of Sivagnana Botham, "the
Agamam which contains the doctrinal treatise given in this work,
may safely be ascribed to what I would term the Philosophical
Period of Hinduism, the period between the Vedic and Puranic
Eras. These doctrines can be traced in the earlier works of the
Puranic period, in the Ramayana, the Bhagavat Gita, and the
Manava Dharma Sastra. They are so alluded to and involved in
those works, as to evince that they were already systematized and
established. We have the evidence of some Tamil works that the