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

vi SIVAGNANA BOTHAM.
Agama doctrines were revived in the South of India before
Brahminism by which I mean Mythological Hinduism obtained
any prominent place there. From some statements in the Rama-
yana, it would appear that they were adopted in the South before
Rama's time. This would fix their date at more than a thousand
years before the Christian Era, certainly as early as that of the
Ramayanam." Adopting another method, it can be very easily
shown that they go far behind the date of Buddha, and though
it is said that the religion of the Hindus at that time
was Hinduism (a meaningless word from the stand point of
the Hindu) the only religion which stood against Buddhism and
Jainism in their palmiest days and into which they finally merged
themselves, without leaving a single vestige in India, was the
Saiva Religion. The struggles between Buddhism and Jainism
and Saivaism are celebrated in the annals of our saints,
Upamanya Bhakta Vilasa and the Tamil Peria Purana, and of
these saints the great Manickavachaka, the famous author of
Thiruvachakam belonged to the Buddhist period and the great
Gnana Sambantha and Vakisa, the authors of 'Thevaram,' belonged
to the Jain period, though our learned Swami Vivekànanda seems
to know very little of them, in spite of the fact that all our
temples in Southern India and not a few in the utmost bounds of
Mysore Province contain their images and all the principal
festivals in Madras and in the mofussil are celebrated in their
honor, I refer to the Makiladi feast in Thiruvottiyur, Aruvathu-
muvar feast in Mylapore, Aruthra feast in Chidambaram and
Avanimula feast in Madura, not to speak of innumerable other
feasts connected with every other temple. Such is the paucity
of knowledge possessed by foreigners and conveyed in the English
language regarding South Indian Chronology, language, religion
and Philosophy, chiefly through want of patriotism and enthu-
siasm on the part of Tamil speaking Indians of the South. Regard-
ing the antiquity of the Saiva Religion itself, M. Barth after
observing that the genesis of the Religion is involved in extreme