by Tattuvappirakasar ( 14th cent)
( மூலம் தத்துப்பிரகாசர்)
This text is historically very significant for it is the earliest Tamil book in philosophy that is wholly in prose and I hope to provide both the original in Tamil as well as its translation into English.
The text bears the title "TukaLaRu BOtak KaddaLai " meaning a brief treatise concerning the instructions that would purify and liberate an individual from the internal and binding factors that serve actually the dirt, the TukaL.
Thiru. M. Arunasalam considers the author to be Tattupirakasar ( 14th century) , the direct disciple of the celebrated CiRRampala NadikaL, and who is also the author of another massive and authoritative text on Saiva Siddhanta viz. Tattuvaprakasaam, a book that was very widely studied in those days. CiRRampala NadikaL has also written another Saiva classic TukaLaRu BOtam and this kaddalai appears to be composed along the same lines but more to clarify the doubts raised by the nonbelievers. The whole text is in simple and in elegant prose and the structure is highly reminiscent of the prose of Upanishads and Socratic dialogues.
Despite the disarming simplicity, the treatise is clearly one of the deepest metaphysical masterpieces in world literature. Nowhere else, it appears to me, phenomenological investigation has been carried out to such heights and subtlety. Also the text is the clearest example of the form of metaphysical inquiry and excursions that forms the hardcore of Saiva Siddhanta system.
The contents of the text reveal that what is undertaken is NOT a mere epistemological inquiry about various systems of thoughts or knowledge -- and whether it is Absolute Idealism , Subjective Idealism or Naturalism that is true, whether there is Absolute and if there is then the relationship between IT and self is identity or difference or qualified identity-with-difference and so forth. The inquiry is concerned with the activity of seeing in the broadest sense and the search is for the agent who actually does the seeing. Also the inquiry is also not about the different definitions of seeing or pratyaksa but rather on seeing and seeing more and more till there is nothing more to see and in that process 'seeing' also that which actually does the seeing.
Thus the text is then strictly speaking neither philosophical nor scientific in the ordinary sense but rather AGAMIC, i.e. a manual of procedures for self-discovery of all that matters for understanding oneself the meaning of existence. One could say then that the text is hermeneutical-psychological in the sense that the overall effort is directed towards improving the UNDERSTANDING. It is psychological in the sense that a guru 'modifies' or transforms the psychological nature of sisya, a student through enabling him to SEE for himself his own self, the constraints that delimit his understanding and the Supreme Agent who grants the necessary liberation.
The author of the text clearly indicates that the form of inquiry that is unfolded in the body of the text is only for those who are in a very advanced state metaphysical maturity. The techniques described are techniques of gaining metaphysical illuminations ( njaana maarkkam) and they can be practiced only by those who have mastered the lower
( cariyai, kiriyai and yoga) in their previous or earlier existence.
Towards the end of the text the Guru himself describes the technique as that of 'can-maarkkam', a word that has become almost a cliche because of repeated and overuse. What it means is: the WAY ( maarkkam) towards Absolute IllUmination ( Ta. cun> can, cuur> cuun, cun : brilliance, radiance etc.)
The Guru here is obviously CiRRampala NaadikaL, the author of TukaLaRu BOtam, and a few other minor texts. He is said to be by Tattuva Prakasar at least, the last of the Meykandar Cantana Acaryas, a great credit no doubt.
It must be mentioned here that there is a striking parallel in the sequence of development of themes between the present text and TukaLaRu BOtam. Probably this KaddaLai is meant as an introduction of a peculiar kind to the teachings of CiRRampalavar as enshrined in the major treatise and by way clarifying further some themes. Or it could be considered as a literary record of the kinds of dialogues CiRrampalavar and his disciples had.
Introduction by Dr Loganathan Krishnan @ Ullaganar
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