A Short History of Metaphysical Tamil - Part 3

The Metaphysical Tamil - 3

The Bakti revolt was certainly the most momentous event in the cultural history of the Tamils and which earns for them an important place in the cultural history of India as a whole but now all ignored in a way perhaps due to the Aryan romanticism that has taken deep roots and color every Indological study. 


The Bakti revolt not only reinstated the AESTHETICS back into the center of cultural life through promoting music, dance and so forth, but also contributed the nuclear ideas for the birth or recovery of the Hermeneutic Logic that became the central contributions of the Tamil Saivites in the field of philosophy.

Certainly there was a severe criticism of the demonstrative  logic of the belief systems dominant at that time, who pretended that with Logic and hence rational thought alone they can affirm what is truth and what is not and for which purpose they transformed the ancient Naiyayika of the Pacupata Saivas (which itself is a distortion of the Hermeneutic Logic of Tolkaapiyam ) throwing away the Agama PramaaNa and hence with that the whole realms of transductive perceptions. It is against such reductionism that Sambantar sang “eetuukkaLaalum edutta mozikaLaalum mikku cootikka veeNdaa, cudarnterintuLan cooti emperumaan (Do not examine excessively everything (I say) with your logical mind, BEING stands shining brilliantly in my eyes). He also added that “ aatpaalavarkku aruLum vaNNamum aatiyin maaNbum keedpaan pukil aLavillai, kiLakka veeNdaa; (The ways BEING blesses the deserving and His own forms are beyond the measures of man and so no one can definitely say this is the Way and so forth). Added to that is the most momentous concept of Appar “aadduvittaal yaaroruvar aadaataaree? ( if played by BEING who can refuse to play? ) that brought out the relevance of DANCE metaphor even for metaphysics.

This understanding slowly worked on the Saivites and finally resulted in the writings of MeykaNda Sastras and numerous others from about the 11^th cent. But interestingly enough it was the Buddhists and Jains, so severely criticized during the time of Sambantar that paved the way for the rebirth of Hermeneutic Logic (Ta. eeraNaviyal) as opposed to the Demonstrative Logic that also prospered up to a point but later declined. The only book that applies Naiyayika Logic demonstrating the essences of Saiva Siddhanta is Njaanamirtham ( 11^th cent) but which did not take deep roots in the Tamil mind.  What took deep roots is Hermeneutic Logic and this was done by a masterly manner by Meykandar and his student AruNandi, and for which there is nothing equivalent in Sanskrit literature, as far as I know.

The birth and development of Hermeneutic Logic even within Buddhism and Jainism is all part of the Tamil cultural institution of debating, seeking out all the possible views and then determining or deciding what is truth. In Tolkappiyam we have as part of PuRam or public life a department where different sages and philosophers (aRivar) come together and sought to vanquish each other in the court of the kings. Every major festival also had as part of the celebrations the Patti ManRam where such debates took place. We have also kuRaL ( c. 2^nd cent AD?)declaring “ epporuL yaar yaar vaayk keedpinum, aporuL meypporuL kaaNpatu aRivu’ (It is the  mark of intelligence to seek out TRUTH no matter what is the subject matter and from whose mouth it comes)

MaNimekalai (c. 5 th cent) is a unique book in Buddhism that survives in full to this day.  Over all it appears to be a book in Tantric Buddhism with magic and such other supernatural themes playing a central role. But unlike its earlier twin Cilappatikaaram, the focus is Buddhist philosophy or Dharma and which is explained in the final two chapters. Many scholars say that Buddhist Logic outlined here differs in some important details from that of Dharmakirti,  Dignaga  and so forth who were also Tamil Buddhists who lived in Kancipuram, at that time a famous center for Buddhist learning. But what is important for us is the 17^th chapter, the Samayak KaNakkar Tam TiRam Keedda Kaatai, i.e. the story of listening to the different schools philosophy of the philosophers of the times.

This interesting episode is said to have taken place in Vanjci Maanakar, the capital city of Kerala and MaNimekalai, in the guise of a young man, listens to  ALL the different schools of philosophy active at that time  before deciding upon the TRUE WAY of Philosophy, the  Dharma.  There were the followers of Viyasa of Veda, Jaimini and Mimamsakas, Lokayatas and Kirutakoodi and so forth who propounded Demonstrative Logic which are further developments of modifications of Naiyayika Logic of Gautama who is also mentioned. But as distinct from them we have also mention of Saiva Vaati and VaishNava Vaati perhaps indicating that Bakti movement was already beginning or was in the formative stages. It is interesting that the Vedantic schools, particularly the Advaita of Sankara, is NOT mentioned at all in this in Vanjci in Kerala, the birth place of Sankara!

But any way the point is there is this pressure to LISTEN to different schools of philosophy and the NEED to evaluate them or de-construct them before deciding what is true. This de-construction is very poorly done in MaNimekalai - it is simply stated that these philosophies do not  make sense in a summary fashion  and without clarifying in what way they do not make sense.

But this important defect in the structure of Hermeneutic Logic is made good in the Jaina classic  Nilakeci (c. 9^th cent AD), which also very fortunately exists in full and with several scholarly commentaries. It is cast in the form of epic tale, a product of a dream experience in which the seductive woman ghost Niili goes around debating with the different philosophers active at that time.  The strategy is quite clear. In the first chapter the basic principles of true philosophy is outlined and in the light of this and their implications the different schools are de-constructed. The de-constructed include Vedism, different schools of Buddhism, Samkhya and so forth  but interestingly enough not Saivism and VaishNavism, which were immensely active at that time. However we have here more structure given to Hermeneutic Logic where not only  the different schools of thoughts are understood but also de-constructed one by one.

It is this form that is seized upon by MeykaNdar and AruNandi but with a reversal. AruNandi divides his massive Civanjana Cittiyaar into Parapakkam and Supakkam where the Parapakkam contains the different schools of thought that are de-constructed and Supakkam that which cannot be deconstructed and hence the TRUTH and which happens to be Saiva Siddhanta in his treatise.

We shall take up these in some details next.

ULLAGANAR

( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )