The Metaphysical Tamil - 4
Let it be noted that in the History of Indian Philosophy there does not exist a book like Civanjana Botam (CJB) that is a marvel of both depth of metaphysical insights and clarity of logical thinking.
A divine gift, as the story goes, it established very firmly the metaphysical foundations for Saivism in the most inclusive sense i.e. a philosophy that accommodates all shades of metaphysical thinking but at the same time bent on pointing out the erroneous quite mercilessly so that only TRUTH prevails. Tantric Buddhism of MaNimekalai should be credited with its beginnings and the philosophical Jainism of Nilakeci with further and substantial developments. However it is Meykandar who raised it to a level of astuteness that was the very peak of such a development never to be repeated ever since.
Saivism stands like a solid rock, unshaken and unnerved by any kind of new philosophy that came to India and try to rob of its foundations. For the point is Meykandar accomplished through CJB something even beyond Husserl’s attempt to found philosophy as a rational science with his phenomenology of eidetic reduction and what not. It is not philosophy that has been transformed into a science but the whole realms of metaphysics and hence the religious dimensions of human existence itself. Of course the insights were already there in Tirumular’s Tirumantiram and the hymns of Appar, Sambantar, Sundarar, Manikkavasakar and so forth. But while these baktas opened new vistas through their aesthetics, there was also a requirement for the rational foundation of even this aesthetics and it is this that is accomplished by Meykandar and followed with AruNandi, Umapati and so forth.
A divine gift, as the story goes, it established very firmly the metaphysical foundations for Saivism in the most inclusive sense i.e. a philosophy that accommodates all shades of metaphysical thinking but at the same time bent on pointing out the erroneous quite mercilessly so that only TRUTH prevails. Tantric Buddhism of MaNimekalai should be credited with its beginnings and the philosophical Jainism of Nilakeci with further and substantial developments. However it is Meykandar who raised it to a level of astuteness that was the very peak of such a development never to be repeated ever since.
Saivism stands like a solid rock, unshaken and unnerved by any kind of new philosophy that came to India and try to rob of its foundations. For the point is Meykandar accomplished through CJB something even beyond Husserl’s attempt to found philosophy as a rational science with his phenomenology of eidetic reduction and what not. It is not philosophy that has been transformed into a science but the whole realms of metaphysics and hence the religious dimensions of human existence itself. Of course the insights were already there in Tirumular’s Tirumantiram and the hymns of Appar, Sambantar, Sundarar, Manikkavasakar and so forth. But while these baktas opened new vistas through their aesthetics, there was also a requirement for the rational foundation of even this aesthetics and it is this that is accomplished by Meykandar and followed with AruNandi, Umapati and so forth.
Now we must note that CJB has TWO levels of logical structure, the General and Local. The General Structure pertains to the PROGRESSIVE structure of the text as a whole and which was noted in Tolkaappiyam as the Atikaara MuRaimai, how a text has SEQUENTIAL organization and which is simultaneously progressive. The truth of the First Sutra gives birth to the Second and which both collectively gives birth to the Third etc. So by the time we come the final sutra, the 12th, the truths of all the earlier sutras are presupposed. Now within this organizational structure is superimposed another - the Potu and CiRappu where the first 6 sutras are the Potu and remaining 6 are the CiRappu. What is Potu is the Metaphysica Generalis, metaphysical truths that are UNIVERSAL and hence already there in the understanding of all human beings, the past, present and future and not only among the Saivites but in the mind all people whatever their religion or culture. Such truths are the AXIOMATIC TRUTHS and therefore NOT the peculiar possession of any one-person, religion or culture. Now the CiRappu is Metaphysica Specialis and which is the APPLICATION to existence so that existence becomes AUTHENTIC - not the false and misleading but the true. The true Existential Meanings are worked out and presented as what one OUGHT to seek out and hence what one OUGHT to do by way of attaining that for which existence is. And this true meaning is Moksa and which requires that one should worship BEING in attuviti anbu, in LOVE that sees no difference at all with any.
So collectively the whole text can be said to be Metaphysica Universalis with the component parts of Metaphysica Generalis and Metaphysica Specialis (to borrow some terms from Kant)
But what makes this exercise something in Hermeneutic Logic?
This is where the impact of Tolkaapiyam, MaNimekalai and Nilakeci are evident. The whole text is cast within the structure showing in order, make others See what one has in fact seen. This kind of logical dialogue was called KaaNdikai Urai in Tol. where the word KaaNdikai is a noun derived from the injunctive KaaNdikaa! , Please you see. This is also the structure of Nilakeci where the first chapter outlines the darsanas, what one has seen as truths and the remaining chapters deconstructed against this initial description of truths. The same structure is followed by Meykandar and which is quite visible in the LOCAL structure where each sutra is divided into various theses and each thesis is SHOWN to be true so that others can SEE what is shown and through that come to an agreement.
Each sutra is divided into a number of atikaraNam or theses where again collectively these atikaraNams would lead to the truth of the sutra. . But each atikaraNam has a MeeRkooL, the truth that is asserted accompanied with REASON (eetu) and UtaaraNam (argument). Here again we see the Circular structure that we also see in Tolkaappiyam and later taken over by Naiyaiyikas, where the Pratiknja is also the same as the Nigamana but with a change in the logical status, as Pratiknja it remains an assertion but as Nigamana it becomes something collectively agreed upon and hence accepted as truth. The MeeRkooL, that which is asserted or shown as true is given the REASON and illustrations so that others can also SEE what is shown. The term MeeRkooL is derived from the verb meeRkoLLal and means accepting as true, presupposing as true and so forth.
Thus in this way Meykandar gives a detailed and very elaborate structure to the Hermeneutic Logic, a kind of Communicative Logic and in which through an immensely rational activity of the mind, the gifted who has seen the Axiomatic Truths labors also to MAKE SEE OTHERS what one has seen and here not invoking any authority whatsoever. It is this aspect of it which makes the whole a text in science i.e. in Hermeneutic Science.
And as part of this Hermeneutic Logic, the deconstruction of UNTRUTHS is unavoidable and this is done in a masterly fashion of MeykaNdar throughout the whole text. For example the first Axiomatic Truth is that there is BEING and He is ONE - not many. In showing that this is truth several schools of thought contrary to this are deconstructed and in that deconstruction the truth is allowed to emerge as that which cannot be deconstructed. Here the understanding is that the TRUTHS cannot be deconstructed, the attempt to deconstruct and with that destroy and disperse them will FAIL with that failure itself establishing it as a truth.
It is this insight available in CJB that is taken over and given an epic like dimensions in the massive Civanjana Cittiyaar by AruNandi where attempts is also made to delineate explicitly the Hermeneutic Logic of MeykaNdar in CJB.
ULLAGANAR
( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )
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