The Tree of Knowledge in Tamil Philosophy

Recently and within Evolutionary Psychology , the notion that the different system of thinking especially the psychological can be understood within the model of  a TREE of Knowledge  has been proposed and which is interesting for  in Indian circles and as  part of the Indic Traditions, such a view has been in existence for a long time.. 


Below I give a brief summary of this way of looking at the philosophical thinking of man from the Tamil sources and how it exists as part of the Tamil Philosophical culture to this day.


1. The stage is set by Tolkaapiyar (~ 3rd cent. BCC) where he sees philosophical debates and other kinds of combats among the human beings as belonging to the Vaakai TiNai which is taken as the PuRam of Paalai, a kind of social behaviour of the inner  the Desert Landscape and hence symbolically meaning the seeking to attain, the INNER DESERT landscape and hence Inner radiance and hence the Sunyata. He mentions that six kinds of Paarppaan or Brahmins, the philosophers ( aRivar) of faultless behavior and who has or seek to understand all, the eight  kinds of Taabatars or Yogies  and so forth are the people who are in this combat 
and who would endeavor to establish that their philosophy is faultless. ( taavil koLkait tatam kuuRRaip, paakupada mikutip paduttal enpa)

This parallels the notion of Parishads that is mentioned in the Upanishads.


2. We see a further development of this in the Camayak KaNNakar tam tiRangk keedda kaatai of Manimekalai, ( ~6th cent) where MaNimekelai, the heroine seeks to UNDERSTAND to the different schools of thought  before deciding that they are defective and the Buddha Dharma with its Logical Positivism  is the correct one. The different schools - the Samkhya,  Mimamsa , Nyaya , Vaisesika,  Saiva , VaishNava and so forth are simply DISMISSED as erroneous in a summary manner.


3. Then we have Civanjana Siddhyar ( 13th cent) where all the philosophical schools are are not only described but also DISCONSTRUCTED very elaborately,  a marvel of philosophical achievement that remains unparalleled to this day. All the different philosophies of India are collected together and organized into Parapakkam and Supakkam, where in the Parappakkam are included philosophies that are Discontructible while in the Suppakkam, the TRUTH understood here as that which CANNOT be disconstructed. This line of philosophical thinking is continued in SaGkaRpa NiraakaraNam of Umapati and the massive NjanavaraNa  viLLakkam of Gurunjana Sambantar and so forth. Tattuvap Pirakaasam 9 15th cent) also contains elements of 
this.


4. At about the same we have the Civapprikasa Tiraddu of one Sivaprakasar who very clearly organized all the different philosophies into a model of TREE with the different philosophical systems as the various branches. There is no attempt to DISCONSTRUCt but only an attempt to see the different philosophies of the human mind growing like the branches of a TREE and hence evolutionary in nature.


5. This gives way to simply a mere collection of Philosophies in such books as Vedanta Manana SintamaNi (18th or 19th cent) where the representative texts of ALL the major philosophical systems ( already in Tamil) are collected  together so that the the Philosophical Mind is exposed to the different ways in which mankind has thought leaving the stresses they create in the mind of the readers, enjoy illuminations as a result of it. Something similar is perhaps is also the intention of  Swami VidhyaraNya's Sarva Darsana Sangraham (~ 15th cent?)



ULLAGANAR
( 19-5-2002, AT )

( editing and re=paragraphing by his student )