Civavakkiyar's 'Abecedarium Naturae.'

• Author: Steever, Sanford B.

0. INTRODUCTION

   No one who reads even a small fraction of Hindu religious literature can fail to notice how often and conspicuously sacred formulas, or mantras, appear in the texts of this vast corpus. Debates on the exact nature and purpose of mantras in religious discourse have taken place ever since the ancient ritualist Kautsa declared that 'mantras are meaningless' (anarthaka mantrah). Fueled by a variety of opinions from within Hindu tradition or introduced to it from outside, theories have burgeoned over time, and continue to be vigorously debated to the present day.(1) Here we study a medieval Tamil text, Civavakkiyam 'Aphorisms on Siva', to determine what role the pancaksara mantra plays in its theology and poetic structure.(2) Analysis suggests that the component letters of this mantra, along with a set of numerals associated with it, constitute an abecedarium naturae, or system of primordial signs that underlie and inform reality. The abecedarium forges a link between mind and matter by imposing its structure on both: it is consequently viewed as an esoteric theory that analyzes reality in terms of signs that correlate mind and matter.(3)

   The poet of Civavakkiyam did not fashion the letters of the mantra into an abecedarium just to satisfy a philosophical curiosity about the nature of reality, but rather to answer a serious theological question about his estrangement from Siva in the world. The abecedarium is meant as a support (sadhana) to help secure his release from the bondage of the world and so to overcome his separation from Siva. Each letter of the abecedarium - equally, the mantra - stands both for a basic concept in the theology of Civavakkiyam and for a step that brings him closer to Siva. Some of these concepts, particularly that of bondage, differ markedly from their counterparts in orthodox Saiva Siddhanta and imply unorthodox modes of worship. When the poet - who is also a devotee - recites the mantra and thereby activates the abecedarium, he begins a semiotic process that seeks to reduce symbols to icons and icons to indices so that the arbitrary signs of human language are transformed into concrete, absolute emblems of divinity. Since in the theology of Civavakkiyam signs are ontologically prior to both mind and matter, the reduction of signs is accompanied by a parallel factoring of mind and matter into their elemental forms in the divine ground of reality. The mantrika (poet-devotee) thus seeks radically to overcome his estrangement from God by invoking the mantra and abecedarium to dissolve the world and its bonds into their foundation in this ground, and so to participate in Siva's divinity.

   Section 1 sketches a background of Tamil Saivism, the tradition out of which Civavakkiyam emerged and against which it revolted. Certain features of orthodox Tamil Saivism, known as Saiva Siddhanta, are introduced in section 1.1, while in section 1.2 their reformulation in Siddha Siddhanta,(4) the theological system of Civavakkiyam, is discussed. Particular attention is paid to Civavakkiyam's revalorization of orthodox doctrines, particularly the doctrine of bondage: since the abecedarium establishes a correlation between certain realities and signs, it is important to understand what values Siddha Siddhanta ascribes to those realities in its doctrines. Section 2 then analyzes the poetic and semiotic functions of the abecedarium in Civavakkiyam, indicating how alliteration plays a role in both domains. At the end of this section, a brief comparison is made with two other abecedaria, one created by the Virasaiva saint Siddharama, the other by the savant John Wilkins. The central semiotic function of the abecedarium, that of reducing symbols to icons and icons to indices, is pursued in section 3.

1. BACKGROUND OF THE TEXT

   A brief account of our text, its historical background, and its theological content is needed in order to make what is said about the abecedarium intelligible. Civavakkiyam, or 'Aphorisms on Siva', written during the medieval period,(5) is a poem of approximately 550 stanzas which combines devotional and doctrinal themes. Other than the terse biography of the poet Civavakkiyar in the Apitana Cintamani,(6) nothing is known about him or his life. He appears to have been a Tamil brahmin versed in Sanskrit and conversant with the theology of Saiva Siddhanta. Legend holds that he took a wife of low caste, received initiations from a siddha guru, and in virtue of his siddhic powers performed certain miracles. What appears in one stanza (verse 536.4) to be a personal allusion to a pilgrimage to Benares records his profound disillusionment with the orthodox rituals prescribed in the Saivagamas: "To tell the truth, at Benares the seven hells lie in wait." Civavakkiyam both records the poet's encounter with the divine and develops that experience toward a theology.

   Although an obvious product of Tamil Saivism, Civavakkiyam also owes much to the siddha (Tamil cittar) movement, which drew members from both Saiva and Vaisnava traditions. A siddha is a kind of yogi who gains supernatural powers called siddhis (Tamil citti) through his yogic disciplines. The catalogue of powers varies from text to text, but the astamasiddhi 'eight great powers' form a stable core which siddhas invoke to control the world.(7) Orthodox Saivas condemned the siddhas as practitioners of black magic to the extent that even today the Tamil word cittar bears the opprobrium of 'practitioner of occult arts'. For these and other reasons, no critically satisfactory edition of a single siddha text has ever been produced. For example, many stanzas of Civavakkiyam are linked by antati, a device in which the offset of one stanza is repeated as the onset of the next; however, lapses in this scheme suggest the text is corrupt. Despite the lack of authoritative editions, there is sufficient agreement among the several published versions to permit preliminary study of the Tamil siddhas, their literature, and their religious beliefs.

   1.1. Saiva Siddhanta

   The Civavakkiyam was not only a product of Tamil Saivism, but also a revolt against it, particularly in its more orthodox and ritually attenuated forms. This revolt seems to have been directed against the orthodox Saiva Siddhanta school, so to understand its substance and the theology it gave rise to, we must first review some of the established doctrines of Saiva Siddhanta against which Civavakkiyar fought.(8)

   The fundamental doctrine on which Saiva Siddhanta stands, over against Kashmiri Saivism and Advaita Vedanta, is called the mupporul, or 'three realities'. Drawing on concepts from the classical Samkhya and Yoga philosophies, Saiva Siddhanta holds that there are three empirical realities: pati 'God', pacu 'soul', and pacam 'bondage'. Unlike some varieties of Advaita Vedanta, it posits these three as real and eternal; this contrasts with Vedantic doctrine, which postulates a single reality whose integrity and true nature are obscured by maya 'cosmic illusion'. God is held to be both immanent and transcendent, so that everything depends absolutely on him. Souls are said to be eternal and innumerably many. Bondage consists of three aspects, known as the mummala (Skt. trimala) 'three impurities':

1. mayai 'matter in its substantial aspect'.(9)

2. iruvinai (Skt. karma) 'causation' - the law of cause and effect which governs the disposition of substantial matter.

3. anavam (Skt. ahamkara) 'egoism, infinitessimal pollution', the property that attracts and engrosses the soul in matter.

   Saiva Siddhanta teaches that the soul is inherently liable to estrangement from God through its engrossment in matter.

   Saiva Siddhanta proposes four kinds of worship a devotee may perform to seek release from bondage in matter. These four, whose practical application is prescribed in the Saivagamas, are known as the patananku 'four paths':

1. cariyai 'conduct'.

2. kiriyai 'action, ritual'.

3. yokam 'yoga, ascesis'.

4. nanam 'knowledge, gnosis'.(10)

   By means of the four paths, the devotee may petition God for release from bondage. More basic, however, is bhakti (Tamil patti) 'devotion', the humble, self-effacing, and loving attitude which the devout soul assumes in its worship of God. According to Saiva Siddhanta, God reciprocates his devotees' love: he binds and liberates souls, not out of capricious sport (Tamil vilaiyatal, Skt. lila), but out of love (Tamil anpu) for them expressed through grace (Tamil arul, Skt. anugraha).

   Saiva Siddhanta, in its historical context, provides a theological interpretation of the profound revelations of the divine that the Saiva saints of the bhakti movement experienced.(11) Their insights into the nature of Siva took the form of hymns of praise to the Lord as he appeared to them in concrete manifestations at different sites in the sacred geography of India.(12) Around these hymns sprang up a cult of temples to commemorate the sacred precincts where Siva appeared: in Ramanujan's (1981) felicitous portrayal of the bhakti saints, he notes that "they literally sang places into existence." The cult of temples is maintained through the rules prescribed in the Saivagamas for temple worship. Furthermore, Shulman's (1976) able and insightful study of Tamil temple myths reveals just how deeply embedded the cult of temples is in the popular lore and imagination of Tamil Hindus. Far from being a vehicle of protest against religious institutions, as seems to have been the case in early Virasaivism, the bhakti movement in Tamil Saivism supported the growth of temple cults and institutions. Thus, much of what Saiva Siddhanta has to say about the soul's estrangement from God and how it may be reunited with him is mediated through the institution of the temple.

   1.2. Siddha Siddhanta in Civavakkiyam

   The theology of Saiva Siddhanta evolved both historically and dialectically, and is therefore not monolithic in character. However, since the theology of the siddhas, which Buck...