Elements of Hindu Iconography v2.c15.23

v2.c15.23

with proper svaras all mantras, and study Śiva-jñāna. If he is a gṛihastha, he is privileged to utter the nityēshti mantras, and that too without proper intonation or nāda.” Though the Avaidika Śaivaism was essentially different in tenets at the beginning, attempts have been made at later times to identify Avaidikas with the Vaidikas. Srīkantha-Śivāchārya who wrote a Bhāshya on the Brahma-sūtras in accordance with the Āgamānta Śaiva teachings exclaims, na vayam vēda-śivāgamayōrbhēdam paśyāmah vēdasyāpi śivāgamatvat, (we do not perceive any difference between the Vēdas and the Śivāgamas, Vēdas are also as authoritative as the Śivāgamas); and at a later stage, that is, about the time of Appayya-dikshita (16th century A. D.), the Vēdantins began to study the Āgamānta philosophy and adopted several of their customs; at this day several of the anthropomorphic aspects of Śiva, which might, with propriety, be called peculiarly Āgamāntic, are worshipped by the Vēdic Śaivas, and they also get themselves initiated into the meditation on the Pañchākshara mantra. But they do not receive Tāntric dīkshā, nor do they interdine with those Tāntric Brāhmanas who are at present only priests in Śiva temples; the latter are always considered as low in the scale of Brāhmanas. The multiplication of images, both Śaiva and Vaishṇava, is due to the Tāntrikas who have devoted a great deal of attention to the description of images in their Tantras. The Vaidikas do not appear to have possessed so large a number of images for worship at the earlier stages at any rate.