The Colas c34.80

c34.80

43. Ramaṇa Śāstri says that the original forms part of the *Raurava Āgama* (*Tirumandiram* Intr. p. 7). The view has often been expressed that the Tamil work is the original and the Sanskrit is the translation. See T. I. Tambyah: *Psalms of a Śaiva Saint*, p. xix. The arguments adduced in support of this position are inconclusive. The Sanskrit work is in anuṣṭhup verse like all āgamas, corresponds to the Tamiḻ sūtras, and does not contain anything corresponding to the Tamiḻ vārttikas. Both Umāpatiśiva, author of the *Pauṣkarabhāṣya* and Śivāgrayōgi held the view that the Sanskrit work is the original. cf. V. P. Kāntimatinātha Pillai, *Tamiḻ-civa-ñāna-bōdac-ciṟappu* (1926) pp. 54, 59. Vidyāraṇya is said to have written a monistic exposition of the Sanskrit work, *ibid.*, pp. 30, 47. Śiva as *guru* told Māṇikkavāśagar that he held the *Śiva-ñāna-bōdam* in his hand; this may be not so much a daring anachronism antedating the work of Meykaṇḍār as Pope thought (*Tiruvāśagam*, xxii), as the expression of a belief in the antiquity of the Sanskrit work of that name.