Saiva Siddhanta

The present book being an English translation of a German book entitled Der Saiva Siddhanta by H.W. Schomerus gives a full and documented account of this theistic movement then as now little known in the West. The book quickly became and still is the major reference work in this field in any European language. Schomerus cites siddhanta scriptures on each point. His book thus offers a systematic theology of the movement from its own basic texts many of which are not otherwise available in English.

Saiva Siddhanta is a special philosophy of Saivism. Saivism is a general name used to denote a number of Indian schools of thought that regard Lord Siva or Paramesvara as the supreme deity. Saivism is one of oldest schools of thought in the world. Even today, it is alive as an inspiring and inviting way of philosophizing and practiced as a religion by millions of people, not only in India, but all over the world. It stretches out across the sea to Farther India and the Archipelago and the mountain to central Asia. No other single religion, alive or extinct, in the entire world can boast of such an antiquity, as Saivism owns. This book is but an attempt to introduce the Philosophy of Saiva Siddhanta in order to serve the purpose of beginners- a work for the beginner and of course, by the beginner.

Saivism is one of the pervasive expressions of Indian Religious Culture stretching to the dim past of pre-history and surviving as a living force in the thought and life of millions of Hindus especially in Southern India and Northern Ceylon. The present work is scholarly reconstruction of Saivism in its characteristic and classical from as Saiva Siddhanta, focusing mainly on the philosophical doctrine and presenting a conceptual analysis of its formative notions, problems and methods. Anteceding the rise of the great systems of Vedanta including that of Sankara, Saiva Siddhanta in its fully systematised form as Mystical Theology in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries represents a constructive reaction to the theological, ethical and aesthetic aspects of Vedanta as a whole. A patient study of this much neglected phase of religo-philosophical development of India should prove useful for a more balanced understanding of Indian religiosity, providing a corrective to the view entertained not without justification that Indian religious thought does not affirms the values of freedom, love and personality. This methodical study, appended with very exhaustive glossary, bibliography and index and two-hundred pages of references and foot-notes is designed to meet the requirements of seriious students of Eastern religious thought.