for his devotees the one central and living
reality. The Sakti, often called Uma, is merely Siva's reflex and
hardly an independent existence.

The remarkable feature of this religion, best seen in the Tiruvacagam,
is the personal tie which connects the soul with God. In no literature
with which I am acquainted has the individual religious life--its
struggles and dejection, its hopes and fears, its confidence and its
triumph--received a delineation more frank and more profound. Despite
the strangely exotic colouring of much in the picture, not only its
outline but its details strikingly resemble the records of devout
Christian lives in Europe. Siva is addressed not only as Lord but as
Father. He loves and desires human souls. "Hard though it is for
Brahma and Vishnu to reach thee, yet thou did'st desire me." What the
soul desires is deliverance from matter and life with Siva, and this
he grants by bestowing grace (Arul). "With mother love he came in
grace and made me his"; "O thou who art to thy true servants true";
"To thee, O Father, may I attain, may I yet dwell with thee."
Sometimes[535] the poet feels that his sins have shut him off from
communion with God. He lies "like a worm in the midst of ants, gnawed
by the senses and troubled sore" ejaculating in utter misery "Thou
hast forsaken me." But more often he seems on the point of expressing
a thought commoner in Christianity than in Indian religion, namely
that the troubles of this life are only a preparation for future
beatitude. The idea that matter and suffering are not altogether evil
is found in the later Sankhya where Prakriti (which in some respects
corresponds to Sakti) is represented as a generous female power
working in the interests of the soul.

Among the many beauties of the Tiruvacagam is one which reminds us of
the works of St. Francis and other Christian poetry, namely the love
of nature and animals, especially birds and insects. There are
constant allusions to plants and flowers; the refrain of one poem
calls on a dragon fly to sing the praises of God and another bids the
bird known as Kuyil call him to come. In another ode the poet says he
looks for the grace of God like a patient heron watching night and
day.

The first perusal of these poems impresses on the reader their
resemblance to Christian literature. They seem to be a tropical
version of Hymns Ancient and Modern and to ascribe to the deity and
his worshippers precisely those sentiment