rtant sect of the Lingayats should perhaps be regarded as an
offshoot of this anti-brahmanic school, but before describing it, it
may be well briefly to review the history of orthodox Sivaism in the
south.

By this phrase is not meant the sect or school which had the support
of Sankara but that which developed out of the poems mentioned above
without parting company with Brahmanism. Sankara disapproved of their
doctrine that the Lord is the efficient cause of the world, nor would
the substitution of vernacular for Sanskrit literature and temple
ceremonies for Vedic sacrifices have found favour with him. But these
were evidently strong tendencies in popular religion. An important
portion of the Devaram and the Kanda Purana of Kachiyappar, a Tamil
adaptation of the Skanda Purana, were probably written between 600
and 750 A.D.[547] About 1000 A.D. the Tirumurai (including the
Devaram) was arranged as a collection in eleven parts, and about a
century later Sekkilar composed the Periya Purana, a poetical
hagiology, giving the legends of Sivaite saints and shrines. Many
important temples were dedicated to Siva during the eleventh and
twelfth centuries.

There followed a period of scholasticism in which the body of doctrine
called the Saiva Siddhanta was elaborated by four Acaryas, namely
Mey-Kanda-Devar[548] (1223), Arunandi, Marainana-Sambandhar and
Umapati (1313). It will thus be seen that the foundation of Sivaite
philosophy in Tamil is later than Ramanuja and the first Vishnuite
movements, and perhaps it was influenced by them but the methodical
exposition of the Saiva-Siddhantam[549] does not differ materially
from the more poetic utterances of the Tiruvacagam. It recognizes the
three entities, the Lord, the soul and matter as separate, but it
shows a tendency (doubtless due to the influence of the Vedanta) both
to explain away the existence of matter and to identify the soul with
the Lord more closely than its original formulae allow. Matter is
described as Maya and is potentially contained in the Lord who
manifests it in the creative process which begins each kalpa. The Lord
is also said to be one with our souls and yet other. The soul is by
nature ignorant, in bondage to the illusion of Maya and of Karma, but
by the grace of the Lord it attains to union (not identity) with him,
in which it sees that its actions are his actions.

In modern times Saiva theology is represented among Dravidians by the
works of Sivanan