Sivanjana Botham
METAPHYSICA UNIVERSALIS OF MEYKANDAAR
This text stands till today the most important book of Saiva Siddhanta written by Meykandar in the 13th century, during the times of imperial Cholas. Though a brief text with only twelve sutras, it establishes the fundamental axioms of Saiva Siddhanta system with a logic that remains a marvel to this day. It is this book that provides the philosophical foundations for Saivism a whole and the grounds for the Saiva Adheenams or institutions that flourish to this day.
Though there have been several translations to this day, the recent translation of it by Dr.K.Loganathan surpasses all of them by accuracy , depth of understanding and appropriate references to the Western hermeneutic traditions. Great attention has been paid in the choice of appropriate English terms for rendering the meanings of the original technical terms in Tamil. Also in this translation perhaps for the first time, the underlying logic has been made clear and shown to be quite flawless. It is also shown that Saiva Siddhanta philosophy is essentially Metaphysica Universalis and that genuine metaphysics is possible only as Hermeneutic Science. This text will serve, we believe, to recover genuine metaphysics and hence rescue the world from the philosophical uncertainties that goes by the name of Post Modernism.
The translation also includes a lengthy introduction (150K) where the foundational principles are outlined very clearly tracing also their historical roots to Tolkappiyam and beyond that to Prevedic Sumerian times. References are also made to the Western Hermeneutic texts where relevant.
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