The Tirumantiram, believed to have been written in midfirst millennium CE, is regarded as the tenth of the twelve volumes of the Śaiva Tamil canon Paṇṇiru Tirumuṟai used in worship in Śiva temples all over Tamilnadu. The Tirumantiram is a collection of approximately 3100 verses in lucid Tamil written by Tirumūlar, regarded variously as a ŚaivaSiddhānta yogi, a nātha yogi, and a tāntric. Tirumūlar’s verses form the basis of the Tamil ŚaivaSiddhānta philosophy; they also deal with tantra and yoga. Unlike (...) other ŚaivaSiddhānta texts, the Tirumantiram elaborates on aṣṭāṅga yoga like in the yoga sūtras of Patañjali; it further goes on to describe several āsanas and prāṇāyāma in elaborate detail. Acknowledging that classical and modern scholarship on yoga have paid scant attention to the work of Tirumūlar, this essay provides an insight into Tirumūlar’s legacy. It compares the aṣṭāṇga yoga of Tirumūlar framed in the context of ŚaivaSiddhānta with the approach of Patañjali. It also shows the continuity of the Tirumūlar tradition in the framework of bhakti literature and in the context of the earlier Tamil approach to āsanas. It establishes that no narrative on yoga is complete without acknowledging the enduring contribution of Tirumūlar. (shrink)

The author analyses the change in the Tamil Śaiva bhakti concept of corporeality showing that understanding the body of a bhakta as the main obstacle to connecting with the body of Śiva based on the attitude of rejecting one's corporeality has much in common with Buddhist and Jain ideas about the body. Therefore, the main task of the bhakta was to liberate from his body, its elimination or transformation (remelting the physical body as an impure body, as an obstacle body (...) on the way to union with God). They solved this task in various ways, including various practices of ecstatic behaviour and self-harm. The concept of kaya siddhi put forward by Tirumūlar is the idea of a perfect body, potentially immortal and homologous to the body of Śiva. He also formulated and developed sophisticated techniques for using the physical body of a sādhaka as the primary tool for achieving liberation based on yoga techniques and working with the mind of an adept. The result achieved was presented in the description of Tirumūlar's own mystical experience. As a result, he achieved the state of the super material body of yoga-deha, the ideal of which is the manifest body of Śiva as Naṭarāja. The new iconography of Naṭarāja formed in the visionary insights of bhaktas, who described their darśans in their hymns. Then it became the basis for forming a new iconology of Naṭarāja and the cult of images of the bhaktas themselves embodied in the intensive temple construction of the Chola Empire. In combination with new ritual practices, the Tamil philosophy of Śaivism had formed as a tripartite religious and philosophical canon of Śaiva Siddhānta. This canon included the poetic canon of Śaiva bhakti (Paṉṉiru Tirumuṟai), the agamic temple ritual, and 14 philosophical treatises of Śaiva Siddhānta (Meikaṇṭar Shastras). (shrink)