Agamism, not Hinduism

The Six Great Traditions of Hinduism
(by Pathmarajah Nagalingam, owner of www.siddha.com.my)


1. Two Literary Traditions

There are two Literary Traditions in Hinduism in which original Hindu teachings have been recorded: the Sanskrit Tradition and the Tamil Tradition. (There is a third Pali Tradition but it focuses on Buddhism only). Of these three traditions, only Tamil is still a living tradition whereas Sanskrit and Pali are dead for all practical purposes.

Most Hindus are not aware that the Tamil texts are equally voluminous as the Sanskrit texts and some parts are thought to be as ancient as the Rig Veda although admittedly most of these old texts have been lost. These Tamil texts are even more profound in its universalist and all encompassing views covering not just Hindus but all mankind, all life as many of you are already aware.

The Tamil texts are approximately half of Hindu literary-shastras. Only now are Hindu scholars beginning to realise this, that all this while half of Hindu shastras are not known to most Hindu scholars, swamis and acharyas in this last century as it is in Tamil. In the last hundred years, most scholars and swamis wrote about Hinduism knowing only about one-half or less of its shastric heritage.

Tamil literature is still growing. More has probably been written on Hinduism in Tamil in the last 300 years compared to Sanskrit and all other vernacular languages in the last 1,000 years! Imagine that.

( Check it out. Here is a part listings of modern Tamil writings at http://www.geocities.com/athens/5180/chrono2.html and be mesmerised by a glimpse of the the extent of growing Hindu shastric heritage!)

2. Two Shastric Traditions

Two bodies of texts govern Hinduism as revealed scripture or shruti; the Vedas and the Agamas, and both are in Sanskrit. The Vedas are well known and is fire-ritual based worship or homas.

The Agamas are far more voluminous (28 Saiva plus 77 Shakta plus 215 Vaishnava texts, PLUS their upa Agamas) than the entire Vedas and all other smirthis together, but nobody knows much about the Agamas or quote from it. This is because it was entirely written by South Indians and maintained entirely in South India, and that it was written in the grantha script, not brahmi, nagari or devanagiri. Grantha is old Tamil script!

Have a look at grantha at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grantha and convince yourselves once and for all of the centrality of Tamil to Hinduism, and NOT Sanskrit.

In other words the Agamas were verbalised in Sanskrit and written in Tamil.

Herein lies the symbiosis of these two great literary and shastric traditions.

Today, Hinduism all over the subcontinent is based on the Agamas, and is not Vedic as Vivekananda too observed. Agama worship is temple, home altar worship, temple ceremonies, holy days and festivals, birth-to-death sacraments, etc. which is what Hinduism is today. While there are commonalities in Agama and Veda worldviews, they are poles apart in rituals. Even more telling is that they are unambiguous and specific in their teachings, unlike the Vedas.

We might as well call our religion the 'Agama Religion' rather than 'Hinduism' which is an Iranian corrupt and now an English word, or even 'Sanathana Dharma' which is a description and not a name, and besides it contains the word 'dharma' which can quite easily be extrapolated to include Varnashrama. I'm wary of that. So we, the followers are 'Agamists'.

However the Agamas are only now being translated into English and will soon be available to scholars.

3. Two Sectarian Traditions

The two great living sectarian traditions are Saivism and Vaishnavism which are embodied in the above four traditions. Of course there are many other traditions, like Shaktism which is related to Saivism, as well as Smarthaism which is related to all the preceding three in its practice, as well as hundreds of other sampradayas and vernacular traditions.

Conclusion

The non availability of Tamil and Agama texts in English is what led Hinduism to be presented in an unbalanced and distorted way to the Westerners as well as the modern Hindus who have been blinded to believe that there is varna in the religion, and it is benign. There is no varna system in Saivism or even in Shaktiism. There is 'supposed' to be no varna in Vaishnavism. (If only they realised that their own saints sang contradictory teachings to those contained in the Varnashrama texts, the BG and SB. That would have to be dealt with separately).

Now what shall we think of the writers from Mueller to Vivekananda right down to Sivananda and everyone in between and after, who studied and wrote based on half the literary traditions, then half of the shastric traditions? Their views as well as those of the Western Indologists was based on about one-third of Hindu heritage, an incomplete, unbalanced and less informed view.

Of interest to us here is that there is no varna in the Tamil and Agama traditions which comprise two-thirds of Hindu heritage, and perhaps our objectives and concerns were, well, unfounded.

If Hinduism was properly and proportionately presented in the first instance varna would have little or no place in Hinduism. The proper and balanced presentation of The Agama Religion would be our goal now, and in that process show the world that our religion, Agamism, is universalist, humane and egalitarian. It always has been!

So it is time for scholars and swamis to study Tamil if they want to know about Hinduism. Reading all those English commentaries and analysis of Hinduism is useless. Its 'garbage in, garbage out' for we already know its only a small part and that too a misinterpretation of Hinduism.

They still have to study Tamil script if they want to read Sanskrit texts! How about that! If not they are not knowledgeable about Hinduism.

This blows away 200 years of Hindu scholarship.

(originally published in akandabaratam@yahoogroups.com on 31 March 2006)

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