SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

224 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD.
"We have, however, left the greatest distinction of this
system till the last. As a system of religious thought, as an
expression of faith and life, the Saiva Siddhanta is, by far the
best that South India possesses. Indeed, it would not be rash
to include the whole of India, and to maintain that, judged by
its intrinsic merits, the Saiva Siddhanta represents the highwater
mark of Indian thought and Indian life, apart, of course,
from the influences of Christian Evangel."
And we had remarked in our introduction to Tiruvarutpayan
or Light of Grace : "And there can be no doubt that we
have, in these works, the brightest and largest gems, picked out
from the diamond-mines of the Sanskrit Vfcdantic works, washed
and polished and arranged, in the most beautiful and symmetri
cal way, in the diadem of Indian thought."
Through want of active propaganda, by means of lectures
and conferences, the subject
is not properly brought to the
notice of the English-educated public, and appreciated by
them as it deserves to be; and we are, therefore, much obliged
to the editor for having allowed us to contribute a paper on
the subject.
and Indian scholars,
Despite the opinion of a few European
who would trace Saiva Siddhanta to a purely South Indian
source, we have all along been holding that Saiva Siddhanta is
nothing but the ancient Hinduism in its purest and noblest
aspects; and it is not a new religion nor a new philosophy, and
lit can be traced from the earliest Yedas and Upanishats. We
Ido not hear of anyone introducing Saivaism at any time into
India, and the majority of Hindus have remained Saivaites from
before the days of the Mahabharata.
The ideal of the Highest God has, from the beginning, been
centred round the person of Rudra, or Siva, and in the Rig
Veda we find him described as the "Lord of Sacrifices and
Prayers," and we find this maintained, in the days of Valmik:,
when beliefs in other deities were slowly gaining ground.
Consistently with this position in the Rig Veda, the Yajur
Veda declares that "There is
only one Rudra, they don t allow