SIVAPURAANAM - Part 1 - Introduction

OM NAMA SIVAAYA

Today with His blessings, I am starting with Siva puranam, written by Sri Manickavasagar.

Siva puraanam is the text that speaks about the glory of Lord Shiva. Saint-poet, Sri Manickavasagar's songs are compiled under the 8th thirumurai of the 12 shaiva thirumurais. This siva puraanam, comes under tiruvasagam, which is in the 8th thirumurai.

There are 11 mantras in samhita. Eesaanam, Thathpurusham, Agoram, VaamadEvam, SatyOjAtam, Hrudayam, Siras, ShikA, Kavacham, NEtram, Athram. The first 5 are shiva's five faces. The next 6 come in anga nyaasam. The 8th mantra is called as shikaa mantram. Shikaa means, head top. There is no organ above one's head top. similarly, the scholars says, there is no higher text than tiruvasagam, which is in the 8th thirumurai.

Sigaikku mel oru uruppu illai
Thiruvasagatthirku mel oru thOtthiram illai.

is a saying, glorifying tiruvasagam.

Coming to Siva puraanam, it has 95 lines totally. It is divided into 4 parts.
Lines 1 to 5 - Blessings to the Lord
Lines 6 to 10 - Victory to the lord
Lines 11 to 18 - Bowing to the Lord
Lines 18 to 95 - Description of the Lord

Blessings to the lord! - well it seems surprising. The lord need to bless us. How come, we bless the lord? If you see, it is one form of worship. In Vaishnavism, we see Sri Periyaazhvaar singing Pallandu. It is nothing but, protecting the lord from the evil. We use to take a pinch of rock salt, few chillies, pepper in our hand and rotate our hand infront of our lovable possession, like child, vehicle and put a bar to the evil forces. This tradition is called as "Drishti kazhithal". so, in the same way, Sri Manickavasagar, Sri Periyaazhvar and other divine saints, considered the Lord as their valuable possession and did the same in the form of songs. In Siva puraanam, this comes as "vaazhga" section.

Victory to the lord - This is a section which describes the different characteristics of the lord's feet and declares let such feet win forever. This comes as "velga".

Bowing to the lord - This is popularly called as archanam, of the 9 types of bhakti. In sanskrit, the name of the lord is said with a prefix "Om" and a suffix of "NamaH". In Siva puraanam, manickavasagar tells a name of the lord suffixed with the word "pOttri". Eight names of the lord are told here and it signifies the 8 characteristics or attributes of the Lord. Tamil Poet, Sri Tiruvalluvar, in his tirukkural, first chapter, would have told about the lord as "eNguNatthAn" or the one with 8 attributes.

Description of the lord - This section forms the major portion of the Siva Puraanam with interesting characteristics of the Lord.