dear freinds, last week i went to thiru-avadu-thurai adheenam. i saw the gomuktheeswarar shrine. i had a few discussions with the junior pontiffs. my search was to find out the last days of thirumoolar.
thirumoolar's works were found hidden in the palipeedam of the temple. sambandar retreived them in 644 AD. even appar has recorded about the sambandar's activities in avaduthurai. the retreival work of sambandar is still celebrated here.
the questions are why moolar hid the books under the palipeedam? how did he die? the dheekshidhars of chidambaram say he merged into the chit-sabai. there is a local tradition which says his body was burried beneath the adhimoolar shrine within the chidambaram temple.
the stone carvings within the temple show thirumoolar standing with vyagrapadhar and pathanjali. the dheekshidhars view moolar as a contemporary of the other two mythological men(?). the moolar images are undoubtedly shown in many places along with these other two.
moolar has translated the 9 agamas which were most important of the 28 siva agamas. his work is still the pivotalwork for sivasiddhantha scholars. yet his origins and life is shrouded in mystery.
the kalabhras who ruled from 250AD-500AD are generally beleived to be samanars. it is also said their remnants are stll living in mangalore and udupi districts(in the western ghatts). did the samanars destroy the saivite works?
how come scholars like nakkeerar,kabilar and paranar did not write any saiva works? even if we think they do not belong to the sangam period was there noone in the sangams to write about siva? after all siva was portrayed as the chirman of the sangam!
was there a conspiracy among samanars and kalabhras to destroy saivam? why there is so much antagonism in the sambandar's poems towards samanars and budhists?
the killing of 3000 samanars in madurai was a counteraction of the saivite renaissance! is the present day saivite-buddhist conflict in srilanka a revival of the older memories?
all these thoughts needs systematic study. we must know that these questions are unanswered by anyone.