THE HISTORY OF MANIKKA-VACAGAR. 129 



according to the Caiva system, is really 'matter,' something very 

 difterent from the ' Illusion ' of the Vedanta system. And now Civan 

 lias two forms or bodies, the one which has j^arts and is visible, the other 

 which is without parts, invisible and transcendent. {Sa-Kala and Nish- 

 Kala.' 



Beyond these mystic bodies is his own natural foim, which infinitely 

 transcends them. It is his essential form of wisdom, which is mere light 

 and splendour. He is thus the supremely blessed soul of all things, and 

 the five acts of destruction, preservation, creation, embodiment, and 

 gracious release (Note I) are his ceaseless mystic dance. Of this dance 

 the sacred Vedas know the excellence, but are not cognizant of its cause, 

 its time, its place, its full intention. In the forest of Taruvanam, in the 

 midst of the Eishis, the gods beheld it ; but, because that is not the world's 

 centre, it trembled beneath his foot. In sacred Tillai, which is the exact 

 centre of the universe, shall this dance be finally revealed, and there the 

 god promises to Athi-geshan that he shall again behold it. 



' Meanwhile,' adds the manifested Civa, ' that thou mayest make thy 

 way to (^ithambaram, it is necessary to put oflF thy form of Athi-ceshan, 

 for the inhabitants of earth would be affrighted by thy thousand heads, 

 and gleaming eyes, and expanded crest. Thou shalt be born, or seem to 

 be born, of mortal parents, retaining in part thy serpent form. Then 

 descending into the world of dragons, thou shalt make thy way to where 

 a hill is seen, and a cave, entering by the southern gate of which thou 

 shalt emerge into the groves of Tillai. There is the original lingavi, and 

 near to that is the shrine which shall be the scene of my manifestation. 

 There, too, thou shalt find my servant the " Tiger-foot," who is performing 

 penance there. D'well as his companion in the hermitage, and to you both 

 shall in due time be accorded the vision for which you are longing. 

 Accordingly Athi-ceshan, who has now become a devotee, part man and 

 part serpent, under the name of Pataiijali,* meets with the Tiger-foot, 

 makes for himself a hermitage, and plants a lingam, where he performs 

 his daily worship. The living creatures in the wilderness at first were 

 sore aflrighted : ' AVe first saw the man with a tiger's feet, and now we 

 see another, half dragon and half man,' said they, and fled ; but by-and- 

 by, accustomed to the sight, they roamed around the heimitages in perfect 

 amity. 



The next book of the Puranam expatiates at great length upon the 

 first institution, as it would seem, of the great festival still observed when 

 ^ivan is supposed to dance in the Golden Hall. 



* A word of doubtful origin, tata = ' faUinrj,'' and akjali = 'reverential clasping 

 «/ hands.' 



