The Problem of Vagueness: Tirumular’s Attempts for Precision and Tryst with Vagueness

The issue of vagueness occurs when the speaker's meanings are not as clear or specific as the listener would prefer. Tirumūlar, the author of the Tamil Saiva classic Tirumandiram, at places wilfully uses vague language to convey mystical experiences. Some scholars construe that Tirumūlar’s tryst with vagueness as an attempt to keep higher truths hidden from the uninitiated. This paper explores Tirumūlar’s attempt for clarity and the unavoidability of vagueness in the light of Wittgensteinian idea of context sensitivity, drawing guidelines from Tamil sources on paradoxical statements, riddles, allusions, indirect suggestion, etc.