தரமலரன கணககயல நடபஙகள / Arithmetic Techniques of Thirumoolar

Religion refines human beings and guides them toward a righteous path. Among diverse religions, Saivism holds Shiva as the supreme primordial God and is revered as one of the principal traditions. The sacred texts of Shaivism are classified by scholars into two categories. One is the devotional hymns (Thothiram) and the other is doctrinal treatises (Saathiram). Among the twelve sacred texts of Saiva, “Thirumanthiram” is honoured as the tenth Thirumurai. It is honoured as both a devotional and philosophical work. The term Manthiram signifies its protective power for those who meditate upon it and the Thirumanthiramalai embodies protection for its believers. Thirumular is a Siddha who articulated his philosophical insights in the “Thirumanthiram” through a hermeneutic literary style and employed numerical symbolism (Ennalangaram) with intricate similes, metaphors, and proverbs in its four-line verses. His discourse on conveying spiritual truths (Meyneripporul) through numerical allegory is a distinctive feature in the entire sacred text. This article examines Thirumular’s arithmetic and philosophical reasoning as employed through the commentary of Arunaiyar to produce a detailed analysis of his numerical hermeneutics. “Thirumanthiram” is the great resource of Saiva Siddhanta. Hence, the study highlights the synthesis of devotion, metaphysics and esoteric wisdom in the theological and hermeneutic literary significance of “Thirumanthiram”.