Advaitins

Sir, - In the course of his review of Mr. Ramachandra Guha's latest book An Anthropologist among the Marxists and other Essays (The Hindu, Jan. 21), Mr. T. G. Vaidyanathan makes a reference to what he calls as the late Prof. K. Swaminathan's ``own Saivite tradition''. This is written just to point out that the Tamil Brahmins called Iyers (in which `group' Prof. K. Swaminathan, Dr. Sanjeevi and Mr. Ramachandra Guha were born) are known as `Smaarthas' and not as `Saivites' as Iyers worship both Lord Siva and Lord Vishnu and treat both the deities as two forms of the one Absolute (called Parabrahmam). They are supposed to subscribe to Smrithis and hence they are Smaarthas - Smriti denoting a set of precepts for regulating the personal and social lives of people from their birth till death: obsequial rites and customs are also within the province of this Smriti Sastra and followers of this Smrithi Sastra are scattered across the whole of India from Kashmiri Pandits to Kerala Namboodris and they are not to be confused with those who subscribe to Saiva Siddhanta, worshipping Lord Siva as their only supreme deity (just as Sri Vaishnavites and Madhwas worship Lord Vishnu only and not Lord Siva). Smaarthas commence every ritual with Parameswara Preetyarthami (for the pleasure of Lord Siva) and conclude it with Narayana iti Samarpayami (dedicating it to Narayana i.e. Lord Vishnu)! They are all thus Advaitins and not Saivites.

K. Vedamurthy,

Chennai

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