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Re: The muslim connection

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Vidyasankar Sundaresan • April 14, 1997 


On Mon, 14 Apr 1997, K. Srinivasan wrote:

[...]

> That apart, in the earlier days (not now), perhaps Sri Vaishnavism was
> the least rigid and compassionate of the Hindu philosophies
> regarding other religions. 

Quite possibly, yes. 

> There has been no reported massacre of
> people because they did not agree with them. (There are reported
> massacre of Jains by Adavitins etc..)

This is not true. The reports of massacres of Jains refer not to advaitins
but to Saivas. Appar, Sundarar, Manikkavachagar and others were not
advaitins in any sense of the term. In Karnataka, the battles were between
Virasaivas (followers of Basava) and Jains, not between advaitins and
Jains. Manikkavachagar criticizes Sankaracharya's views. So do Srikantha
Sivacharya and Sripati Pandita, who both wrote Brahmasutra bhashyas from
the point of view of Saivism. 

Nowadays, it is generally assumed that all advaitins are and have always
been Saivas, and the sins/virtues of each group are mutually transferred
to the other. This is just not the case. Saiva groups all over south India
have aligned themselves culturally with the advaita mathas more or less.
This may be due to the historic influence of Appayya Dikshitar, but this
still does not make Saivas out of advaitins, nor advaitins out of Saivas. 

S. Vidyasankar