Acknowledgments

I wish to extend my sincere thanks to Ramakrishna Mission VivekanandaCollege and our Principal, Dr. K. Sethusankar, for giving me an opportunity to conduct research in the field of Shaiva Siddhanta at the Department of Philosophy of this esteemed institution.

The Head of the Department of Philosophy, Dr. S. Krishnan has always been a constant source of encouragement for me and I am beholden to him for his support.

My deepest gratitude to my guide and supervisor, Dr. V. Chandrasekar , for taking me as a research scholar and guiding me at every stage of the research. He guided me in choosing the topic and title, discussed the chapters and went through them patiently and offered his valuable suggestions at every stage of my work.

I shall ever remember Dr. S. Panneer Selvam who inspired me to take up this research work. Dr. S. Gangadaran and Dr. S. Saravanan offered me their valuable suggestions and I take this opportunity to thank them. Prof. P. Chandrasegaram of Jaffna University also helped me to finalize the thesis. My brother N.Venkatachalam

and Prof. Nagalingam helped me to edit the thesis. I thank all of them.

I also value the encouragement given to me by Prof. K. S. Kannan , Dr. P. Krishnasamy, Prof. E. Ananda Vijayasarathy, Dr. A. Arivazhagan, Dr. T. K. Badrinath and Dr. K. R. Arumugam , Prof. S. Nagaraj, and Dr. G. Rajasekaran.

It is always a pleasure to visit and consult the books, journals and other references in Madras University Library, Roja Muthiah Library and college library. I express my thanks to these institutions.

Finally, I bestow my head in total reverence to Lotus Feet of Lord Shiva

forever remaining within to shower His Grace in every act of mine.

(N. Veerappan)