and matter as separate, but it shows a tendency (doubtless due to the influence of the Vedanta) both to explain away the existence of matter and to identify the soul with the Lord more closely than its original formulae allow.  Matter is described as Maya and is potentially contained in the Lord who manifests it in the creative process which begins each kalpa.  The Lord is also said to be one with our souls and yet other.  The soul is by nature ignorant, in bondage to the illusion of Maya and of Karma, but by the grace of the Lord it attains to union (not identity) with him, in which it sees that its actions are his actions.

In modern times Saiva theology is represented among Dravidians by the works of Sivananar (1785) and his disciple Kachiyappar:  also by the poems of Rama-linga.  Sivaism in Madras and other parts of southern India is still a vigorous and progressive Church which does not neglect European methods.  Its principal organ is an interesting magazine called Siddhanta-Dipika or the Light of Truth.  In northern India the Sivaites are less distinct as a body and have less organization, but temples to Siva are numerous and perhaps the majority of Brahmans and ascetics regard him as their special deity and read Sivaite rather than Vishnuite texts.  But it is probably also true that they are not sectarian in the same sense as the worshippers of Krishna.

It is not easy to estimate the relative numbers of Sivaites and Vishnuites in south India, and good authorities hold opposite views.  The Sivaites are more united than the Vishnuites (whose many divisions and conspicuous sectarian marks attract attention) and are found chiefly among the upper classes and among ascetics, but perhaps there is much truth in an opinion which I once heard expressed by a Tamil Brahman, that the real division is not between the worshippers of Siva and of Vishnu, but between Smartas, those who follow more or less strictly the ancient ritual observances and those who seek for salvation by devotion and in practice neglect the Sanskrit scriptures.  There is little hostility.  The worship of both gods is sometimes performed in the same building as at Chidambaram or in neighbouring shrines, as at Srirangam.  In south Kanara and Travancore it is generally held that the two deities are of equal greatness and in many places are found images representing them united in one figure.  But the great temples at Madura, Tinnevelly and Tanjore are all dedicated to Siva or members of his family.  If in the philosophical literature of the Siddhanta the purity of the theism taught is noticeable, in these buildings it is rather the rich symbolism surrounding the god which attracts attention.  In his company are worshipped Parvati, Ganesa, Subrahmanya, the bull Nandi and minor attendants:  he is shown leaping in the ecstacy of the dance and on temple walls are often depicted his sixty-four sports or miracles (lila).  For the imagination of the Dravidians he is a great rhythmic force, throbbing and exulting in all the works of nature and exhibiting in kindly playfulness a thousand antics and a thousand shapes.