Each month, the Centre for Shaiva Studies hosts lectures by prominent Śaiva scholars. The lecture series was started in October 2022 in both offline and online modes. The offline lectures are usually in Tamil and scholar-practitioners are invited to present lectures on their areas of expertise in Śaivism. On the other hand, the online lecture series is delivered in English by a prominent academic specializing in the Śaiva traditions. The online lecture series is titled in memory of the great Śaiva scholar NR Bhatt, and its aptly titled as the ‘NR Bhatt Memorial Lecture Series’.

5^th Oct 2022: The inaugural lecture was delivered by the Academic Director of CSS, Dr. T Ganesan at the Centre’s premises on the auspicious day of Vijayadaśmī. Titled “The Profundity of Śaiva Philosophy”, the talk touched upon the greatness of God Śiva as mentioned in the Vedic literature and how the philosophical building blocks of Śaiva philosophy has its origins in the Vedic literature. The talk then detailed about Śaivism in the Purāṇas and the role of these texts in popularizing the stories, temple sites, philosophy and rituals related to the Śaiva traditions. The finale of the talk was the Āgamic literature where the Śaiva tradition finds its highest philosophical expression.

12^th Nov 2022: This talk was delivered by the Academic Director of CSS, DR. T Ganesan on the Tevaram Corpus. Three of the greatest Śivabhaktas—Tirujnanasambandhar, Tirunavukkaracar and Sundaramurti—known as Nayanmars have sung these devotional songs at more than 250 Śaiva holy places situated in the region comprising the modern-day Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Tevaram is infused with expressions of pure bhakti to Śiva containing multiple references to the number of ways God Śiva blesses his devotees, the many devotional acts of a Śivabhakta and the many forms of devotional relationships that a Śivabhakta has towards his beloved God Śiva. Dr Ganesan explicated on the devotional and philosophical aspects of Tevaram in Tamil.

29^th Nov 2022: This was the inaugural NR Bhatt Memorial Lecture Series delivered by Niranjan Kafle, a Śaiva scholar and currently an Associate Professor of Sanskrit, Ashoka University.  The lecture focussed on the new research on texts belonging to the ‘Śivadharma corpus’, with a special focus on Dharmaputrikā, a text that topicalizes Yoga. The speaker provided an overview of the cutting-edge research being done in the academy on the so-called ‘Śivadharma corpus’. In the lecture, the speaker also emphasized the context of religious exchange and borrowing in light of the large Buddhist vocabulary found in a Śaiva text.

31^st Dec 2022: This talk was delivered by Sri Muthu Manikkam, a scholar of Tamil Tevaram corpus. Diving deep into the Tevaram Corpus, the lecture focussed on various Śaiva concepts and devotional themes expressed in the first 3 books of the Tevaram hymns sung by the great child-saint Thirujnanasambandar (c. 7^th CE). The lecture detailed the emotional and passionate devotion to Śiva in Thirujnanasambandar’s poems and the subsequent impact of his poems in the later Tamil devotional literature.

25^th Feb 2023: CSS invited a prominent scholar of Saiva Siddhanta, Sri Sivashanmukam for the monthly lecture series. Building from the December lecture, the speaker focussed on the various Śaiva concepts and devotional themes expressed in the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th books of the Tevaram, hymns sung by the great Saiva saint Thirunavukkaracar (c. 7^th CE) also widely known as Appar.

The Centre will continue to hold such monthly lectures, both online and offline, with increasing frequency.