Sivagnana Botham of Meykanda Deva by J. M Nallaswami Pillai was first published in 1895.

The system of Hindu Philosophy which is expounded in the following pages, and its name will be altogether new to many an English educated Hindu who is content to learn his religion and philosophy from English books and translations and from such scraps as turn up in newspapers and magazines and from such scraps as turn up in newspapers and magazines. Yet it is the Philosophy of the Religion in which at least every Tamil speaking Hindu is more or less brought up and the one Philosophy which obtains predominance in the Tamil Languages.

This Philosophy is called The Siddhanta Philosophy and is the special Philosophy of the Saiva Religion. The word means True End, and as used in logic, it means the proposition or theory proved as distinguished from the proposition or theory refuted, which becomes the Purvapaksham.

The Saiva Philosophy is so called as it establishes the True End or the only Truth and all other systems are merely Purvapakshams. The system is based primarily on the Saiva Agamas.

But the authority of the Vedas is equally accepted and the system is then called Vedanta Philosophy or Vedanta Siddhantha Philosophy or Vaithika Saiva Philosophy. .