verses arranged in groups of ten or eleven verses. While the verses in the Vedas have two lines the verses in the Thevarams have four or more lines. These are sung in specific tunes and not chanted as in the case of the Vedic verses. These are sung in Siva temples today also everyday. In addition there are the songs composed by Saint Manicka Vachagar (1000 songs), Tiru Moolar(3000 songs), Sekkizhar(4300 songs) and a host of others. Vaishnavism also scaled great heights during this period though not to the same extent as Saivism. Songs were composed about Vishnu also by Vaishnavite saints. These are called Nalayira Divya Prabhandham and contain 4000 songs. In those days Saivism and Vaishnavism were treated as two separate religions rather than as parts of Hinduism. Kings of those days constructed and enlarged temples on a continuous basis. Hundreds of temples were constructed during this period. Most of these temples exist today also. In fact the biggest temples for Lord Siva are in Tamilnadu. The Thevarams cover 276 of these temples. Out of these, the Siva Puranam mentions the Siva temples at Chidambaram,Tiruvannamalai and Rameswaram which means that these three temples already existed at the time the Siva Puranam was written.

SCIENTIFIC VIEW ON THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

All scientists today are agreed that the Universe came into existence as a result of an explosion of a massive fireball 15 billion years ago. The debris from the explosion is still flying apart and new galaxies, stars and planets are being created from the debris. This is the Big Bang theory which was originally proposed by a Belgian priest about 60 years ago. The priest wanted to make a compromise between science and Christianity. If the Universe was created from the explosion of a fireball, there is always one question to be answered and that is 'Who created the fireball? Scientists at that time laughed at the theory. Then gradually they started taking a closer look at the theory and alternative theories. As there were objections to the other theories, they had to accept the Big Bang theory as the most acceptable theory.

From then they have come a long way. Now, mathematical calculations have been done backwards up to about one minute from the Big Bang. Super computers have been commissioned in the middle of the year 2002 under the supervision of Professor Stephen Hawking to calculate what happened during the first one minute after the Big Bang. At the time of writing this article in September 2003, the calculations have not been completed.

As the debris is flying apart, fresh space is being created with the result that the Universe is expanding in size. When will the expansion of the Universe stop? Nothing definite has been said so far. Till now it was believed that the expansion will stop some day and then the Universe will start contracting. However, on the basis of observations made with the Hubble orbiting space telescope up to the beginning of the year 2003, some scientists say that the Universe will keep expanding for ever. It is said that deep space contains massive quantities of 'dark energy' which will support this infinite expansion.

For some years after scientists started taking the Big Bang theory seriously, they were saying that the Big Bang took place about 7 billion years ago.