AGAMA AND THEIR EVOLUTION: The agama tradition in hindu philosophy is an independent school. It is possible it has its own origin in mesopotomia and Indus valley. Early agama texts were orally transmited. They may have been in a proto Dravidian form. Its arrival to tamilagam and subsequent growth into a proto tamil agamas is still shrouded in mystery. There are references to such existence of agamas in the early tamil texts like sangam poetries. The early tamil agamas had four sections namely aram(ethics),porul(logic), inbam(easthetics) and veedu(metaphysics). The early agamas were sanskritised. The Sanskrit phase saw the growth of agas from a single book to about nine books by 5th centuryAD. The sadasiva agamam of thirumoolar is the tamil version of the nine siva agams. The siva agamas then grew into 28 and there were 250 odd upa-agamas. There were vaisnava agamas and saktha agamas too. The jains also had agamas. The agamas do not acknowledge the Vedas as primary. They hold to the thanthra tradition while Vedas to manthra tradition. Vedas are cosmocentric and the agamas ontocentric. That is Vedas hold to Brahman while the agamas to the jeevan. The Vedas rever the parama the agamas rever the "citha". The citha in tamil is siddha. Siddha saints become siddhars. The knowledge became siddhantham. The Vedas , jain agamas and the proto-dravidian agamas are a triad of mutually benefiting system of thoughts often opposed to each other. Violent clashes between Jainism and sidhantham were seen in the south. Similiarly a destruction of agamas took place in the north by the vedic advaitha schools. The agama tradition now by and large confined to the tamilagam in india. The agama texts are now available in olaisuvadees and are kept as secrets. A few books have come out and a website devouted to the siva agamas also have come. The agama tradition which gave rise to the siddhantha tradition needs more exploration and their true originality has to be brought out. Their status along with the sankhya and yoga schools of hindu thoughts are believed by a section ofpeople to be a pre vedic hindu thought.