Śaiva traditions
शैव
Also written: shaiva · shaivism · shiva worship · kashmir shaivism · shaiva siddhanta · trika · शैव
Śaivism is the oldest continuously attested worship in the subcontinent and the most philosophically productive. Its texts range from the Rudra hymns of the Ṛgveda through the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad to the twenty-eight Āgamas and the extraordinary philosophical literature of Kashmir.
The three bonds and the three realities
Most Śaiva schools share a common vocabulary: pati (the Lord), paśu (the bound soul) and pāśa (the bond). The bond is threefold — āṇava (the sense of being small and separate), karma (the residue of action), and māyā (the material limitation) — and liberation is release from all three by Śiva's grace, śaktipāta.
The streams
| Tradition | Region and period | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Śaiva Siddhānta | Tamil Nadu, from c. 6th c. | Dualistic-theistic: Śiva, souls and bonds are eternally distinct. The soul becomes like Śiva but never becomes Śiva. Built on the 28 Āgamas and the Tamil Tirumuṟai of the 63 Nāyanmārs |
| Kashmir Śaivism (Trika / Pratyabhijñā) | Kashmir, 9th–12th c. | Radically non-dual: Śiva alone is, and the world is His free self-manifestation. Liberation is pratyabhijñā — recognition of what one already is. Vasugupta, Somānanda, Utpaladeva, Abhinavagupta, Kṣemarāja |
| Pāśupata | From c. 2nd c., Lakulīśa | The oldest sectarian Śaiva order. Rigorous asceticism, including deliberate courting of public censure to destroy vanity and transfer merit |
| Kāpālika and Kālāmukha | c. 6th–13th c. | Extreme ascetic orders using cremation-ground practice; largely absorbed into later Śaiva and Nātha lineages |
| Vīraśaiva / Liṅgāyat | Karnataka, 12th c., Basavaṇṇa | Devotion to the iṣṭaliṅga worn on the body; rejection of birth-based hierarchy, temple monopoly and ritual pollution; the vacana poetry |
| Nātha sampradāya | From c. 9th–12th c., Matsyendranātha and Gorakhnātha | The haṭha yoga tradition: the body as the instrument of liberation, kuṇḍalinī, the nine Nāthas and eighty-four Siddhas |
Kashmir Śaivism's distinctive claim
Where Advaita explains the world as an appearance to be seen through, Trika explains it as Śiva's own creative outpouring — ābhāsa, the shining-forth of consciousness as world. Nothing needs to be negated; the world is not a problem, it is the play of the same consciousness that reads this line. Its thirty-six tattvas extend Sāṅkhya's twenty-five upward by eleven, adding the pure levels from Śiva and Śakti down through māyā and the five kañcukas — the sheaths by which the infinite appears limited.
चैतन्यमात्मा।
caitanyam ātmā
Consciousness is the Self.
The Āgama traditions and the six paths
Śaiva, Śākta, Vaiṣṇava, Gāṇapatya, Saura and Kaumāra — the ṣaṇmata, the six classical paths of worship, their …
Śākta traditions — the Goddess as supreme
Devī as the ultimate reality: Śrīkula and Kālīkula, Śrīvidyā and the Śrī Yantra, the ten Mahāvidyās, the Devī …
Vaiṣṇava traditions
Viṣṇu and His descents: the four sampradāyas, Pāñcarātra and Vaikhānasa, the Ālvārs, the great ācāryas, the Ga…
Gāṇapatya — Gaṇeśa as the supreme
The tradition that holds Gaṇeśa to be the ultimate reality: the Gaṇapati Atharvaśīrṣa, the aṣṭavināyaka, the s…
Saura — the worship of the Sun
The sun as the visible face of the divine: the Gāyatrī, Sūrya Namaskāra, the great sun temples, Chhath, and wh…
Kaumāra — Skanda, Murugan, Kārttikeya
The sixth path: the youth who commands the divine armies and teaches his own father, the six abodes in Tamil N…
Last revised 2026-08-16. Corrections are welcome — see how this site is written.