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.

Its scriptural root is older than any sect. Rudra is invoked in the Ṛgveda, and the Śvetāśvatara — the most theistic of the classical Upaniṣads — names Him as the one without a second, the ruler of all worlds.

एको हि रुद्रो न द्वितीयाय तस्थुर्य इमांल्लोकानीशत ईशनीभिः।

eko hi rudro na dvitīyāya tasthur ya imāṁl lokān īśata īśanībhiḥ

Rudra is truly one; they do not admit a second — He who rules these worlds by His powers of rulership.

— Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.2

यो देवानां प्रभवश्चोद्भवश्च विश्वाधिपो रुद्रो महर्षिः।

yo devānāṁ prabhavaś codbhavaś ca viśvādhipo rudro maharṣiḥ

He who is the source and the origin of the gods, the ruler of all, Rudra the great seer.

— Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.4

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.

— Śiva Sūtra 1.1

Śaiva traditions

The three bonds and the three realities

The streams

Kashmir Śaivism's distinctive claim

The Āgama traditions and the six paths

Śākta traditions — the Goddess as supreme

Vaiṣṇava traditions

Gāṇapatya — Gaṇeśa as the supreme

Saura — the worship of the Sun

Kaumāra — Skanda, Murugan, Kārttikeya