Shaivism: History and Development

1.1 What is Shaivism?

Shaivism is the worship of Shiva as the highest god. It is one of the main traditions of Hinduism. It grew over more than a thousand years. It began with a Vedic god and ended with saints, sects and schools of thought.

1.2 Why does the order matter?

Exams ask what came first. Each step builds on the one before. Rudra comes first, then the Upanishad that names him Shiva. Sects and saints follow. The great philosophies come last.

1.3 What are the big turning points?

• c. 1200 BCE: Rudra appears in the Rig Veda.
• Svetasvatara Upanishad: Rudra-Shiva is called the creator.
• Early 2nd century CE: Lakulisa and the Pashupatas.
• c. 500-700 CE: the 63 Nayanars.
• 9th century: the Trika school in the North.
• Mid-12th century: the Virashaivas, or Lingayats.

2.1 Who was Rudra?

Rudra was a god in the Rig Veda. The Rig Veda is the oldest Veda. It dates to about 1200 BCE. Scholars say an early figure there developed into Rudra. Later, Rudra grew into Shiva.

2.2 How big was Rudra in the Rig Veda?

He was not a major god. Only four hymns are dedicated to him alone. Compare that with the many hymns for Indra or Agni. Many books call him a minor storm god. The sources here do not use those words, so treat that line as a book description.

2.3 When did Rudra become Shiva?

The Svetasvatara Upanishad is the key text. An Upanishad is a late Vedic book on the nature of reality. This one is possibly as old as the sixth century BCE.

Many exam books give c. 400-200 BCE. The text calls Rudra-Shiva the original creator. It also calls him Brahman, the highest reality.

2.4 Which Shiva features are not Vedic?

In the Rig Veda, Rudra is not shown as Pashupati, the lord of animals. He is also not shown as a yogi. Those pictures of Shiva came later.

3.1 What is the seal?

A seal from Mohenjo-daro has been studied closely. Some scholars read its seated figure as an early Shiva. People often call this figure a “proto-Shiva”. Proto means first or early.

3.2 How sure are we?

Not very sure. The reading rests on interpretation. The link from Rudra to Shiva rests on actual texts. That is a much firmer base.

4.1 Who were the Pashupatas?

The Pashupatas were ascetics, people who live a strict, simple life. They are one of the oldest named Shaivite sects.

4.2 Who was Lakulisa?

Lakulisa is the teacher linked with the sect. He lived around the early part of the second century CE. Some books give a wider range, from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE. The source gives the early second century CE.

4.3 Who were his disciples?

He had four major disciples. They were Kaurushya, Garga, Mitra and Kushika.

4.4 What about the Gujarat and Rajasthan inscriptions?

Some books say 5th to 7th century inscriptions in Gujarat and Rajasthan show Pashupata monasteries. We could not confirm this in the sources we read. Check it in your own book.

5.1 Who were the Nayanars?

The Nayanars were 63 Shaivite saints of South India. They sang in Tamil in praise of Shiva.

One source places them between about 500 and 700 CE. The Smithsonian places Tamil poet-saints in the seventh through ninth centuries. Many books say the 6th to 9th century. Learn the range, not one year.

5.2 Why do they matter?

The Nayanars were among the first supporters of the bhakti movement. Bhakti means loving devotion to a god. It is a path open to all, not only to priests.

5.3 Which poets are named in the sources?

Three names matter most.

Sources: Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art and New World Encyclopedia.

5.4 Who was Nandanar?

Nandanar is the eighteenth of the 63 Nayanars. The Shaiva saint Sundarar mentioned him in the 8th century. The scholar Nambiyandar Nambi mentioned him in an 11th century verse. His life story is told in the 12th century Periya Puranam, by the Chola minister Sekkizhar.

6.1 What is the Thevaram?

The first seven collections of hymns are known as the Thevaram. They were composed in the seventh-eighth century CE. Their poets were Nancampantar, Sambandar and Sundarar.

6.2 What is the Tirumurai?

The Tirumurai is the full set of Tamil Shaiva hymns. It has eleven collections, plus a Tamil Purana called the Periya Puranam. It took shape about the tenth century CE.

6.3 Where does Tirumular fit?

Tirumular was a Nayanar of the seventh or eighth century CE. His book, the Tirumantiram, is the tenth book of the Tirumurai.

Source: New World Encyclopedia (Shaivism) and The New Indian Express.

7.1 What does it teach?

Shaiva Siddhanta is the main Shaiva philosophy of the South. It splits reality into three. The soul is pashu. God is pati. The bond that ties the soul down is pasha. The source calls this split dualistic.

7.2 What is dualism?

Dualism means two things stay separate. Here, the soul and God remain distinct. The soul does not become God.

7.3 Which texts hold it?

The Meykantasastras are its core texts. They date to about the thirteenth-fourteenth century CE.

8.1 What is Kashmir Shaivism?

By the ninth century, Shaivism had come to prominence in the North. The Trika school was the form it took. Tantric ideas had been strong in Shaivism since the Gupta period. Tantra here means ritual and meditation practices.

8.2 What is Pratyabhijna?

Pratyabhijna means recognition. The idea is simple. The soul is already one with Shiva. It only has to recognise this. The school was originated by Somananda and propounded by Utpala Deva. Somananda formulated it around the ninth century CE.

8.3 Who were the key thinkers?

Vasugupta lived about 800 CE. His student Kallata lived 850-900 CE. Abhinavagupta flourished about 975-1025. He practised the Krama, Trika and Kula schools. Older notes give 925-1025 for Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta together.

Source: New World Encyclopedia (Shaivism and Abhinavagupta).

Sources: New World Encyclopedia (Shaivism and Abhinavagupta) and the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. If an exam gives one of the left-hand dates, it is a book date. Learn both.

9.1 Who were the Virashaivas?

The Virashaivas are also called the Lingayats. They were a reformist Shaivite sect. They formed on the border of Maharashtra and Karnataka in the mid-twelfth century.

9.2 Who was Basava?

Basava is the best-known name tied to the movement. He lived from 1106 to 1167 CE.

10.1 How did Shaivism spread?

It spread fastest when the Puranas rose to prominence under the Gupta dynasty, about 320-500 CE. Puranas are long books of stories about gods. They carried Shiva worship across the subcontinent.

10.2 Which Puranas centre on Shiva?

Shiva is the central god in the Shiva Purana. He is also central in the Linga, Matsya, Kurma, Skanda and Agni Puranas.

10.3 Which temples show this?

Three sites stand out in the sources.

Sources: Ministry of Culture and World History Encyclopedia.

10.4 Where does Ellora fit?

Ellora in Maharashtra has rock-cut caves from the 6th to 8th century CE. The Kailasa temple there was finished about 770 CE and is dedicated to Shiva.

10.5 Where can I read more?

See Gods of the Vedic Age for Rudra in the Vedic setting. See Rigvedic Religion and the Later Vedic Age for the wider shift. For temples, see Somnath and Kashi Vishwanath.

11.1 What does a real question look like?

11.2 What traps repeat?

• Nayanars or Alvars? Nayanars follow Shiva. Alvars follow Vishnu.
• Which Upanishad? Svetasvatara calls Rudra-Shiva the creator.
• Which school is dualist? Shaiva Siddhanta. Kashmir Shaivism is non-dualist.
• Pashu, pati, pasha: soul, God, bond.
• Lingayats: also called Virashaivas. Basava, mid-12th century.