Shaivism

File:LordShiva.jpg

Lord Shiva

Shaivism (also spelled "Saivism"), refers to a school in Hinduism devoted primarily to the monotheistic worship of Shiva, the destroyer god in the Hindu Trinity. Shaivism is practiced widely across all of India, and therefore has many different branches showing both regional variations in philosophy and practice. Followers of the tradition are called Shaiva(s), or sometimes Shaivite in English. The most commonly worshipped symbol for Shaivites is the linga, a phallic structure representative of Shiva's coexistent virility and chastity.

History

Indus Valley Civilization

File:Pashupati.gif

An Indus Valley seal with the seated figure termed pashupati

It is very difficult to determine the early history of Shaivism. Artifacts from Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and other archaeological sites of northwestern India and Pakistan have been interpreted to suggest that the earliest form of Shiva worship was practiced in the Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished between 2800 B.C.E. - 1500 B.C.E. These artifacts include numerous lingas carved on rock surfaces, as well as the "Pashupati seal" found at Mohenjo-daro which has been the subject of much study. An engraving upon this seal depicts a horned male figure made all the more noteworthy by the fact that he is ithyphallic. This image appears to represent a prototype of the Vedic deity Pashupati, the "lord of the creatures", who would come to be thought of as an aspect of Shiva. The central figure is also described to be seated in a yogic posture and is surrounded by animals, perhaps echoing the associations with meditative asceticism and wildlife that Shiva and his precursor Rudra would take on.

Vedic Period

By 150 B.C.E., With the insurgence of the Aryans and the dissolution of the Harrapan culture, religion in the Indus Valley region and India at large changed dramatically. With the composition of the Rg Vedas (c. 1200 B.C.E.), the proto-Shiva figure developed into Rudra, a terrifying, capricious who held jurisdiction over storms, disease and the wilderness. Although only four of the Rg Vedic hymns are dedicated exclusively to Rudra, he plays an important mythological role in the Vedas in his association with the fire god Agni and the sacrificial beverage Soma. Not unlike Shiva, Rudra is connected with wildlife in his role of "lord of the cattle" (pasunam patih) and "wearer of the animal hide". As a proper name, Shiva means "The Auspicious One", and may have originally been used as a euphimistic name for Rudra. In fact, Shiva and Rudra are viewed as the same personality in a number of Hindu traditions today, and are often referred to together as Rudra-Shiva.

In the later Vedas, Rudra-Shiva is venerated as a supreme, monotheistic figure for the first time. In the Svetsvara Upanishad, for instance, a text possibly dating back as far as the sixth century B.C.E., Rudra-Shiva is proclaimed to be the primordial creator. Furthermore, this Upanishad ultimately describes Rudra-Shiva as Brahman, the monistic essence of the universe. As a result, Rudra-Shiva came to be perceived to be protector and creator of all things, and had begun to more closely resemble Shiva as he is known today.

The Epics and The Puranas

By the year 150 B.C.E., Shiva seems to have garnered a cult following. During this time the grammarian Patanjali notes in his "Great Commentary" on Panini's Sanskrit grammar the presence of devotee of Shiva as clad in animal skins and carrying an iron lance as the symbol of his god. This lance may be a precursor of Shiva's trident. The two great epics of India, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, also suggest Shiva's burgeoning significance, dealing extensively with stories of his exploits. Specifically, the Mahabharata suggests that an important Shaivic cult, the Pasupatas, may have been dedicated to the god around the beginning of the Common Era Shiva was also featureed on coins during the Kushan period (300-550 C.E.) suggesting his sustained popularity.

It is with the rise to prominence of the Puranas during the Gupta dynasty (c. 320-500 C.E.), however, that Shaivism spread most rapidly throughout the Indian subcontinent. Gupta emperors sponsored Shaivite temples despite their own Vaishnavite stance, while kings of the Vakataka and the later Maukhari dynasties were fully Shaivite. By the seventh century CE, Shaivism replaced Jainism and Buddhism as the dominant religious affiliation of South India.

At this time, numerous sects were also touting Shiva to be the supreme deity. Shiva himself is distinguished as the central deity most obviously in the Shiva Purana, as well as the Linga Purana, Matsya Purana, Kurma purana, Skanda Purana, and Agni Purana. In these mythical texts, Shiva is portaryed as the supreme god, a suggestion of monotheism that was put into practice by contemporaneous Shaivite sects such as the Kapalikas, the Kalamukhas, the Pasupatas and the Shaiva Siddhantins. Here he comes to the fore and acts independently and alone to create, preserve, and destroy the world. Also presented in these texts are some myths central to the definition of Shiva's later character. One particularly important story tells of incidents which transpired when Shiva enters a pine forest, in the typical dress of the ascetics who live their. Here Shiva takes the time to seduce the wives of the ascetics. Angry with Shiva's licentious behaviour, and unbeknowing of his true identiry, the ascetics castrate the destroyer god and fixed it in the earth. This legend provides mythological explanation for the worship of the linga as it is performed today.

Shankara and Beyond

Shankara (788-820), one of the most famous philosophers Hinduism has ever known, was Shaivite and composed several devotional hymns to Shiva. As such, Shaivism has often been linked with Shankara's Advaita or non-dual thought. By the ninth century, Shaivism had come to prominence in the North with the development of the Trika school, located primarily in Kashmir. This sect drew heavily upon Shankara's monistic philosophy, as well as that of Tantra. Tantric influences had been prominent in Shaivism from the Gupta period onward

Shaivism also continued to thrive in South India during the medieval period. Between approxiamately 500-700 C.E., the sixty three Nayanars, a group of Shavite saints, spread Shaivism through the Tamil speaking regions of South India. The Nayanars, who ranged in status from untouchables to kings, were among first proponents of the bhakti movement, which upheld intense emotional devotion to a personal diety as the highest religious idea. Although the Pasupata, Kapalika, and Kalamukha sects faded to extinction during this time period, they laid the foundation for the Virashaivas, also known as the Lingayats, a reformist Shaivite sect formed along the border regions of Maharashtra and Karnataka in the mid-12th century.

During the later medieval period, the bhakti movement went on to become the most popular form of Hindu religious practice. Although this movement was typically favoured by worshippers of Vishnu, many Hindus still devote themselves exclusively to Shiva. Most of these followers are not, however, devoted exclusively to Shiva. Regardless, millions of Hindus appear at temples in order to worship Shiva today. Banares, the holy city of Shiva, with the temple of Siva Visvesvara there remaining one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in India today.

Orders and Lineages

Shaivism has many different schools showing both regional variations and differences in philosophy. Shaivism has a vast literature that includes texts representing multiple philosophical schools, including non-dualist (abheda), dualist (bheda), and non-dual-with-dualism (bhedābheda) perspectives.

Alexis Sanderson's review of Shaivite groups makes a broad distinction into two groups, with futher subdivisions within each group:

• Vedic, Puranic.
• Non-Puranic. These devotees are distinguished by undergoing initiation (dīkṣa) into a specific cult affiliation for the dual purposes of obtaining liberation in this life (mukti) and/or obtaining other aims (bhukti). Sanderson subdivides this group further into two subgroups:

• Those which follow the outer or higher path (atimārga), seeking only liberation. Among the atimārga groups two are particularly important, the Pāśupatas and a sub-branch, the Lākula, from whom another important sect, the Kālāmukhas, developed.
• Those which follow the path of mantras (mantramārga), seeking both liberation and worldly objectives.

The following are concise summaries of some of the major schools of Shaivism, along with maps showing the primary areas of origin or present-day influence and concentration of each school in areas of the Indian subcontinent.

Pashupatas

Pashupata Shaivism influence in India

Pashupata Shaivism: The Pashupatas (Sanskrit: Pāśupatas) are the oldest named Shaivite group. The Pashupatas were ascetics. Noted areas of influence (clockwise) include Gujarat, Kashmir and Nepal.^{[citation needed]}

Kashmir Shaivism

Kashmir Shaivism influence in India

Kashmir Shaivism: Codified by Vasugupta (ca 800), this abheda—intensely monistic school—known as Pratyabhijna Darshana, explains the creation of soul and world as God Shiva's shining forth in His dynamic first impulse. As the Self of all, Shiva is immanent and transcendent, a real but abstract creator-preserver-destroyer. Founded in Kashmir. Abhinavagupta was an important figure in Kashmir Saivism.

Shiva Siddhanta

Shaiva Siddhanta influence in India

Shaiva Siddhanta: In Rishi Tirumular's monistic theism (ca -200), Shiva is material and efficient cause, immanent and transcendent. The soul, created by Shiva, is destined to merge in Him. In Meykandar's pluralistic realism (ca 1200), God, souls and world are beginningless and eternally coexistent. Shiva is efficient but not material cause. Highlighted are Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Jaffna. Thirugnana Sambanthar, Thirunavukkarasar, Sundaramoorthy Nayanar and Manikkavasagar are considered the gurus of Shaivism. The hymns sung by the first three are collected into a book called Thevaram. The work of Manikkavasagar is called Thiruvasagam. These books are reverentially worshipped and recited by the devotees. The first three form part of the 63 Nayanmars, staunch devotees of Siva.^{[citation needed]} Nayanars (or Nayanmars), saints from Tamil Nadu, and the Vira Shaivas or Lingayats from Karnataka lead a multi-caste mass movement that explained the devotional upsurge of Shaivite worship in early medieval South India.

Siddha Siddhanta influence in India

Siddha Siddhanta: Expounded by Rishi Gorakshanatha (ca 950), this monistic theism is known as bhedabheda, embracing both transcendent Shiva Being and immanent Shiva Becoming. Shiva is efficient and material cause. The creation and final return of soul and cosmos to Shiva are likened to bubbles arising and returning to water. Influential in Nepal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.

The Shaiva Siddhanta tradition provides a fundamental basis for the ritual and theology of all other Shaiva groups within its heritage. It is the most important normative form of Shaivism in South India. The tradition may have originated in Kashmir, where it developed a sophisticated theology propagated by theologians such as Sajyojoti, Bhatta, Narayanakantha, and his son Bhatta Ramakantha (c. 950-1000 C.E.). The Shaivasiddhantins date as early as the sixth century AD, with Kashmiri Shaivism clearly identifiable from the tenth century. By the eleventh century AD Shaiva Siddhanta had faded in Kashmir but developed in Tamilnadu, where it exists to the present time. By the eleventh or twelfth century AD Shaiva Siddhanta was well-established in the South.

By the thirteenth century the Shaiva Siddhanta give theological and ritual expression to the devotional hymns of the Nayanars. In Tamilnadu the tradition incorporated an emotional devotion (bhakti) expressed in the hymns of these Tamil saints.

The Shaiva Siddhanta is a dualist system, maintaining that there is a distinction between the Lord (Sanskrit īśvara) and the soul, in contrast to the monistic Kasmir Shaivism which viewed the Lord and the soul as one.

Shaiva Siddhanta is considered an orthoprax Shaiva tradition. In contrast to the orthoprax Shaiva Siddhanta, a separate major division is represented by the Bhairava Tantras and their various subdivisions.

Nayanars

By the seventh century CE, the Nayanars, a tradition of poet-saints in the bhakti tradition developed in South India with a focus on Shiva by the comparable to that of the Vaisnava Alvars.

Tirumular, also spelled (Tirumūlār or Tirumūlar) the author of the Tirumantiram (also spelled Tirumandiram) is considered by Tattwananda to be the earliest exponent of Shaivism in Tamil areas. Tirumular is dated as 7th or 8th century AD by Maurice Winternitz. The Tirumantiram is a primary source for the system of Shaiva Siddhanta, being the tenth book of its canon.

The devotional poems of the Nayanars are divided into eleven collections together with a Tamil Purana called the Periya Puranam. The first seven collections are known as the Thevaram and are regarded by Tamils as equivalent to the Vedas. They were composed in the 7th century CE by Sambandar, Appar, and Sundarar.

The Tiruvacakam by Manikkavacagar is an important collection of hymns of which Sir Charles Eliot wrote, "In no literature with which I am acquainted, has the individual religious life, its struggles and dejections, its hopes and fears, its confidence and its triumph received a delineation more frank and more profound." The Tiruvacakam praises Siva as belonging to the southern country yet worshipped by people of all countries.

Virashaivism

Vira Shaivism influence in India

Lingayatism: Made popular by Basavanna (1105-1167), this version of qualified nondualism, Shakti Vishishtadvaita, accepts both difference and nondifference between soul and God, like rays are to the sun. Shiva and the cosmic force are one, yet Shiva is beyond His creation, which is real, not illusory. God is efficient and material cause. Influential primarily in Karnataka.

Shiva Advaita influence in India

Shiva Advaita: This monistic theism, formulated by Srikantha (ca 1050), is called Shiva Vishishtadvaita. The soul does not ultimately become perfectly one with Brahman, but shares with the Supreme all excellent qualities. Appaya Dikshita (1554-1626) attempted to resolve this union in favor of an absolute identity—Shuddhadvaita. Its area of origin and influence covers most of Karnataka state.

Tamil Shaivism

There are numerous Siva temples in Tamilnadu, most located in the Thanjavur region which was a major part of the Chola empire between 800 and 1200 C.E. A particular branch of Shaivism, the philosophy of Siddhanta Saivam, is particularly popular in southern India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and every other country where Tamils are living.^{[citation needed]}

V.S. Pathak, in his book Shaivism in Early Medieval India as known from Archaeological Sources: Rajendra Chola writes that Rajendra saw the best of the Shaivas in northern India when he went to worship at the Ganges, and brought them to settle in his own country in Kanchi.^{[citation needed]}

During the Gupta Dynasty (c. 320 - 500 C.E.) Puranic religion developed and Shaivism spread rapidly, eventually throughout the subcontinent, spread by the singers and composers of the Puranic narratives.

Temples of Shaivam

There can be found almost innumerable Shaivite temples and shrines, with many shrines accompanied as well by murtis dedicated to Ganesha, Lord of the Ganas, followers of Shiva, and son of Shiva and Śakti.

The twelve Jyotirlinga shrines are among the most esteemed in Śaivism.

There are many temples in Tamilnadu dedicated to Siva, but the holiest of all Siva shrines is Chidambaram's famous Nataraja Temple. Siva's consort, Parvathi is also worshipped in temples to Siva, as are his sons Ganapathi and Murugan.

File:Srirangam temple kopuram.jpg

The gopuram of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam, Tamilnadu.

The Agamas are a set of twenty-eight books, written in Sanskrit. Each temple follows its own Agama. The architecture and layout, the locations of the images, and directions for methods of worship are all prescribed, and no deviation is allowed. Shiva temples have a tall multi-storied gopuram at the entrance and are enclosed in a high wall. The lingam resides deep within the temple compound of buildings, courtyards and gardens. The lingam and the special structure that houses it are placed in such a way as to face the compound entrance directly; only the sivacharya may enter this sanctum sanctorum but worshippers gather around to witness the rituals of ablution, decoration and offerings, to pray and sing, and to receive the ceremonial blessing. Around the sanctum sanctorum every Siva temple has at least one circumambulatory path, and a procession around this path is part of the devotional service. A stone statue of Siva as Teacher, the Dakshinamurthy faces south. Dakshinamurthy literally means "on the southern part of an outer perimeter path of the sanctum sanctorum".^{[citation needed]}

"Shivacharyas" conduct Shiva worship services. Only the sivacharyas may enter the sanctum sanctorum, while worshippers gather at the entrance to watch. Unlike Catholic priests, sivacharyas are dedicated solely to worship and do not perform marriages or other civil rites of passage. In Chidambaram and a few other places adhisaivas are allowed to perform the ceremonies.^{[citation needed]} Services are held daily, as many as six each day depending on the resources and the popularity of the temple. The usual service consists of the following: first, the figure of the deity is anointed with oil, water, milk, ghee, honey, curd, various juices, sandalwood paste, and others before being showered with blossoms. Then it is dressed in the traditional way of Tamilnadu, adorned with jewels and flower garlands. Incense is burned, followed by a food offering (usually a rice preparation). Beautiful lamps of various designs are lit and presented to the image of the deity. Camphor is lit and presented. The burning camphor is then carried to the congregation. The worshippers reverentially show their palms over it before placing their palms over their eyes, some say this gesture signifies that the devotion is as precious to the worshipper as his or her own sight. Finally sacred ash and kungumam are distributed into the upraised palms of the worshippers, who touch it onto their foreheads. The worshippers then process along the circumambulation at least once before bowing low in prayer before the sanctum sanctorum, singing and reciting verses from the Vedic hymns, the Thevaram and others.^{[citation needed]}

Symbols

Sacred ash came to be used as a sign of Shaivism. Devotees of Shiva wear it as a sectarian mark on their foreheads and other parts of their bodies with reverence. The Sanskrit words bhasma and vibhuti can both be translated as "sacred ash".

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Home worship

People also worship Shiva at home. They have natural lingam-shaped stones to which they perform ablution flower-worship and Nivedhanam. (food offering)

Beyond India

It left a major imprint on the intellectual life of classical Cambodia, Champa in what is today south Vietnam, Java, Kashmir and the Tamil land. The wave of Saivite devotionalism that swept through late classical and early medieval India redefined Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Shaivite worship legitimized several ruling dynasties in pre-modern India be they the Chola, the Rajput or tribal. A similar trend was witnessed in early medieval Indonesia with the Majapahit empire and pre-Islamic Malaya.

References

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External links

• Sadhus and Yogis of India Retrieved Aug 9, 2007.

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