Shaivism

Shaivism (; Sanskrit: शैवधर्म, romanised: Śaivadharma) is an umbrella term for various traditions that worship Shiva, as the supreme being. It is also a religion centred on the worship of Rudra-Shiva as the supreme being. Its followers are known as Shaivas or Shaivites. Shaivism encompasses a diverse range of philosophical, theological, ritual, and devotional traditions. Today, it has about 385 million followers, predominantly concentrated in South Asia, particularly in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.

Shaivism developed as an amalgam of pre-Aryan religions and traditions, Vedic Rudra, and post-Vedic traditions, Brahmanical religion and Sanskritisation of Native Indian traditions, local traditions and Yoga, puja and bhakti. Worship of the Vedic deity Rudra forms its earliest traceable root, but the earliest evidence for sectarian Rudra-Shiva worship appears with the Pasupata (early CE), which emerged with the Hindu synthesis, when many local traditions were aligned with the Vedic-Brahmanical fold. The Pāśupata movement rapidly expanded throughout North India, giving rise to different forms of Shaivism and followed by the emergence of various tantric traditions. Both devotional and monistic Shaivism became popular in the 1st millennium CE, and it became the dominant religious tradition of several Hindu kingdoms. It arrived in Southeast Asia shortly thereafter, leading to the construction of thousands of Shaiva temples on the islands of Indonesia as well as Cambodia and Vietnam, co-evolving with Buddhism in these regions.

Shaivism encompasses a wide range of sub-traditions. Historically, a basic distinction can be made between Puranic Shaivism, such as the Shiva-worship in the Smarta tradition, and non-Puranic (Agamic/Tantric) Shaivism. The latter is further divided in the atimarga, solely for sanyassins (ascetic renunciates), and the mantramarga, open to both sanyassons and householders. Within the mantramarga, the Shaiva Siddhanta is devotional dualistic theism, while the Tantric Kapalika gave rise to a number of yoga-oriented monistic systems, such as the Trika and Kashmiri Shaivism. Tantric Shaivism is closely related to Shaktism, and some Shaivas worship in both Shiva and Shakti temples. It is the Hindu tradition that most accepts ascetic life and emphasises yoga, and encourages one to discover and be one with Shiva within.

It has a vast literature, making appeals to Vedic orthodoxy but viewing the Agama texts as superior revelations.