Shaiva

Devotee (bhakta) of the Hindu
god Shiva, who along with Vishnu is
one of the major figures in the
Hindu pantheon. From the evidence at
hand, it seems that the earliest
sectarian Shaivites were the
Kapalikas, Kalamukhas, and
617
Shaiva
618
Shaiva Nagas
Pashupatas. All three of these were
communities of renunciant ascetics,
perhaps to accord with the example
set by their patron deity. The information for all three must be reconstructed, since the sects have all disappeared. Shaivas can still be found in
ascetic life in the Dashanami Sanyasis
and the Nathpanthis, two living
ascetic communities. The major current through which Shaiva devotionalism (bhakti) came into mainstream
society was through the devotional
hymns of the Nayanars, a group of
sixty-three poet-saints who lived in
southern India in the seventh and
eighth centuries. Their passionate
devotion, conveyed in hymns in the
Tamil language, was later systematized into the southern Indian philosophical school known as Shaiva
Siddhanta. As the bhakti movement
moved northward, it found Shaiva
expression in the Lingayat community
in modern Karnataka, as well as the
Krama and Trika schools of Kashmiri
Shaivism. Shaivism has had a long
association with tantra, a secret, ritually based religious practice, and the
influence of tantra is evident in the
Kashmiri schools as well as in the doctrines of the Nathpanthi ascetics.
Shaivism does not show the bewildering sectarian variety characterizing
Vaishnavas, devotees of the god
Vishnu, and Shaivites tend to be less
strict about membership in a particular
sect. Nevertheless, Shiva has millions
of devotees in modern India, and a wellestablished network of pilgrimage
places (tirtha), particularly in the
Himalayas.