Source: TW
Thread by @GhorAngirasa on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App
As someone whose home is in AgneyakhaNDa of jambudvIpa, I must emphasize that this region wasn’t merely a home outside bhArata, for the shaiva/vaiSNava/saura/bauddha mata-s. It also preserved several specific strains of these sects, which went into obscurity in bhArata itself!
We saw one such example here: In the next couple of days, will be adding information on many such particular strains/concepts which were forgotten in bhArata but faithfully preserved and cherished in Agneya-jambudvIpa…
The shaiva tradition is internally, very, diverse. It can be divided, broadly, into an older atimArga (pAshupata, lAkulIsha, somasiddhAnta, etc) & mantramArga (bhUta, garuDa, vAma, bhairava & siddhAnta).
The siddhAnta is best preserved tradition today, 1 of 2 traditions extant (apart from bhairava) & one that was most orthodox & received royal patronage of chOzha-s, kAlAcuri-s, kAkATiya-s & mAlava-s (Malwa, MP) but even within it, there were variants. Many old texts of the siddhAnta tradition were understood to be the upAgama-s in bhArata in later times, such as the nishvAsa.
The nishvAsa is not a single text but a canon by itself: The nishvAsatattvasaMhitA (consisting of mUla, uttara, naya sUtra-s), nishvAsaguhya, etc The nishvAsa used to be a very popular system in bhArata before its decline. It did not survive in bhArata itself as a proper system by the 900s, when the kAmika, kiraNa, etc & other Agama-s emerged as the dominant textual tradition of the siddhAnta.
However, it did survive in kambUjadesha (not that of uttarabhArata but the one in Agneya-jambudvIpa). An inscription tells us about a particular shivAcArya by the name of hRSIkesha, who had passed away & was the hotR for the predecessors of king rAjendravarman. He was originally born in a non-shaiva family but in his later years, took up initiation in the nishvAsamaNDala and became AcArya/rAjaguru for IshAnavarman, jayavarman and harSavarman. He was also an adept in the sarvaj~nAnottara Agama, one of 28 primary Agama-s of the siddhAnta.