Shaivism
Sign in to saveShaivism (; ) is an umbrella-term for a number of Hindu religious traditions, which worship Shiva as the supreme being. The followers of Shaivism are called Shaivas or Shaivites, numbering about 385 million people, across South Asia predominantly in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.
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Shaivism is a major branch of Hinduism in which followers worship Shiva as the supreme deity, and it encompasses various religious traditions within this broader faith. With approximately 385 million adherents—making it one of Hinduism's largest movements—Shaivism is practiced predominantly across South Asia, particularly in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.
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Article
46 sectionsContents
- Etymology and nomenclature
- Origins and history
- Indus Valley Civilisation
- Vedic elements
- Emergence of Shaivism
- Puranic Shaivism
- Post-Gupta development
- South India
- Southeast Asia
- Indonesia
- Traditions
- Vedic-Puranic Shaivism
- Atimarga
- Pashupata
- Lakula
- Mantramarga
- Shaiva Siddhanta
- Tamil Shiva Siddhanta - Nayanars
- Kapalika
- Aghori
- Kulamārga
- Trika and Kashmir Shaivism
- Nath
- Lingayatism
- Texts
- Vedas and Principal Upanishads
- Shaiva minor Upanishads
- Shaiva Agamas
- Influence
- Relation with other Indian traditions
- Shaktism
- Smarta Tradition
- Vaishnavism
- Sauraism (Sun deity)
- Yoga movements
- Hindu performance arts
- Buddhism
- Jainism
- Temples and pilgrimage
- Demography
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Sources
- Further reading
- External links
Shaivism (; ) is an umbrella-term for a number of Hindu religious traditions, which worship Shiva as the supreme being. The followers of Shaivism are called Shaivas or Shaivites, numbering about 385 million people, across South Asia predominantly in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.
Shaivism developed as an amalgam of pre-Aryan religions and traditions, Vedic Rudra, and post-Vedic traditions, accommodating 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.