Origins and early influences Shaiva Siddhanta's original form is uncertain. Some hold that it originated as a
monistic doctrine, espoused by
Kashmiri northern shaivites (date unknown).
South India is another theorized location of origin, where it was most prevalent. It seems likely to others, however, that the early Śaiva Siddhānta may have developed somewhere in India, as a religion built around the notion of a ritual initiation that conferred liberation. Such a notion of liberatory initiation appears to have been borrowed from a
Pashupata (
pāśupata) tradition. At the time of the early development of the theology of the school, the question of monism or dualism, which became so central to later theological debates, had not yet emerged as an important issue.
Kashmiri origins or influences Siddhas such as Sadyojyoti (c. 7th century) are credited with the systematization of the Siddhanta theology in Sanskrit. Sadyojyoti, initiated by the guru Ugrajyoti, propounded the Siddhanta philosophical views as found in the
Rauravatantra and
Svāyambhuvasūtrasaṅgraha. He may or may not have been from Kashmir, but the next thinkers whose works survive were those of a Kashmirian lineage active in the 10th century: Rāmakaṇṭha I, Vidyākaṇṭha I, Śrīkaṇṭha, Nārāyaṇakaṇṭha, Rāmakaṇṭha II, Vidyākaṇṭha II. Treatises by the last four of these survive. King
Bhoja of Gujarat (c. 1018) condensed the massive body of Siddhanta scriptural texts into one concise metaphysical treatise called the
Tattvaprakāśa.
Tamil bhakti (7th-9th c.) From the 5th to the 8th century CE Buddhism and Jainism had spread in Tamil Nadu before a forceful Shaiva
bhakti movement arose. Between the 7th and 9th centuries, pilgrim saints such as
Sambandar,
Appar,
Sundarar 63 nayanmars used songs of
Shiva's greatness to refute concepts of Buddhism and Jainism.
Manikkavacakar's verses, called
Tiruvacakam, are full of visionary experience, divine love and urgent striving for truth. The songs of these four saints are part of the compendium known as
Tirumurai which, along with the
Vedas, Shaiva Agamas, and the Meykanda Shastras, are now considered to form the scriptural basis of the Śaiva Siddhānta in
Tamil Nadu. It seems probable that the Tirumurai devotional literature was not, however, considered to belong to the Śaiva Siddhānta canon at the time when it was first composed: the hymns themselves appear to make no such claim for themselves.
Tirumular (8th c. CE?), an aide of the prime
Sangam age Vedic rishi Agastya, is considered to be the propounder of the term Siddhanta and its basic tenets in his
magnum opus. The Bhakti movement should not be exaggerated as an articulation of a 'class struggle'; there is nevertheless a strong sense against rigid structures in the society.
Formulation and sytematisation (12th-15th c.) The culmination of a long period of systematisation of its
theology appears to have taken place in Kashmir in the 10th century, the exegetical works of the Kashmirian authors Bhatta Narayanakantha and Bhatta Ramakantha being the most sophisticated expressions of this school of thought. Their works were quoted and emulated in the works of 12th-century South Indian authors, such as Aghorasiva and Trilocanasiva. The theology they expound is based on a canon of
Tantric scriptures called Siddhantatantras or
Shaiva Agamas. This canon is traditionally held to contain twenty-eight scriptures, but the lists vary, and several doctrinally significant scriptures, such as the
Mrgendra, are not listed. In the systematisation of the ritual of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Kashmirian thinkers appear to have exercised less influence: the treatise that had the greatest impact on Shaiva ritual, and indeed on ritual outside the Shaiva sectarian domain, for we find traces of it in such works as the Agnipurana, is a ritual manual composed in North India in the late 11th century by a certain Somasambhu. In the 12th century, Aghorasiva, the head of a branch monastery of the Amardaka order in
Chidambaram, took up the task of formulating Shaiva Siddhanta. Strongly refuting monist interpretations of Siddhanta, Aghorasiva brought a change in the understanding of Siva by reclassifying the first five principles, or
tattvas (Nada, Bindu, Sadasiva, Isvara and Suddhavidya), into the category of pasa (bonds), stating they were effects of a cause and inherently unconscious substances, a departure from the traditional teaching in which these five were part of the divine nature of God. Aghorasiva was successful in preserving the rituals of the ancient Āgamic tradition. To this day, Aghorasiva's Siddhanta philosophy is followed by almost all of the hereditary temple priests (Sivacharya), and his texts on the Āgamas have become the standard
puja manuals. His
Kriyakramadyotika is a vast work covering nearly all aspects of Shaiva Siddhanta ritual, including the daily worship of Siva, occasional rituals, initiation rites, funerary rites, and festivals. This Aghora Paddhati of Shaiva Siddhanta is followed by the ancient
gruhasta Adi Shaiva Maths of
Kongu Nadu and the temple Sthanika Sivacharya priests of south India.
Meykandar (13th century) was the first systematic philosopher of the school in a dualistic
dvaita Vedantic perspective. In Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta, the thirteenth century
Meykandar, Arulnandi Sivacharya, and Umapati Sivacharya further spread Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta. Meykandar's twelve-verse Śivajñānabodham and subsequent works by other writers, all supposedly of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, laid the foundation of the Meykandar Sampradaya (lineage), which propounds a pluralistic realism wherein God, souls and world are coexistent and without beginning. Siva is an efficient but not material cause. They view the soul's merging in Siva as salt in water, an eternal oneness that is also twoness. The
Brahma Sutra Bhashya of Śrīkaṇṭhā (11th-15th c.) is a further
agamic philosophical foundation of the philosophy in a
Srauta Vedic Vedantic Shiva advaita perspective.
Early Modern Period Sri Lanka In the Sri Lankan
Sinhalese society, king
Rajasinha I of Sitawaka (r. 1581 to 1592) converted to Saiva Siddhantism, and made it the official religion during his reign, after a prolonged domination of
Theravada Buddhism following the conversion of king
Devanampiya Tissa. This Sinhalese Saiva Siddhanta led to the decline of Buddhism for the next two centuries until being revived by South East Asian orders aided by Europeans, but left vestiges in the Sinhalese society. King Rajasinha arranged the marriage of his Tamil minister Mannamperuma Mohottala to a sister of a junior queen known as the "iron daughter" He converted to Shaiva Siddhanta He was reported to have settled
Brahmans Adi Shaivas and
Tamil Shaivite Velalars at significant
Buddhist sites such as
Sri Pada, etc. The
Velala Gurukkals acted as religious mentors of the King and strengthened
Shaiva Siddhantism at these centres. Under the advice of Mannamperuma Mohottala, he razed many Buddhist religious sites to the ground. Buddhism remained in decline thereafter until the formation of the
Siam Nikaya and
Amarapura Nikaya with the support of the Portuguese and
Dutch East India Company respectively. Traces of the era exist in temples like
Barandi Kovila (Bhairava-andi kovil) in Sitawaka and the worship of other Shaivite deities by the Sinhalese, like the syncretic Natha deviyo, Sella
kataragama and others. In the continental south East Asian
Ramayanas, Phra Isuan (from Tamilised Sanskrit Isuwaran) is considered the highest of gods, while Theravada Buddhism is the dominant philosophical religion. Here Shaiva Siddhanta is the practical religion while Theravada Buddhism is the philosophical overarch. In the
Nusantaran Siwa Siddhanta, Siwa is syncretised with the Buddha in a
Tantrayanic form called Siwa-Buda. A similar form is observed in the
Chams of
Vietnam where the community has diverged into the Shaiva Siddhantic
Balamons and the tantrayanic
acharyas (
Cham: Acars) becoming the Bani Cham Muslims. This is due to the fact that the Indian
Bhakti era philosophical and the subsequent royal Shaiva Siddhanta reaction against Buddhism failed to reach south east asia in which Theravada Buddhism, Tantrayana Buddhism and later Islam filled the role of philosophical Shaiva Siddhanta.
Tamil Nadu Meanwhile in
Tamil Nadu, after the
Kalabhra interregnum, the Tamil states of the
Pandyas and
Pallavas reemerged, reviving the
Saivite and
Vaishnavite native religions. Further, the Saivite saint
Sambandar is said to have theologically defeated 8,000
Sramanas with Buddhist names among them. When they started an insurrection, they were
impaled by
Koon Pandiyan at
Samanatham near
Madurai.
Mahendravarman I under
Appar, a Saivite saint retrieved and reclaimed the Sramana encroached monuments and wrote
Mattavilasa Prahasana, a comic play on the heretical (non Vedic) sects of the time including Buddhism.
Bhagavadajjukam by
Baudhayana of the same reign ridiculed the Sramana sects within Hinduism, the
sannyasins. These events are considered to be the ushering in of the
Bhakti era in India which resulted in the routing of the
nastika religion Buddhism and the near decimation of
Jainism in India.
South-East Asia In the Angkorian
Khmer empire (802 to 1431), Shaiva Siddhanta flourished until the royal patronage of Theravada Buddhism and the subsequent fall of the empire's God-king Siddhantic hierarchy. In
Cham society (Vietnam), the Shaiva Siddhanta -
Tantrayana divide resulted in the divergence of the society into the Shaivites becoming Balamon Hindus and tantrayanists converting into the Bani Cham Muslims. In
Majapahit nusantara (Java), Siwa Siddhanta syncretised into the
Tantrayana Siwa-Buda portrayed by
Nagarakretagama. It still survives in the
Agama Hindu Dharma. This colonial
new age movement was initiated by the Tamil purist nationalist Maraimalai Adigal. This school is followed by modern Maths dating from the colonial age likes of the Perur Adheenam (Circa 1895 initiate of the then Arasu
Palli caste headed Mayilam Bommapuram
Lingayat Adheenam) of Coimbatore which holds Lingayatism as the 'primeval' form of Shaiva Siddhantism. This modern sampradaya aims to 'rid' Shaiva Siddhantism of the two former earlier traditions which follow the Vedic and Agamic texts and Adi Shaivas thereby 'purifying' Saiva Siddhanta with the
Dravidian movement related Tamil Nationalist undertones.
Saiva Siddhanta today Saiva Siddhanta is practiced widely among the Saivas of southern India and Sri Lanka, especially by members of the
Adi Shaivas,
Kongu Vellalar, It has over 5 million followers in Tamil Nadu, and is also prevalent among the Tamil diaspora around the world. It has thousands of active temples predominantly in Tamil Nadu and also in places around the world with significant Tamil population and also has numerous
monastic and
ascetic traditions, along with its own community of priests, the
Adishaivas, who are qualified to perform Agama-based Shaiva Temple rituals. The Encyclopedia of Saiva Religion, a ten-volume Saivite publication released in 2013, documents 990 Saivite institutions of Saiva Siddhanta. While many emerged after the 19th century, traditional centers like Thiruvaduthurai Adheenam, Dharmapuram Adheenam, and Thiruppanandal Kasi Math, founded in the 16th and 17th centuries, remain influential.
Kumaragurupara Desikar, a Tamil Saivite poet says that Shaiva Siddhantha is the ripe fruit of the Vedanta tree.
G.U. Pope, an Anglican Tamil Scholar, mentions that Shaiva Sidhantha is the best expression of Tamil knowledge. Post colonial and contemporary movements like that of
Bodhinatha Veylanswami's
Shaiva Siddhanta Church have stressed upon reforming orthodox Shaiva Siddhanta of the pre-colonial era by initiating the non Shaivite born, both Indians and westerners. This movement also rejects
animal sacrifices mentioned in the Siddhantic Vedic and Agamic scriptures. ==Texts==