Shaivism: Tradition, Beliefs, and Cultural Influence

Early Shivaism borrowed its theology from that of the Vishnuites. Its early forms arose among priests of Yajurveda. From the 4th century it only developed into an independent direction. The heyday of Shivaism began in the 9th century and from the 10th century onwards, temple complexes still in existence today were established in southern and central India. The main schools of Shivaism from the 10th century onwards are Kashmiri Shivaism, Shaiva-Siddhanta, the Natha-Yogis and the Virashaivas. The heyday of Shivaism lasted till the 13th century.

In the Shivaite cults, Shiva is the supreme being who surpasses all other gods in power and also created them. The beings and the world are subject to change, only Shiva alone is imperishable, eternal and the fullness of the absolute. He is the primordial source of existence. He bears various names testifying to His greatness such as Mahadeva (the Great God), Ishvara (the Lord), Maheshvara (the Great Lord), Prameshvara (the Supreme Lord). However, despite his function as an absolute existence and all-god, the myths always show him also as a terrible god and a great ascetic who indulges in excruciating mortifications and is attached to nature. He is the spirit (Purusha), the essence of the whole manifested world (Prakriti) and the motive power of that world. To him alone it is reserved to make the world come into being and pass away. After the end of the world periodically brought about by him, nothing remains but Shiva himself, and cyclically he creates new universes through the Maya of his Yoga, out of which arises the lotus, from which Brahma emerges. The whole universe is conceived as arising from and passing into the dance of Shiva Nataraja. His dance sustains the world and redeems the souls. He performs his dance surrounded by gods in the Himalayas, as a ten-armed being surrounded by demons and Devi on mortuary grounds and in the golden halls of the Nataraja temple of Chidambaram, the centre of the universe. His dance symbolizes his fivefold qualities of evolution: sustaining, contracting, enshrouding (souls in samsara), graciously accepting devotees, and bestowing peace and salvation. He contains as absolutes the paradoxes of untamed, savage and cruel nature and supreme wisdom and deepest peace. In many representations the god is worshipped as half female, half male as Ardhanarishvara, who is one with his Shakti, his feminine side.