would simply wear a lingam around the neck to
show devotion. Caste was outlawed and women
were made equals to men in the tradition. Their
path was devotional, and their desire was to real-
ize the divine truth that was Shiva.
Shaivite icons and temple artifacts appear
much later in the north than in the south,
but Shaivism was flourishing earlier nonetheless.
Smaller shrines with Shiva lingams were appar-
ently the norm, places where mendicants gath-
ered, often to smoke hashish and sing the praises
of the Lord who was everywhere.
Between the eighth and 12th centuries the
NAT H YOGIS became prominent among the Shaivite
wandering mendicants. Famed among these was
the great GURU GORAKHNATH. These wild, ascetic
mendicants were antisocial and often frighten-
ing in appearance, carrying begging bowls made
of skulls and smearing themselves with human
ashes to mimic the chaotic Lord himself. They
practiced alchemy in an attempt to achieve
immortality. When in the south an organized
literature, liturgy, and temple culture had already
emerged, North India Shaivism seemed to move
along different lines. The Shaivite temple cult
began to develop in North India around the ninth
or 10th century, but truly dramatic temples were
not built until some 600 years after they had
appeared in the south.
In the 12th century the great ABHINAVAGUPTA
wrote his texts outlining KASHMIRI SHAIVISM, a
TANTRIC tradition that relied on personal transfor-
mation and ritual to realize the total oneness of
Shiva, rather than on a temple culture. His texts
were no doubt based on traditions that had been
maturing for centuries.
Further reading: C. V. Narayan Ayyar, Origin and Early
History of Saivism in South India (Madras: University of
Madras, 1936); R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Saivism,
and Minor Religious Systems (New York: Garland Pub-
lishing, 1980); R. Nagaswamy, Siva Bhakti (New Delhi:
Navrang, 1989); Moti Lal Pandit, Saivism, a Religio-
Philosophical History (New Delhi: Theological Research
and Communication Institute, 1987); S. Shivapadasun-
daram, The Saiva School of Hinduism (London: George
Allen & Unwin, 1934).Shaivite (Shaiva) See SHAIVISM.
Shakta
The term Shakta refers both to the practitio-
ner/devotee and to the faith, a female-centered
religious tradition that evolved out of prehistoric
Mother Goddess worship found in civilizations
across the globe. The word Shakta derives from
the divine feminine power or SHAKTI and indicates
a worshipper of the Goddess primarily. Evidence
of this Earth-based and female-centered tradition
on the Indian subcontinent dates back perhaps
as early as the INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION (3500
B.C.E.–1500 B.C.E.), where numerous Harrapan
seals portraying female figures associated with
vegetative symbolism have been found.
The pre-Vedic Hindu tradition, with its God-
dess-centered worldview, is often traced to the art
and archaeological remains of the Harrapan and
Mohenjo-daro civilizations. Although the point
is contested, many scholars believe these findings
definitively point to an early Earth-based, female/
goddess-centered religious tradition.
Evidence for this tradition is clear as early
as the fourth century, although Shakta itself is a
relatively late post–eighth century term applied
to those cults, scripture, or persons associated
with the worship of the Goddess as Shakti.
Before this time the term used for this type of
Goddess worship was kula or kaula, a word also
used to refer to clans of a female lineage, as well
as to menstrual and female sexual fluids. It seems
that this belief system whether called Kaula or
Shakta, centered on the Goddess and her YONI,
or sexual organ, as the primordial force of Earth
and cosmos.
A Shakta views the female principle as the ani-
mating, dynamic force behind all existence whileShakta 397 J