When I think of the skullbearer
who wears a wreath of flowers in his hair,
the Lord with the white moon who likes to live
in Ven.n.is ancient city,
a flood of ambrosia
wells up in my tongue.
(Peterson 1991: 210)This kind of devotionalism, so typical of the bhaktimovement, spread from
Tamilnadu to neighbouring Karnataka where the Lin.gayat or Vı ̄ras ́aiva sect
were founded by Basava (ca. 1106–67 ad), although there was some continu-
ity with the Ka ̄la ̄mukha sect (see above). As in Tamilnadu this form of S ́aivism
is highly devotional and the bhaktimovement instigated by Basava was against
asceticism (as would have been practiced by the Ka ̄la ̄mukhas), against caste, and
against formal, temple worship, preferring instead an immediate relationship
between devotee and Lord symbolised by a small lin.gaworn around the neck. As
in Tamilnadu, beautiful devotional poetry was composed in Kanada to S ́iva and
his forms (Ramanujan 1973). The fusion ofbhaktiwith tantric ritual as occurred
in the Tamil S ́aiva Siddha ̄nta and Lin.gayats of Karnataka has provided a rich
mix that gave expression to both a popular religiosity and to formal, brahmani-
cal, tantric ritual. There is a fusion of the two in that the personal religion of
bhaktibecomes formalized and incorporated into temple ritual structure.
S ́aiva Siddha ̄nta temple ritual found its way into Kerala where the Nambudri
Brahmins, akin to the Tamil accakan.s, developed a distinctive form of temple
Tantrism based on a fifteenth century Tantrasumuccaya (“Compendium of
Tantra”) by Cenasnambudri, although some families use the I ̄s ́a ̄nas ́ivagurudeva-
paddhati(Freeman 1997). This tradition is not strictly S ́aiva, but rather a syn-
thesis of traditions focusing on the temple worship of S ́iva, Vis.n.u, Gan.es ́a, Devı ̄,
and low-caste regional goddesses.
In the S ́aiva Siddha ̄nta of the south and in the related Kerala Tantrism, we
see traditions which formally align themselves with adherence to vedic worship
and social mores (varn.a ̄s ́rama-dharma) but which in practice perform worship
according to the Tantras. The southern tradition absorbed lower-caste devotion
and succeeded in all but eradicating the ascetical traditions of Buddhism and
Jainism from the region and successfully aligned the tantric tradition with the
vedic. This alignment is achieved in ritual where the S ́aiva Siddha ̄nta and Kerala
traditions absorb vedic elements into the tantric ritual structure that then forms
a common pattern in both temple and private cults. Having taken this survey of
S ́aiva history so far, it is to the patterns of S ́aiva practice that we must now turn.
S ́aiva Temple Ritual
While personal yoga and private ritual for both liberation and power must not
be forgotten in S ́aiva traditions, it is the ritual life of the temple that provides its
the s ́aiva traditions 219