Shaiva Nagas
Pashupatas. All three of these were
communities of renunciant ascetics,
perhaps to accord with the example
set by their patron deity. The informa-
tion for all three must be reconstruct-
ed, since the sects have all disap-
peared. Shaivas can still be found in
ascetic life in the Dashanami Sanyasis
and the Nathpanthis, two living
ascetic communities. The major cur-
rent through which Shaiva devotional-
ism (bhakti) came into mainstream
society was through the devotional
hymns of the Nayanars, a group of
sixty-three poet-saints who lived in
southern India in the seventh and
eighth centuries. Their passionate
devotion, conveyed in hymns in the
Tamil language, was later system-
atized into the southern Indian philo-
sophical school known as Shaiva
Siddhanta. As the bhakti movement
moved northward, it found Shaiva
expression in the Lingayatcommunity
in modern Karnataka, as well as the
Krama and Trikaschools of Kashmiri
Shaivism. Shaivism has had a long
association with tantra, a secret, ritu-
ally based religious practice, and the
influence of tantra is evident in the
Kashmiri schools as well as in the doc-
trines of the Nathpanthi ascetics.
Shaivism does not show the bewil-
dering sectarian variety characterizing
Vaishnavas, devotees of the god
Vishnu, and Shaivites tend to be less
strict about membership in a particular
sect. Nevertheless, Shiva has millions
of devotees in modern India, and a well-
established network of pilgrimage
places (tirtha), particularly in the
Himalayas.
Shaiva Nagas
Naga(“naked,” i.e., fighting) ascetics
who are devotees (bhakta) of the god
Shiva, organized into different akha-
rasor regiments on the model of an
army. The other major Naga division
was the Bairagi Nagas, who were
devotees of the god Vishnu. Until the
beginning of the nineteenth century
the Nagas’ primary occupation was as
mercenary soldiers, although they also
had substantial trading interests. Such
resources allowed many Naga leaders
to become rich and powerful men
despite often coming from lower
social strata, and in earlier times such
opportunities would have made a
career as a Naga an attractive proposi-
tion for an ambitious young man. Both
these sources of income have largely
disappeared in contemporary times,
although some Naga communities are
still landowners with extensive prop-
erties and thus both rich and influen-
tial. See also shaiva.Shaiva Siddhanta
Southern Indian religious community
that was particularly developed in the
Tamil country, and whose members
are devotees (bhakta) of the god
Shiva. Shaiva Siddhanta is based on a
series of fourteen texts, all completed
by the fourteenth century C.E., in
which the ideas about Shiva found in
Sanskrittexts were reinterpreted in
light of the devotional faith of the
Nayanars. The Nayanars were a group
of sixty-three poet-saints who lived in
southern India in the seventh and
eighth centuries. The most famous
and influential of these interpreters
was the ninth-century poet
Manikkavachakar. Central to Shaiva
Siddhanta is the triad of Shiva as the
“Lord” (pati), human souls held in
bondage (pashu), and the “bonds”
(pasha) holding these souls. Shiva is
conceived as the supreme divinity,
who wields the bonds of maya, or illu-
sion, to keep souls in bondage. Yet he
is also pictured as gracious and loving
to his devotees, a far cry from the
capricious and somewhat dangerous
figure in his earliest mythology. As the
supreme lord, Shiva is the source of all
spiritual illumination and energy, and
also the power through which the
world is created, sustained, and reab-
sorbed again. Souls are conceived as
different from Shiva, since they are