Kashmir non dual Shaivism lineage (original) (raw)

Nondualistic Śaivism of Kashmir

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion, 2021

If we look at full-fledgedŚaiva nondualism of Kashmir (in contrast to Saiddhāntiká Saiva dualism of which it appears to be a later development) as expressed in the works of the four great masters somānanda (c. 900-950), Utpaladeva (c. 925-975), Abhinavagupta (c. 975-1025), and Ks. emarāja (c. 1000-1050), we find that the individual soul fully coincides withŚiva; the material world is the free manifestation ofŚiva himself; māyā is not an autonomous reality, but a power ofŚiva; the stains (mala), which are responsible for the arising of the limited subject, are by no means substantial realities, but erroneous attitudes of the subject themself based on their lack of knowledge (see below); the opposition knower-knowable is only provisional; and finally everything shines as dynamic I-ness. Somānanda laid the foundation for the philosophy of nondualŚaivism (later called Pratyabhijñā "Recognition") with hisŚivadr. s. t. i (ŚD), an unflinching criticism of opposing doctrines with an emotionally aggressive overtone, deeply rooted in theŚaiva scriptures. Although theŚD was a powerful source of inspiration for Utpaladeva (Torella and Bäumer 2016), it is only with hisĪśvarapratyabhijñā-kārikā (ĪPK) that the Pratyabhijñā becomes a very original and elaborate philosophical system. TheĪPK and the author's Vr. tti ("short commentary"), composed at the same time, were commented upon in a long and complex Vivr. ti ("elaborate commentary"), which has come down to us only in fragments: the Siddhitrayī, three terse treatises on specific subjects and a Vr. tti on theŚivadr. s. t. i. Besides authoring philosophical works, Utpaladeva was also a mystical poet, as expressed in his splendid hymn collection,Śivastotrāvalī. The Pratyabhijñā philosophy was continued by Utpaladeva's disciple Laks. man. agupta (of whom nothing has come down to us) and by the latter's disciple, the great Abhinavagupta, who composed two extensive commentaries on the Pratyabhijñā, and took it as the theoretical frame for his Trika system in the Tantrāloka (TĀ), meant as a synthesis of the entire tantricŚaiva tradition; this synthesis was built around a single text, the Mālinīvijayottara-tantra (MVU), but at the same time included the teachings of many lineages ofŚaiva tantras, organized according to a Trika-Krama model (Sanderson 2009). Abhinava's work covers an astonishingly vast array of subjects, ranging from the exegesis of tantric scriptures to epistemology, to aesthetic speculation, this latter probably forming the very basis on which the whole edifice of his worldview rests. His most illustrious disciple, Ks. emarāja, was essentially the author of commentaries-a literary genre that in India was the actual seat of knowledge, much more than the few "original" sutra and kārikā texts-among which theŚivasūtra-vimarśinī, Spanda-nirn. aya, Netra-uddyota, and Svacchanda-uddyota stand out. While the

Tracing Rishism in Kashmir: A Study of Nūr al-Dīn's Rīshī Family Tree

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research, 2022

In the Kashmir Valley, there has always been a group of religion-oriented people who profoundly impacted the Kashmiri society. Because of their religiosity, people commonly knew them by the name of Rīshīs. With the advent of Ṣūfī preachers from Persia and Central Asia in the fourteenth century, a new chapter opened in the Kashmiri religious history. As they came with a humanitarian attitude to spread Islām, by the turn of the sixteenth century, the Valley had a majority of Muslims. Prior to this, Hinduism predominated Kashmir, which was rooted in its traditionally accepted caste structure, ritual system, Kula system, etcetera. Besides Ṣūfī preachers, the indigenous Rīshīs also paved the stage for the transformation of Kashmiri society by opposing Hinduism and providing the masses an alternative. The connection and influence of Ṣūfīs on the local Rīshīs, particularly Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn, commonly known as Nund Rīshī, accounted for two forms within the Rīshī movement, which came to be known as Muslim Rishism and non-Islamic Rishism. Nūr al-Dīn furnished the Kashmiri people with a Rīshī lineage or Rīshī family tree whose originator and founder is none other than the Prophet Muḥammad ‫ﷺ ‬himself. The present research will trace and examine this Rīshī family tree in relation to the Rīshī movement in Kashmir until the times of Nūr al-Dīn.

Kashmir Śaiva Philosophy: An Introductory Overview*

philosophy is a geographical nomenclature used for Śaiva and Śākta philosophical streams which originated in Kashmir or were imported from elsewhere and flourished between ninth to eleventh century in Kashmir. From this point of view, all the Śaiva doctrines-dvaita, advaita and dvaitādvaita (dualist, non-dualist and dualist-non-dualist)-are denoted by this term, but currently, in popular understanding, this term only signifies nondualist philosophical traditions. Thus, Kashmir Śaivism is not a school in itself, rather it is a complex cluster of many interconnected traditions which were first centered only in Kashmir and later spread all over in the northeast , south etc. The presence of philosophical traditions which can be traced during that period are: Trika (literally, triad or group of three), Krama (lit. order or sequence), Mata (lit. tenet or dogma or opinion, a particular sect in philosophy), Kula (lit. family or whole), Spanda (lit. vibration), Pratyabhijñā (lit. recognition), Siddhānta (lit. doctrine, commonly used for Siddhānta Śaiva Dualism) and Tripurā (lit. consisting of three cities). Scholars have presented these traditions by classifying them in various ways. Many approaches are found in this context, for example,