Shaiva Sampradaya
The historical lineages and schools of Shiv worship, built one at a time - each entry sourced to a named text, with real scholarly disputes stated plainly rather than resolved for you.
Pashupataपाशुपत
The Pashupata school takes its name from Pashupati, 'lord of Pashus' (bound souls), Shiva as the one who frees embodied beings from the Pashas (bonds) of ignorance and matter through devoted practice, ash-smearing, and the panchakshara mantra. Its founder-attribution to Lakulisha is genuinely disputed in scholarship: some treat him as the school's actual founder, others say the doctrine predates him and he was its first formal preceptor of record.
Read →Shaiva Siddhantaशैव सिद्धान्त
Shaiva Siddhanta is the school of Shiv worship whose basic text is Meykandar's Tamil Sivajnana Bodham, twelve short sutras with a commentary. Its subject is three entities: Pati (the Lord, Shiv), Pasu (the soul) and Pasa (the bonds that bind it). This page follows the text itself, in J.M. Nallaswami Pillai's English translation.
Read →More sampradaya pages are being added as their sources are read directly.