Invoking the Powers that Be: The Śivadharma's Mahāśānti Mantra

Gonda Indological Studies 18, Brill, 2018

A critical edition and annotated translation of the sixth chapter of the Śivadharmaśāstra `Treatise on the Religion of Śiva’, the so-called Śāntyadhyāya 'Chapter on Appeasement’. The Sanskrit text is preceded by an extensive introduction on its composition, transmission and edition. The Open Access E-book is also available for free download here: https://brill.com/view/title/39141

Śivadharmāmṛta. Essays on the Śivadharma and its Network, 2021

Studies on the History of Śaivism 2, 2021

Śivadharmāṃrta, ‘The Nectar of Śiva’s Religion’, is a collection of articles that present some of the initial results of the research on the Śivadharma carried out by the SHIVADHARMA and DHARMA projects. All the contributions in this book are based on the study of primary sources and cover topics that range from specific aspects of the Sanskrit texts of the Śivadharma corpus to their broad network of influence and from considerations of the early historical context in which the Śivadharma might have arisen to the early modern Tamil adaptations of the Śivadharmottara. This book should be of interest to all scholars working on the religious traditions of South Asia, especially those focussing on textual sources.

Studies on the History of Śaivism, 1. University of Napoli L’Orientale Press., 2021

A Śaiva Utopia centers on the eleventh chapter of the Śivadharmaśāstra, known as the Chapter on Śiva’s Discipline (Śivāśramādhyāya). A critical edition and annotated English translation of the Sanskrit text of this chapter is preceded by a comprehensive study of the Śivadharma’s revision of the Brahmanical ‘laws on class and discipline’ (varṇāśramadharma), tracing its utopian vision of a society bound by Śiva devotion. An edition and English translation of a Sanskrit commentary on the chapter, preserved on a unique palm leaf manuscript in Malayalam script, is included as well. The book concludes with an appendix, which addresses the revision of the Śivāśramādhyāya in the Bhaviṣyapurāṇa, where the Śivadharma has been turned into a Sauradharma ('religion of the Sun'). A Śaiva Utopia should be of interest to all historians of Indian religions.

This panel focuses on topics that contribute towards a more differentiated understanding of the various Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva devotional communities and their interface in early medieval South-Asia (ca. 5th-12th centuries CE). One of the main objectives of these papers is to understand the emergence and process of the literary production of the Vaiṣṇavas and Śaivas and to identify religious groups and their motivations behind these texts. In particular, our focus is on relevant sections of the Mahābhārata, the collection of texts designed to provide social norms and systems of practices for their respective communities of devotees, such as the Viṣṇudharma or Śivadharmaśāstra, as well as texts of contemporaneous initiatory traditions, such as those of the early Pañcarātras. This panel thus hosts two kinds of papers: firstly, those on specific topics within each system, which can be used as a basis for comparison; secondly, papers that directly address the comparative aspects, including those dealing with textual relations, cases of reuse, and direct textual influence. By identifying points of convergence and divergence between these religious groups, the papers aim to bring into focus the boundaries and interface, or even levels of syncretism, regarding Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva communities in this dynamic period which saw the rise of devotional movements.

Identification of the Śivadharmaśāstra as the source of a doctrinal verse about the worship of the liṅga in the Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra, and the possible broader implications of this quotation, in particular in relation to the question of the origin of the six-syllabled mantra oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ and its Śaiva counterpart oṃ namaḥ śivāya.

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Śivādvaita Vedānta is the name of a Sanskrit-language school of nondualist Vedānta (see nondualism; vedānta) that centers on Śiva as the conceptual and semantic equivalent of brahman. Its origins are generally traced back to the Brahmamīmām . sābhās . ya by Śrīkan . t . ha Śivācārya (c. fourteenth to fifteenth century), presumably the single premodern commentary on the Brahmasūtras (see vedānta) written from a Śaiva standpoint (see Duquette 2021a). Śrīkan . t . ha's teachings achieved wider recognition during the early modern period through the Śivādvaita writings of the celebrated scholar Appaya Dīks . ita . Although Appaya's writings successfully established Śivādvaita Vedānta as a major school of Vedānta in his time, the latter did not attract a huge following and did not give rise to an extensive body of commentarial literature. While Śivādvaita Vedānta never formed a "school" of its own (McCrea 2016), the writings of Śrīkan . t . ha and Appaya seem to have played a considerable role in the rise of another Śaiva school of nondualist Vedānta: the Śaktiviśis . t . ādvaita Vedānta of Vīraśaivas. Both schools would have been part of a "greater Śaiva Advaita" movement (Fisher 2017) that came to prominence in a context of increasing sectarian and theological debates between Śaivas and Vais . n . avas in early modern South India (Duquette 2021b). Key scriptural sources in Śrīkan . t . ha's exegesis include Śaiva Purān . as and upanis . ads with a Śaiva leaning (particularly the Śvetāśvatara and Mahānārāyan . a Upanis . ads), and to a lesser extent works by nondualist Kashmirians like Utpaladeva and Ks . emarāja (see nondualistic śaivism of kashmir). Śrīkan . t . ha was influenced in significant ways by the writings of rāmānuja. While several concepts foundational to his theology are distinctively Śaiva in origin, his core theological position and Vedānta terminology show a clear imprint of the viśis . t . ādvaita vedānta tradition viśis . t . ādvaita vedānta). The similarities between both systems were so striking to scholars of the Śuddhādvaita Vedānta tradition that they regarded Śrīkan . t . ha as a "stealer" (caura) of Rāmānuja's teachings (Duquette 2021b). In Śrīkan . t . ha's theology, the godhead Śiva (parameśvara, paramaśiva, maheśvara) is identified with the nondual brahman as the efficient and material cause (nimittopādānakāran . a) of the world, the inner controller (antaryāmin) of all beings, and the triad of existence, consciousness, and bliss (saccidānanda). Although Śiva possesses various attributes (sagun . a), it is by essence nondual (advitīya) and "distinguished" or "qualified" (viśis . t . a) by the phenomenal world and the selves (jīva) that live in it. The world (prapañca) constitutes as such the "body" (śarīra) of Śiva, a terminology that is reminiscent of Rāmānuja's theology. Śiva is endowed with multiple powers (śakti), the greatest of which is termed variously in his theology the "supreme The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion.