The Shaiva schools

Five living or historical ways of framing Shiva that disagree at the root and are described, never harmonised: the early Pashupatas; Shaiva Siddhanta of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, a devotional dualism of Lord, souls and bonds with union likened to salt in water; Kashmir's non-dual Trika, where Shiva is pure consciousness and the world a real appearance across thirty-six tattvas; the Lingayats of Karnataka under Basava, who wear the linga on the body and reject caste, Vedic ritual and priesthood; and the Naths, for whom Shiva is Adinath, the first guru of the yogis.