Early Saiva Mythology: a study of the formative period of an integrated religious vision

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The study of Śaiva mythology has made significant progress during the last two decades with the ‘discovery’ of the original Skandapurana. This anonymous 6th/7th-century text stands as a model of an early Śaiva Purana, presenting an integrated view of the cosmos and its affairs in which the god Śiva is regarded as supreme. Our project aims at bringing to light the formative period of this mythology, by investigating developments culminating in the production of the first Śaiva Puranas. Śaiva mythology of this period will be studied in Sanskrit texts of a number of different genres: epic, Puranic, poetic (Kavya), and Tantric. Apart from these textual sources, epigraphic, art-historical, archaeological and numismatic materials will also be taken into account. While previous research has tended to proceed on the basis of structuralistic models, it is our strong conviction that mythology, for all that it may be argued to have universal and timeless characteristics, is rooted in sociohistorical contexts, and that its research needs to take account of these. It is expected that our collaborative approach, predominantly philological (text-based) but making use of evidence of other kinds as well, will reveal, much more clearly than before, the significant changes that took place in the development from epic towards Puranic Śaivism.Our project will thus provide the basis for a more historically informed understanding of the development of Śaiva mythology, and by extension of Hindu mythology as a whole.