Before the advent of Islam, Kashmir was a secluded but cultured land.  Its pleasant climate and beautiful scenery, said to have been praised by Gotama himself,[556] attracted and stimulated thinkers and it had some importance in the history of Buddhism and of the Pancaratra as well as for Sivaism.  It is connected with the Buddhist sect called Sarvastivadins and in this case the circumstances seem clear.  The sect did not originate in Kashmir but its adherents settled there after attending the Council of Kanishka and made it into a holy land.  Subsequently, first Vishnuism and then Sivaism[557] entered the mountain valleys and flourished there.  Kashmirian thinkers may have left an individual impress on either system but they dealt with questions which had already been treated of by others and their contributions, though interesting, do not seem to have touched the foundations of belief or to have inspired popular movements.  The essential similarity of all Sivaite schools is so great that coincidences even in details do not prove descent or borrowing and the special terms of Kashmirian philosophy, such as spanda and pratyabhijna, seem not to be used in the south.

The Siva-sutras consist of three sections, describing three methods of attaining svacchanda or independence.  One (the gist of which has been given above) displays some though not great originality:  the second is Saktist, the third follows the ordinary prescriptions of the Yoga.  All Sivaite philosophy is really based on this last and teaches the existence of matter, souls and a deity, manifested in a series of phases.  The relations of these three ultimates are variously defined, and they may be identified with one another, for the Sankhya-Yoga doctrine may be combined (though not very consistently) with the teaching of the Vedanta.  In Kashmirian Sivaism Vedantist influences seem strong and it even calls itself Advaita.  It is noteworthy that Vasugupta, who discovered the Siva-sutras, also wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-gita.

The gist of the matter is that, since a taste for speculation is far more prevalent in India than in Europe, there exist many systems of popular philosophy which, being a mixture of religion and metaphysics, involve two mental attitudes.  The ordinary worshipper implores the Lord to deliver him from the bondage of sin and matter:  the philosopher and saint wish to show that thought is one and such ideas as sin and matter partial and illusory.  The originality of the Saiva Siddhanta lies less in its dogmas than in its devotional character:  in the feeling that the soul is immersed in darkness and struggles upwards by the grace of the Lord, so that the whole process of Karma and Maya is really beneficent.

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