The term Krama Śaivism refers to a number of closely related mystical cults of the goddess Kali and her emanations, which, originating in Uḍḍiyāna (Swat) and Kashmir before the ninth century, propagated an idealist metaphysics that exerted a decisive influence on the Trika and thence on the Śrīvidyā. The Krama rituals and their wild, skull-decked, often theriomorphic deities place them within the Kāpālika culture of the cremation grounds.

The branch of Krama scriptures that originated in Uḍḍiyāna (of these, manuscripts survive of the Devīpañcaśataka, Kramasadbhāva, Devīdvyardhaśatikā, and Yonigahvara Tantra) has assimilated Kaulism and so professes to have distanced itself from this Kāpālika background. Nonetheless, several Krama gurus in Kashmir, though they followed these scriptures, were Kāpālika ascetics, while in the other major scriptural source...