142540 SE From Divine Pleasures to Liberation: Spiritual Goals in Early Saivism (2022S)

This course explores the range of spiritual goals encountered in Śaiva sources of the early medieval period in the context of the formation and development of different currents of religiosity in “classical Hinduism”. While liberation from transmigration (saṃsāra) – an aspiration originating in renouncer circles – is commonly considered central to most South-Asian religious traditions, early medieval textual sources and inscriptions reveal a broader range of spiritual goals, which were also entangled with Vedic imaginations of heavenly existence after death, mundane concerns of lay practitioners or the quest for super-natural powers (siddhis). This complex development marks a significant shift, through which spiritual goals of liberation (mukti) are no longer exclusively reserved for those who renounced worldly life and dedicated themselves to a spiritual practice, but become accessible to householder practitioners through ritual. By reading a selection of exemplary passages from different Śaiva works and excerpts of inscriptions, we will explore how different conceptualizations of spiritual goals and liberation were shaped by both, ascetic and householder ideals, as Śaiva traditions emerged as a prominent force in the religio-political landscape of the early medieval period.