Recent scholarship on Śaivism has significantly expanded our knowledge of the religious dimensions of Medieval Śaiva movements. However, the philosophical aspects displayed by some of the texts produced in these milieux remain largely unrecognized. The present study helps fill this lacuna by exploring the sophisticated and original philosophical system elaborated by the Kashmiri Śaiva nondualists Utpaladeva (fl. c. 925-975) and Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975-1025). The book shows that this system cannot be reduced to a mere scriptural exegesis and examines the genesis of the main...

Abhinavagupta is undoubtedly the most famous Kashmirian medieval intellectual: his decisive contributions to Indian aesthetics, Saiva theology, and metaphysics, and to the philosophy of the subtle and original Pratyabhijna system, are well known. Yet so far his works have often been studied without fully taking into account the specific historical, social, artistic, religious, and philosophical context in which they are embedded. The purpose of this book is to show that this intellectual background is no less exceptional than Abhinavagupta himself. (Series: Leipzig Studies on the Culture and...