Philosopher
Somānanda
fl. 900–950 CE
Also known as Somananda
Kashmiri Śaiva thinker whose Cognition of Śiva was the first full work of scholastic philosophy in the monistic Śaiva tradition, explaining how Śiva emanates a real world identical with himself.
Somānanda belonged to the Trika strand of monistic Śaivism in medieval Kashmir, and his Cognition of Śiva was the first work of fully scholastic philosophy in that tradition. Besides Bhartṛhari, he criticised the Pāñcarātra, Vedānta, Sāṅkhya and Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika schools.
His student Utpaladeva wrote a commentary on the Cognition of Śiva and developed its ideas with much greater sophistication into the philosophy of Recognition (Pratyabhijñā), which Abhinavagupta, a disciple of Utpaladeva’s disciple, elaborated further. Somānanda’s appeal to recognition against the Buddhists, which he took over from the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika school, had great consequences for that later philosophy.
Key ideas
- A real world, one with Śiva
- Śiva, through the modes of his power (Śakti), emanates a universe that is real and yet remains identical with himself.
- Against the Word Absolute
- Somānanda argued at greatest length against Bhartṛhari’s view that ultimate reality is the Word. No linguistic entity can be ultimate; the true source of language is the Sound integral to Śiva’s creative power.
- Śiva and his power
- There is ultimately no difference between Śakti and Śiva who possesses it, as heat cannot be separated from fire; still, it is more proper to call ultimate reality Śiva.
- Recognition against momentariness
- Against the Buddhist doctrine of momentariness, Somānanda pointed to the experience of recognition, which shows both that things continue from past to present and that there is a self connecting past and present experience.
- Tradition
- Indian
- Region
- Kashmir
Influences
Where these links come from
- Somānanda argued against Bhartṛhari. Source: David Peter Lawrence, Kashmiri Shaiva Philosophy, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Key works
- Cognition of Śiva (Śivadṛṣṭi)
Terms on this page
- Śakti
- Power, conceived in Kashmiri Śaivism as the female counterpart of Śiva and the means by which he emanates and controls the universe.
Sources
- David Peter Lawrence, Kashmiri Shaiva Philosophy, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy