Medieval Period

Temple to Sri Brahadeeswarar (Shiva) in Tanjavur, the world's first granite temple, built 1004–1009 CE ©

From 500 CE we have the rise of devotion (bhakti) to the major deities, particularly Vishnu, Shiva and Devi. With the collapse of the Gupta empire, regional kingdoms developed which patronised different religions. For example, the Cholas in the South supported Shaivism.

This period saw the development of the great regional temples such as Jagganatha in Puri in Orissa, the Shiva temple in Cidambaram in Tamilnadu, and the Shiva temple in Tanjavur, also in Tamilnadu. All of these temples had a major deity installed there and were centres of religious and political power.

Poet-saints and gurus

During this time not only religious literature in Sanskrit developed but also in vernacular languages, particularly Tamil. Here poet-saints recorded their devotional sentiments. Most notable are the twelve Vaishnava Alvars (6th–9th centuries), including one famous female poet-saint called Andal, and the sixty-three Shaiva Nayanars (8th–10th centuries).

Subsequent key thinkers and teachers (acharyas or gurus) consolidated these teachings. They formulated new theologies, perpetuated by their own disciplic successions (sampradaya).

Shankara (780–820) travelled widely, defeating scholars of the unorthodox movements, Buddhism and Jainism, which around the turn of the millennium had established prominent seats of learning throughout India. He re-established the authority of the Vedic canon, propagated advaita (monism) and laid foundations for the further development of the tradition known as the Vedanta.

 
Madhva (c.1238–c.1317, Vaishnava saint and founder of the philosophical school Dvaita Vedanta ©

Developments in Vaishnavism and Shaivism

The Vaishnava philosophers Ramanuja (c. 1017–1137), Madhva (13th cent) and others followed, writing their own scriptural commentaries, propounding new theologies and establishing their own successions. Ramanuja qualified Shankara's impersonal philosophy, and Madhva more strongly propounded the existence of a personal God.

Shaivism similarly developed during this period with important philosophers such as Abhinavagupta (c. 975–1025) writing commentaries on the Tantras, an alternative revelation to the Veda, and other texts.

The Tantras became revered as a revelation that fulfilled or superseded the Veda. Some of these texts advocated ritually polluting practices such as offering alcohol, meat and ritualised sex to ferocious deities but most of these texts are simply concerned with daily and occasional rituals, temple building, cosmology and so on.