Somānanda
925 CE · Kashmir Valley
c. 900–950 CE
Somānanda (c. 900–950 CE) is the founder of the Pratyabhijñā ('Recognition') stream of non-dual Kashmir Shaivism. His principal work, the Śivadṛṣṭi ('Vision of Śiva'), lays out the theoretical foundation of the doctrine that the bound soul is in fact none other than Śiva, and that liberation consists in 'recognizing' (pratyabhijñā) this pre-existing identity. His thought was developed and refined by his pupil Utpaladeva and ultimately brought to its full synthesis by Abhinavagupta, who stood two generations down the line.
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Kashmir Valley
What they did here
Traditional birthplace of Somānanda.
About Kashmir Valley
The Kashmir Valley, in the present-day Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, is a Himalayan basin drained by the Jhelum River and centred on Srinagar. From roughly the 9th to the 12th centuries it was the homeland of the non-dual Shaiva tradition known as Kashmir Shaivism, whose exegetes—among them Somanānda, Utpaladeva, Kṣemarāja, and the commentator Jayaratha—were active here.
In Kashmir Valley at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Somānanda’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Somānanda’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
Works
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