(late tenth century) Abhinavagupta was a major thinker in Kashmiri Saivism, and the son of scholar Narasimhagupta, who was his first tutor.
Abhinavagupta wrote forty-one works, commentaries and independent treatises, on the three main branches of Kashmiri Saivism: Krama, Pratyabhijna, and Trika, as well as aesthetics, poetics, and language theory, becoming the most prominent and influential teacher in Abhinavagupta was the one who systematized the Trika doctrine based on a number of older and often obscure texts, most notably in his masterpiece, the Tantra loka (Light on the Tantras), a massive work in thirty-seven ahnika ('day-times,' i.e. chapters) that takes up twelve volumes in the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies (1918–38) with Jayaratha's commentary.
The Patra trimsika Vivarana is a lengthy commentary on the
Tantra Para trimsika's thirty-six pithy stanzas, which elaborates on all
elements of Word/speech, whether liturgical, cosmogonic, psychological,
epistemological, or metaphysical.
The Ma lin vijaya Varttika and the Isvara pratyabhijn a
Vimarsin on Utpala deva's Pratyabhijn a Karika, both major works in the
tradition, are two more commentaries worth noting.
All of these writings are significant, and Abhinavgupta's
impact beyond not just his own school but also Tamil Nadu, where he was even
regarded as an incarnation of Siva.
Not just in the sphere of poetics, with his focus on the
primacy of suggestion, but also in the performing arts, particularly theatre,
dance, and music, his writings on aesthetics were to be as authoritative and of
enduring value.
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See also:
Advaita; Dance; Drama; Kashmiri Saivism; Music; Poetry; Siva; Tantras; Tantrism; Yoga
