Glimpses of Early Saiva Siddhanta. Echoes of doctrines ascribed to Brhaspati in the Sanskrit-Old Javanese Vrhaspatitattva

Abstract

Brhaspati is one of the earliest historical figures of the Śaiva Siddhānta. Although his works have not survived to us, fragments of textual evidence are found as˙ quotations scattered over the Śaiva commentarial literature. ese fragments have been gathered and thoroughly discussed in a recent article by Alexis Sanderson (), who has tentatively dated Brhaspati to the period between  and . Drawing upon the data presented by Sanderson, I will compare some doctrinal˙ themes ascribed to Brhaspati with similar ones found in the Sanskrit-Old Javanese Śaiva text Vrhaspatitattva˙ and argue that Brhaspati’s works might have been known in the pre-Islamic Indonesian Archipelago.