The Streams
Shaivism, Shaktism and Vaishnavism: the three great streams of worship, each with its own scriptures, temples and saints. What divides them, and what they share.
Ask which god a Hindu worships and the answer usually names a stream rather than a deity. Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta, and the smaller Smarta position that holds all of them at once: these are the great divisions of practice, and they matter more to how the tradition is actually lived than the philosophical schools do.
The divisions are old, real, and largely peaceful. A Shaiva household and a Vaishnava household use different marks on the forehead, different daily liturgy, different temples, and often different philosophers. They have argued for a thousand years about which deity is supreme. They have very rarely fought about it.
These pages set out what each stream holds, how it is recognised in practice, and where the boundaries blur. Most Hindus, asked to place themselves, will name one and then quietly worship across all four.