with the decay of zeal for their study, these Shāstras also gradually disappeared and the world plunged into spiritual darkness. With a view to revive these Shāstras and spread their knowledge again for the benefit of humanity, All-Powerful Parama Shiva, so the story runs, appeared on the Kailāsa Mountain in the form of Shrikantha and charged the Sage Durvāsa with this mission. By the power of his mind the Sage created three sons, Tryambaka, Amardaka and Shrinātha, who are believed to have retaught the people the ancient Shaiva faith, the Advaya Shaiva teachings of the first being now spoken of as the Trika.
Most of the works belonging to this Shāstra were, it seems, interpreted for some time in terms of Dualism and even Pluralism, and, according to the tradition and belief of Kashmir Shaivas, it was to convince the people of the Idealistic Monism which this Shāstra was intended to teach, and to stunt the growth of this tendency of giving a Dualistic interpretation to it, that the Shiva Sutras were revealed to the Saint and Sage Vasugupta who, it is safe to assert, lived in the beginning of the ninth century A. D.
At the time the Shaivāgama was studied universally there must have grown up a mass of literature about it. As a matter of course,
