Adaptive reuse in the Vīraśaiva Kriyāsāra

This article examines the modalities of adaptive reuse in the Kriyāsāra, a seminal work of Vīraśaiva doctrine and ritual composed by Nīlakaṇṭha Śivācārya. Earlier scholarship has questioned whether the prominent sixteenth-century scholar Appayya Dīkṣita drew upon the Kriyāsāra in his own Śaiva ritual manual, the Śivārcanacandrikā. This study argues, to the contrary, that Nīlakaṇṭha Śivācārya drew upon Appayya Dīkṣita’s manual. It shows how his interventions in the borrowed material, ranging from sectarian markings and theological insertions to adaptations of ritual practice, served to recast the Śivārcanacandrikā for a specifically Vīraśaiva audience. The article also examines the relationship between the philosophical sections of the Kriyāsāra and Appayya Dīkṣita’s Śivādvaita Vedānta, arguing against the view that Appayya Dīkṣita’s Śivādvaita exegesis was substantially indebted to the Kriyāsāra. In addition to contributing to the study of reuse in Sanskrit texts, this study seeks to illuminate the intellectual history of early modern Vīraśaivism by examining its textual practices and relationship to Śaiva Siddhānta, and by offering the first reliable dating of the Kriyāsāra.