The Saiva 'beliefs and rituals" was known as Saivam and Saiva Samayam in Tamil, and as Saivaism and Saiva religion to the rest of the world, is the main branch of the Hindu Religion of today. It acclaims the worship of the "God Supreme" - "the one who has not even a name or a form" - as enlightened by the Tamil Saiva Saint Maanikkavaasakar of Tamil Nadu as "Oru naamam oor uruvam, ontrum illaarkku" in his religious text Thiruvaasakam (in Tamil).
The Tamil Saiva Saint Kaaraikkaal Ammaiyaar also of Tamil Nadu too asks the God himself "what shall I say to those who ask which is the form of your God, tell me which is your form" - as "Ev uruvoan num piran enbaar hatkku en uraihen, Ev uruvo nin uruvam eathu" in her religious text Atputhath Thiruvanthathi (in Tamil), being quite uncertain of his real form.
In Saivaism, the "God Supreme" who is invisible to all human beings and the other living beings, has been given the name as "God Siva" and a form as human - and held supreme of the universe.
He is known to have given vision - to those who have reached a very high state of spiritual conciousness - in the very forms he was intensely worshiped by them in great piety, being either human forms or symbolic forms having different names for each of these forms. The origin of the worship of "God Supreme" as "God Siva" is still not clear, but in all probability the religion Saivaism professing the worship of "God Siva", originated among a very early civilisation(unknown to us) in the Tibetian region adjacent to the present northern - Nepal and Uttar Pradesh of India.
It is here the Mount Kailash, also known to the Indians as Mount Meru of the vast and breath taking heights of the Himalayan mountain range is situated, and the river Bahirathi originating as a tributary from the Mount Nanda Devi - also of this range about 100 miles south-west of Mount Kailash, joins with another tributary known as Alaknanda at a point known as Gangoththri to form the great river Ganges.
This early civilisation of this region in all probability conceived the original form of "God Siva" as a human masculine, having - a lock of hair (kontrai) on his head bearing the crest moon and the river Gangai flowing from it, a third eye in his forehead and a blue mark around his neck, holding a trident in one hand and dressed in tiger skins with cobra snakes around his neck and arms, with "Goddess Sakthi" - deemed as his inherent energy - on his left side as a human feminine, and both having the bull as their vehicle, and with the snow capped Mount Kailash of the Himalayan mountain range as their abode.
The point of the earliest era from whence the worship of "God Supreme" in the form of "Siva" took shape, among the civilisation in the vicinity of Mount Kailash in the Tibetian region, could be taken as the time of inception of the Saiva religion. The Saivaism over a period of time gradually spread all over India, including the regions in its north-west among the Indus Valley civilisations, and in the remote south upto Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, where the sage Agastiya and king Ravana respectively became the ardent devotees of God Siva.
Thus the original Saiva religious concept of God, and the related forms of worship that reached various parts of India from the Tibetian region, continued to be practised in their original forms "being a common religion (Saivaism) to both Aryans and Dravidians of then India". This was the reason why the Tamil Saiva Saint Thirunaavukkarasar of Tamil Nadu has mentioned in his religious text the "Thevaaram" in the sixth Thirumurai (in Tamil) as ".....Ariyan kandaai, Thamilan kandaai....."
Over a period of time in some regions of India the original Saivaism underwent further developments evolved by the Sages and Saints of those regions, independently with their own "new" - God forms of "Siva" and "Sakthi", religious philosophies, modes of worship, and religious texts - greatly influenced by the language, culture and traditions "of those regions of India", and integrated with the practices of the original Saivaism
