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Very little is known about Utpala, the great mystic
Saint of Kashmir, except that he might have lived
somewhere in Nauhatta (Navyut) in Srinagar. From some
authors on Kashmir Shaivism and his contemporaries we
find that he was a Brahmin and lived a married life
around the middle of 900 A.D. He was the son of Udayakar.
Utpaladeva must have been a precocious boy with a
sharp intellect and a quest for learning. This becomes
evident from the fact that he was taken as a disciple by
the great philosopher. Siddha Somananda, whose great
work Shivadrishti, the Pratyabhijnya Shastra (Philosophy
of Recognition), inspired him to write the Ishwar
Pratyabhijnya Karikas. It is stated in the Shivadrishti
that Utpala was motivated to write the Karikas on the
request of his son, Vibhramakara. Therein he summarized
the teachings of his master and this work is spoken of
as "the reflection of wisdom taught by Somananda".
Kashmiri's Persian-knowing scholars have termed it is
Khird-e-Kamil (wisdom of the sage).
 Utpaladeva and his
Pratyabhijnya Philosophy
Very little is known about Utpala, the great mystic Saint of Kashmir, except
that he might have lived somewhere in Nauhatta (Navyut) in Srinagar. From some
authors on Kashmir Shaivism and his contemporaries we find that he was a Brahmin
and lived a married life around the middle of 900 A.D. He was the son of
Udayakar. >>>
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Pratyabhijna Expounded
by Utpaladeva
The Pratyabhijna School is quite akin to the non-dual vedantic thought of
Ajatavada explained by Gaudapada. Vasugupta was the first propounder of Shaivism
in Kashmir. He flourished in the middle of the late Eighth Century A.D. Worship
of different deities, Yoga systems and Shaiva faith have already been in
practice here. >>>
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