ABHINAVAGUPTA

flourished 1014, Kashmir, India philosopher, ascetic and aesthetician, and outstanding representative of the "recognition" (pratyabhija) school of Kashmiri Saivite monism. This school conceived of the god Siva (the manifestation of ultimate reality), the individual soul, and the universe as essentially one; pratyabhija refers to the way of realizing this identity. Abhinavagupta was a prolific writer on philosophy and aesthetics. Among his most notable philosophic works are the Isvara-pratyabhija-vimarsini and the more detailed Isvara-pratyabhija-vivrti-vimarsini, both commentaries on Isvara-pratyabhija ("Recognition of God"), by Utpala, an earlier philosopher of the pratyabhija school.