The aim of this course is to examine the spread of Śaivism after the first millenium in South Asia which, in Alexis Sanderson's magisterial work, has come to be seen as the commencement of the Śaiva Age. In order to see how this Śaiva Age comes to expand locally the course concentrates on one specific locale — the Tamil region — and the emergence of Śaivism as the elite textual religion between the 14th to 18th centuries of the Common Era. The course will thus concentrate on looking at specific texts — Vedāntic (doctrinal) and/or Bhakti (devotional) — of the Tamil Śaiva Siddhānta and the Tamil Vīraśaiva tradition, to understand the construction of a trans-sectarian Śaiva religious landscape by the colonial period.