Vaishnava traditions
Traditions centered on Vishnu, Krishna, Rama, and related forms include several philosophical and devotional lineages.
Traditions & lineages
Hindu traditions and philosophical lineages
Learn how deity, scripture, philosophy, teacher, temple, region, language, family, and practice can shape a Hindu tradition.
Labels such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism can help a beginner notice important patterns, but they are not neat denominations with single governing bodies. Each contains histories, institutions, teachers, devotional forms, philosophical debates, and regional expression.
Philosophical labels such as Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, and Dvaita describe arguments about ultimate reality, self, God, world, knowledge, and liberation. They may intersect with devotional identity without replacing it. A person’s lived identity can also be shaped by family deity, caste or community history, pilgrimage geography, language, and a local temple.
Use these guides as introductions to self-described traditions. Let practitioners and sources name their context, and avoid treating modern textbook diagrams as complete maps of Hindu life.
Featured guide
Why Hinduism has many traditions
Diversity arises from texts, philosophy, devotional relationships, region, language, teachers, and historical development.
Orientation guide
Why Hinduism has many traditions
This guide connects tradition labels with living practice and explains why difference does not mean that every claim is equally well supported.
Read the guideBrowse the collection
Find a useful way into Hindu traditions
These categories overlap and contain internal diversity. They are invitations to further learning, not tests of identity.
Shaiva traditions
Shaiva life includes temple, ascetic, household, philosophical, ritual, and devotional forms across regions.
Shakta traditions
Shakta traditions approach Devi as supreme and through many distinct goddesses, texts, practices, and regions.
Smartism and Vedanta
Explore one influential worship framework and a family of philosophical schools grounded in shared source texts and distinct commentaries.
Related tool
Explore connections without a fixed hierarchy
The Deity Explorer can filter profiles by tradition while preserving a non-visual list alternative.
Deity Explorer
Open tool →See associated deities, symbols, stories, and festivals with a prominent variation notice.
Popular questions
Questions this section can help you explore
Read labels at the right scale
A broad family is not one institution
Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta name large, internally diverse families. A sampradaya may identify a more specific lineage, teacher tradition, philosophy, ritual system, or community. Region, language, family deity, temple, and modern organization can add further layers.
The hub helps you compare those layers without treating overlap as sameness or difference as rivalry. Start with the overview, then read the tradition’s own sources and representatives alongside careful scholarship.