Talk:Śaivism

Googled it, and Shaivism comes up with considerable more hits, and the hits it comes up with are more substantial and creditable than the ones that come up with Saivism. Someone needs to move this to Shaivism. Antley 05:34, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

Since the article on Shiva/Siva is under Shiva and not Siva, shouldn't this be under Shaivism? I've taken Sanskrit and understand issues of transliteration, but it seems that Shiva/Shaivism does a much better job of communicating the sounds to English speakers, especially in an ASCII world, and has historical precedent.

Good, great question. Unfortunately it doesn't have an easy answer. The proper form for both would be &#346;, but it can't be used ia a title. Sh became the standard form because, back when the English conquered India, &#346; couldn't be typed. Many hindu saivite organizations even agree that Sh is good enough, but modern groups as the Saiva Siddhanta Church, saivism's most organized presence on the internet (just check their site), are more purist. As Shiva is very common in english usage, and has already become a standard, it was voted that it stays as the old form in Wikipedia. But the hindu community (as voiced by Hinduism Today magazine) is of the opinion that words which are only now coming into English (as saiva, saivism, saivite) should follow the correct form, not old mistakes. Besides, redirects are very cheap. Perhaps what I wrote here should be somehow mentioned, as a clarification, in the article? Subramanian talk 22:16, 22 May 2005 (UTC)