Shaivism, the worship of Shiva as supreme, has its deepest roots in the Indian subcontinent, where it flourishes in many distinct regional forms. Within India, it is especially prominent in South India—Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Kerala—where great temple traditions and lineages such as Shaiva Siddhanta and Lingayat/Virashaiva have shaped religious life. Northern and Himalayan regions such as Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir are also important centers, linked to revered shrines and to philosophical currents like Kashmir Shaivism. Other parts of India, including regions such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Maharashtra, likewise sustain strong Shaiva practices around major pilgrimage sites. In this sense, Shaivism is not confined to a single province but forms a kind of sacred thread running through diverse Indian landscapes and cultures.

Beyond India’s borders, Shaivism is firmly established in Nepal and Sri Lanka. In Nepal, Shiva worship is deeply woven into the broader fabric of Hindu practice, with major pilgrimage centers serving as focal points for devotion. In Sri Lanka, Shaivism is especially associated with Tamil Hindu communities in particular regions, where important temples continue to nurture a living tradition of Shiva worship. These neighboring lands share with India a long history of cultural and religious exchange, so that Shaivism there is both locally rooted and part of a wider subcontinental pattern.

Shaivism has also left a discernible imprint in parts of Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, especially in Java and Bali, Shaiva traditions historically shaped religious life, and elements of this heritage remain present within local Hindu practice. Historical Shaiva influence can likewise be traced in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, where temples and iconography once reflected the centrality of Shiva in royal and ritual life. Although in some of these places the older forms have transformed or receded, the memory of Shaivism endures in the religious and artistic record.

In more recent times, Shaivism has traveled with Hindu communities to many corners of the world. Countries with significant Indian and Tamil diasporas—such as Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Fiji, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia—host temples and associations where Shiva is honored as the supreme reality. These communities often sustain liturgies, festivals, and philosophical teachings that mirror, adapt, or creatively reinterpret the traditions of their ancestral regions. Thus, while Shaivism’s heartlands lie in the Indian subcontinent, its devotional and philosophical currents now flow through a genuinely global network of practitioners.