Vīra-śaivas were called Vīras or heroes for their heroic attitude in an aggressive or defensive manner in support of their faith. There is a general tradition that Basava, a Brahmin, son of Mādirāja and Mādāmba was the founder of the Vīra-śaiva sect. Basava was appointed as the minister in complete charge of Vijjala’s treasury and other administrative functions.

To develop Vīra Śaivism into a full-blown system, to give it an independent social status, to make it definitive and distinctive from Śaivism was reserved to the genius of Basava, a great hero of Karṇāṭaka of the 12th century.Vīra Śaivism as a religion owes its birth to Basava. It started from Śivānubhava-Mantapa, the religious house of experience, which was a spiritual and social institution.

Kaśmīra Śaivism, as a monistic system of thought, as distinct from ritualistic religion, arose in Kaśmīra in the 9th century A.D.It is a non-Vedic system, because it does not recognize the Veda as the final authority. It is primarily based, not on reason nor on Scriptural authority, but on the most direct experience of the true reality through spiritual discipline, the practice of Yoga.

Śaiva Siddhāṅta is the name by which Tamil Śaivism is known. The expression literally means “the settled conclusion or final position of Śaivism”; and it serves to distinguish the system from non-Śaiva Schools as well as from other types of Śaivism.

Caitanya's philosophy is mainly based on Daśa-mūla-śloka (the ten basic verses) ascribed by the Gaudīya (Bengal) Vaiṣṇavas to Caitanya himself.The relation between the Lord’s essence or sva-rūpa and His manifold powers is one of unthinkable difference-in-non-difference or A-Cintya-Bhedābheda.It should be known not as a form of dualistic personal Idealism, but as a-cintya-bhedābheda or a form of idealistic Monism.

The world and souls are in essence one with Brahman, and consequently the system of Vallabha is known as Śuddhādvaita (pure non-dualism) as contrasted with the māyā-vāda of Śankara.Vallabha (A.D. 1473-1531),the advocate of the Śuddhādvaita (pure Non-dualism) system of Vedanta, was born of a learned brāhmin family about fifty miles to the north-west of Madras in South India.

Śrī Nimbārkācārya, the founder of Nimbārka tradition, is generally supposed to have flourished in the eleventh century A.D. after Rāmānuja. The Vedānta doctrine of Nimbārka is a valuable contribution to the history of thought from the philosophical, religious and ethical standpoints. The most noteworthy feature of Nimbārka’s system is its spirit of compromise and adjustment.

Madhva and his Works, —The philosophy of Brahman (Brahma-Mimāṅsā) expounded by Madhva is popularly called Dvaita. Madhva (1199–1278) was born near Udipi. His social environment was moulded by the general tenets of this philosophy. Scholars studied this philosophy with great interest. Some were dissatisfied with the prevalent ideas about its meaning.His works exhibit a unity of purpose.

It is the merit of the Viśiṣṭādvaita of Rāmānuja as a synthetic philosophy of love that it seeks to reconcile the extremes of monism and theism and, like all mediating systems, it is often misunderstood by its followers as well as by its critics.Viśiṣṭādvaita states that God is immanent in all beings as their inner self and at the same time transcendent.