---
type: Reference
bundle: shakta-darshana
bundle_version: "0.8.0"
id: spanda-karikas
title: "Spanda Kārikās — स्पन्दकारिका"
iast: "Spanda Kārikās"
devanagari: "स्पन्दकारिका"
description: "The 53 verses founding the Spanda school of Kashmir Shaivism: the doctrine of absolute consciousness as creative pulsation (spanda), attributed to Vasugupta or his disciple Kallaṭa, with Kṣemarāja's Spanda-nirṇaya as the major commentary."
text_type: "Kārikā collection (53 verses) + commentarial tradition"
period: "9th century CE (Vasugupta/Kallaṭa); Kṣemarāja's commentary 10th-11th c."
tags: [spanda-karikas, spanda, kashmir-shaivism, trika, vasugupta, reference]
related:
  - /concepts/spanda.md
  - /concepts/shiva-shakti.md
  - /concepts/cit-shakti.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Spanda Kārikās -- स्पन्दकारिका

## Why This Text Is in the Bundle

The Spanda Kārikās give this bundle's [spanda.md](../concepts/spanda.md) its textual ground: verses 1.1-2 open with the Lord whose opening and closing (unmeṣa-nimeṣa) is the arising and dissolving of worlds; verse 1.22 locates the pulse's naked availability in extreme states (fury, joy, terror, flight), the passage that most directly falsifies the "high vibration" wellness reading; and the collection as a whole articulates the dynamism that distinguishes Trika's absolute from any actionless ultimate (see [shiva-shakti.md](../concepts/shiva-shakti.md)).

Attribution is dual in the tradition itself (Vasugupta, receiver of the Śiva Sūtras, or his disciple Kallaṭa); both positions are documented, neither adjudicated.

## Use in This Bundle

- [spanda.md](../concepts/spanda.md): primary source throughout
- [prakasha-vimarsha.md](../concepts/prakasha-vimarsha.md), [cit-shakti.md](../concepts/cit-shakti.md): the dynamism doctrine in verse form

## Editions

Jaideva Singh's Spanda-Kārikās: The Divine Creative Pulsation (Motilal Banarsidass) is the standard scholarly-accessible edition: Devanāgarī and roman text, translation, and Kṣemarāja's Spanda-nirṇaya commentary translated in full.
