Hindu devotional movements

Repeated invasions from the north as well as a vast expansion of trade with the west such as Siraf and with China to the east, brought increased contact with other cultures.

The origin of the major Hindu deities, Vishnu, Shiva, and the various forms of the female consorts or goddess such as Shakti and Durga and the history of their possible converging or merging is not reliably documented.

While Hinduism is often described as having 30,000 gods in its pantheon, from an anthropological and historical perspective the most significant devotional movements of the past two thousand years have centered on only a few.

[4] In trying to account for the large number of Pandyan rock-cut temples built between 650 and 835 A.D. art historian K.V.Soundara Rajan attributes this proliferation to the "insistent demand of cult groups".

[3] More important in daily life of many Hindus than the major deities are the many ancient minor deities of folklore that control more practical concerns, the pantheon of folk demi-gods and spirits such as the yakshas and yakshini and their king Kubera who regulates such matters as fertility and wealth, and mythical beings such as apsaras, water nymphs associated with good fortune, sacred waters and other natural elements who entertain the gods in heaven.