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When was the Shiva Samhita composed?

The Shiva Samhita is generally understood to be a relatively late composition within the classical corpus of yoga and tantric literature, rather than an early foundational scripture. Scholarly opinion, as reflected in careful comparative study, places its composition broadly between the 15th and 17th centuries of the Common Era. Within that span, many readers of the tradition regard the 15th–16th centuries as the most likely period for its emergence. This situates the text in a phase when yogic and tantric streams had already matured and were being systematized in increasingly elaborate syntheses.

Seen in this light, the Shiva Samhita stands as a product of a developed tradition rather than a pioneering one. Its dating to the 15th–17th centuries suggests that it arises after earlier key works on Haṭha Yoga had already taken shape and begun to circulate. The text can thus be appreciated as part of a later wave of reflection, codification, and reinterpretation, drawing on established practices and philosophical currents. To approach it with this historical sense is to recognize it as a bridge between earlier formulations of yogic discipline and the more elaborate tantric-inflected manuals that followed.