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Utpaladeva or Utpalācārya (c. 925-975) is one of the greatest philosophers that India has produced, but he is hardly known in India itself. After Somānanda (c. 900-950) who laid the foundation for the philosophy of Recognition (Pratyabhijñā Darśana1) with his Śivadṛṣṭi, Utpaladeva established this school by his philosophical works: Īśvarapratyabhijñā-kārikā and Vṛtti, composed at the same time, and, subsequently, in turn commented upon in a long and complex Vivr̥ti, which has come down to us only in fragments; the Siddhitrayī, three terse treatises on specific subjects (Ajaḍapramātṛsiddhi “Proof of the sentient knower”, Sambandhasiddhi “Proof of relation”; Īśvarasiddhi “Proof of the Lord”); and a Vṛtti on the Śivadṛṣṭi. Besides authoring philosophical works, Utpaladeva was also a mystical poet, as expressed in his splendid hymn collection, Śivastotrāvalī. The Pratyabhijñā philosophy was continued by Utpaladeva’s disciple Lakṣmaṇagupta (of whom nothing has come down to us) and by Lakṣmaṇagupta’s disciple, the great Abhinavagupta (c. 975–1025) who composed two extensive commentaries on the Pratyabhijñā, and took it as the theoretical basis for his Trika synthesis in the Tantrāloka.