Saiva Agama, which glorifies Saguna Brahmam as Siva, has given rise to Saivite aspect of Hindu thoughts and philosophy and several types of Saivite practice. Kashmir Saivam of the Pratyabhijna system, Veera Saiva forms of Karnataka and an important school of philosophy called Saiva Siddhantha are all formed on the basis of Saiva Agama as their authority and show a distinct leaning to Advaitam. There are Twenty- eight Agamas, of which one of the chief Agama is Kamikam. There were about 207 Upa-Agamas, of which only fragmentary texts of Twenty are available. Saaktha Agama, including Thanthra, glorifies God as Sakthi or one of many names of `Devi' and as the Supreme and Mother of Universe. There are Seventy-seven Agamas. They are in the form of dialogues between Sakthi and Siva. They also teach several occult practices some of them confer special powers while others bestow knowledge. Sakthi is the creative power of Siva. Saaktham is considered to be a supplement to Saivam.

Vaishnava Agama glorifies God as Vishnu, and their teachings lean towards Visishta-advaitam. There are two hundred and fifteen Vaishnava Agamas. They are of four kinds: Pancharathra, Vaikhanasa, Prathishthasara and Vijnanalalitha. Brahma, Saiva Kumara, Vasishtha, Kapila, Gauthamiya and Naradiya are the seven groups of Pancharathra which are regarded as the most authoritative of the Vaishnava Agamas. Thus the Agamas were written for the three main forms of Deities, Siva, Vishnu and Sakthi, the three main divisions of the practice of Hinduism. The fourth division is the ritualistic Smartha Sampradaya, the followers of the Smrithi, who also accept Agama rules for six forms of Deity and Temple worship as established by Sri Adi Sankara. Each one of the three Agamas considers that their form of God as the ultimate creator and protector of all Universe, worlds and all life forms therein. It must be understood that in spite of the intense diversity of the teachings and methods of worship, the Agamas are all similar to Vedas in their spirit and message and their teachings are considered as equally authoritative.