 According to Flood, Smartism developed and expanded with the Puranas genre of literature.By the time of Adi Shankara, it had developed the "pancayatanapuja", the worship of five shrines with five deities, all treated as equal, namely Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha, Surya and Devi (Shakti), "as a solution to varied and conflicting devotional practices.