Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s7.42

c13.s7.42

ŚIVA - Śiva is known through literary evidence in the Vedic period. There is evidence of Śiva worship also in the Indus Valley. He is there probably represented in the form of Paśupati (lord of creatures). It appears that the worship of Śiva continued as a widespread cult throughout the country i. e. both in the North and in the South. Even in Gandhāra, Bactria, Kapiśā and the region of the Oxus Śiva worship seems to have been an important element of the popular religion. Dr. Foucher has suggested that the Kushāṇas on their coming to India were converted to Śaivism somewhere in the north-west where Śaivism was a predominant factor in the religious beliefs. We know from the coins of Vema-Kadaphises that he gave himself the title of Maheśvara, i. e. a devotee of Śiva. On all his coins without exception Śiva or one of his emblems is depicted to the exculsion of all other deities. The figure of Śiva continued to be shown on the coins of Kanishka, Huvishka and Vāsudeva. In the Kushāṇa period Mathura had become an important head-quarter of the Pāśupata cult of Śaivism. An inscription of the time of Chandra-Gupta II dated 381 A. D. refers to certain Pāśupata teachers who were tenth in descendance from the original founder of the sect and who installed two Śiva Liṅgas by the name of Upamiteśvara and Kapileśvara at Mathura.