Elements of Hindu Iconography v2.c15.34

v2.c15.34

The Pāśupatas are the next important class of Śaivas. According to Rāmānujā-cārya it included the Kāḷāmukhas the Kāpālas, and the Āgamānta Śaivas. There is some justification for Rāmānuja including all the four under one name, the Pāśupata religion; for all these four sectarians called the Jivātman, paśu and the paramātman, Pati. The Āgamānta Śaivas also class these as agachchamayams or sects included in Śaivaism. As regards the antiquity and history of the Pāśupata sect, little is known. In later times the Pāśupata sect is known as the Lakuḷisa Pāśupata or the Pāśupata sect founded by Lakuḷiśvara, who is considered as an incarnation of Śiva himself. An attempt has been made by Dr. Fleet to fix the age of Lakuḷiśvara, the founder of the Pāśupata sect. It is a matter for surprise that even such a circumspect scholar as Dr. Fleet has, perhaps in his desire to arrive at some conclusion, proceeded upon baseless premises which have naturally led him to incorrect results. Because the name Lakuḷiśvara-paṇḍita occurs in an inscription at Mēlpāḍi and in another at Baḷigāmi, and because tradition asserts that he propagated his faith in Kāyārōhaṇa in N. India, Dr. Fleet concludes that Lakuḷīśvara, the founder of the sect which goes by his name, began his activities first in Mēlpāḍi, wherefrom he drifted on to Baḷigāmi and then eventually settled down at Kāyārōhaṇa in Northern India, and that he lived in the first quarter of the eleventh century A. D. The two individuals bearing the name Lakuḷīśvara Paṇḍita, mentioned in the two inscriptions referred to above were two distinct personages and were named after the founder of their faith; the conclusion of Dr. Fleet is untenable for the following reasons. Śaṅkarāchārya, whose age is believed to be the last quarter of the eighth century, reviews the Pāśupata philosophy in his Śārīraka Bhāshya. Says he, “The Māhēśvaras (Śaivas) maintain that the five categories, viz, effect (*kārya*) cause (*kāraṇa*), union (*yōga*), ritual (*vidhi*) and the end of pain (*duḥkhānta*), were taught by the Lord Paśupati (Śiva) to the end of breaking the bonds of the animals (*paśu*, *i. e.*, the souls). Paśupati is, according to them, the Lord, the operative cause.” In his masterly treatise on the different systems of philosophy that were in existence in his time, Vidyāraṇya gives the same five categories given above as those held by the Lakuḷīśa