History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s8.4

v3.c41.s8.4

Śaivism like Vaiṣṇavism also early developed its own separate philosophy and the Pāśupata philosophy is referred to in the Mahābhārata along with Pāñcharātra and Sānkhya, Yoga and Vedānta. (Indeed knowledge is therein said to be five-fold as above). The Vedānta Sūtras of Bādarāyaṇa (150 B.C.) also refute both the Pāñcharātra and the Pāśupata tenets. What these doctrines were we are not able to find at first hand. They are quoted by Śankara in his Bhāshya or given by Mādhava in his Sarvadarshanasangraha. There are many Śaiva Āgamas but they are of recent date. All Śaiva sects believed strongly in asceticism and Hiuen Tsang speaks of Śaiva monks residing in Śiva temples. These appear mostly to be followers of the Āgama of Lakulīśa, a famous Śaiva philosopher probably of the sixth century, who arose in Gujarat (at Kāyāvatāra Tīrtha in Broach District). They are described minutely even in inscriptions as well of this sub-period as of the previous sub-period. Their names end usually in Śiva or in Rāśi (e. g. Hārita-rāśi, the guru of Bappā Rāwal). They had also an apostolic succession and in one inscription the saintly line is described with as great fulness as the kingly line. But the questions vital to our inquiry remain unsolved. We do not know whether these ascetics were Brahmins only or belonged to all castes, whether the Lakulīśa Āgama accepted the sanctity of Vedic sacrifices with animal slaughter and whether it prohibited animal food. The Śivatāntrika works have to be studied carefully for the elucidation of these points and with our limited knowledge of them it is difficult to express a definite opinion. No work of Lankulīśa himself has yet been found.* But it is very probable that the different Śaiva sects allowed all castes to become ascetics of their order and for them at least they prohibited animal food. But for lay devotees, it does not seem that Śaivism insisted on vegetable food as Vaishṇavism did and it is for this reason that Śaivism was the general religion of the common people and especially of all heroic Rajput families which came to the front in the seventh and eighth centuries by opposing the onward rush of the Mahomedans. The great deeds of Bappā Rāwal in this connection were inspired by his saintly guru Hāritarāśi. The other Rajput kingly families also, as we have seen, were followers of Śaivism during the past sub-period and even in this sub-period with a few exceptions. Such was the religious condition of the country generally and of Kuntala especially under the later Chālukyas who were staunch Śaivites, when Jainism suddenly made headway under the Kalachūri usurpation.