Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.1996

c9.1996

8) Worship of Śiva. Innumerable people in India worship Śiva and they follow different forms or systems of worship. There are forms of worship which follow the Vedas and which do not as also forms which are sāttvic and which are not. The form of worship called Paraśupadam (? Pāśupatam) is a very ancient one. It is believed that the paraśupadas once honoured and afterwards opposed the Vedas. The Śiva liṅga at the place called Gūḍamillam is supposed to be as old as the second century B.C.