Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Minor Religious Systems v2.c13.178

v2.c13.178

In the Nārāyaṇīya section of MBh., the Pāśupata is mentioned as one of five schools of religious doctrines (Śāntiparvan, chap. 349, v. 64). Śiva-Śrīkaṇṭha, the consort of Umā, the lord of spirits and the son of Brahmadeva, is represented to have revealed the tenets of that school (verse 67). Whether this statement is to be understood in the sense that its founder was a human being afterwards recognised as an incarnation of Śiva, or whether it is a mere general statement like that contained in the BU. (II, 4, 10) that the Ṛgveda, Yajurveda, etc. are the breath of this great being, meaning nothing more historically than that the system gradually came into existence without any special individual being concerned with it, is a question somewhat difficult to answer definitely; but there is evidence in the Purāṇas and inscriptions of the existence of a belief in favour of the first supposition. The Vāyu-Purāṇa (chap. 23) and the Liṅga-Purāṇa (chap. 24) represent Maheśvara to have told Brahmadeva that when, at the time of Kṛṣṇa-Dvaipāyana during the twenty-eighth repetition of the Yugas, Vāsudeva, the best of Yadus, would be born of Vasudeva, he would incarnate himself as a Brahmacārin by the name of Lakulin after entering a dead body thrown into a cemetery; the place where this would occur, would be called Kāyāvatāra or Kāyāvarohaṇa, and he would have four pupils of the names of Kuśika, Garga, Mitra and Kauruṣya. These Pāśupatas, with their bodies sprinkled with ashes, resorting to the Yoga of Maheśvara, would in the end go to the world of Rudra. Now in an inscription in the temple of Nātha near that of Ekaliṅgji, 14 miles to the north of Udaipur, Rājputāna, it is stated that Śiva became incarnate as a man with a club (lakula) in his hand in the country of Bhṛgukaccha, being propitiated by Bhṛgu. Sages, Kuśika and others, conversant with the Pāśupata Yoga and using ashes and wearing bark-dress and matted hair, are mentioned. There is another inscription, usually called the Cintra Praśasti, which states that Śiva became incarnate in the form of Bhaṭṭāraka Śrī-Lakulīśa and dwelt at Kārohaṇa in the Lāṭa country. There appeared in bodily form four pupils of his of the names of Kuśika, Gārgya, Kauruṣa and Maitreya for the strict performance of the Pāśupata vows, and they became the originators of four branches. The date of the first inscription is Vikrama 1028, or 971 A. D., and the second was composed between A. D. 1274 and 1296. In another inscription dated 943 A. D. found at Hemāvatī in the Sira Tāluka, Mysore, Lakulīśa is represented to have been born again as Muninātha Chilluka to preserve the memory of his name and doctrines ¹).