Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

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YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE (op. cit.) gives the following definition of the theistic conception of the Saivas and the Pāśupatas, and calls it bhedesvara-vāda : aer tat:--- quayanयोरधिष्ठाता केवलं निमित्तकारणमीश्वर इतरेतरविलक्षणाः प्रधानपुरुषेश्वरा इति भेदेश्वरवादिनः। .........पाशुपताः पुनः कार्यकारणयोगविधिदुःखान्ताः पञ्च पदार्थाः पशुपतिनेश्वरेण पशुपाशविमोचनार्थमुद्दिष्टा इति भेदेश्वरवादमेवाङ्गीकुर्वन्ति.
The Pāśupatas as a Saiva sect were in contlict with the Jainas. They are, for instance, mentioned along with Saivas, Käpälikas, Sāṁkhyas and Buddhists in the Sravana Belgola epitaph of Mallişeņa of 1129 A. D. or
outs, engraved on a pillar of the temple of Pārsvanātha on the Candragiri hill, which describes a Jaina teacher named Vimalacandra as having publicly challenged all of them to controversy (verse 26). Another Jaina reference to the Pasupatas is in Hemacandra's Yogūsāstra 4. 102 wherein he describes a number of Pasupata practices (vv. 26-22)," which can be better understood by referring to the account of the system in the Ratna commentary on Ganakūrikā. The Pāśupatas, it may be noted, indulged in ceremonial singing and dancing and made various kinds of what to them were auspicious sounds. Heinacandra, however, presents them in an unfavourable light, as liars and quacks and of loose morals. His remarks should be taken with a grain of salt as the relations between the Jainus and the Saiva sects were not very cordial.
It will be seen that we have an almost unbroken record of Pasupata tenets form about the eighth to the twelfth century. The Pāśupata school seems to have undergone a sort of revival in the tenth century. The brief but authoritative text Ganakārika was composed in this century; and not only Somadeva but Udayana, as stated below, refers to the system. A Mysore inscription, dated 943 A. D., states that Lakulisa, the traditional founder of the Pāśupata system, became incarnate as a sage named Cilluka to preserve the continuity of his name and doctrines, which points to a revival of Pāśupata teachings in the Mysore country in the latter half of the tenth century; and the sect, in fact, wielded considerable influence in that region for nearly two centuries after this. An inscription found in the temple of Harsanātha in the Sikar principality of Jaipur State mentions a scholar named Visvarūpa who was a teacher of the Pañcārtha-Lākulāmnāya, that is, the sacred book of Lakulin, called Pañcãrtha. The inscription is dated 957 A. D., and Visvarūpa was thus a contemporary of Somadeva.
1 More about this inscription in Chap. XIII. 2 Hemacandra says GT292SHIFT TOY OTTE ! Thicagefaaraanil graai facile
पुतौ वादयतां मुहुः। मुहुर्वदननादेनातोद्यनाद विधायिनाम् ॥ असत्यभाषापूर्व च मुनीन् देवान् जनान् प्रताम् । विधाय
व्रतभङ्गच दासीदासत्वमिच्छताम् ।। गृह्णतां मुञ्चता भूयो भूयः पाशुपतं व्रतम् । भेषजादिप्रयोगेण यूकालिकं प्रणितताम् ।। 3 See Chap. XIII 4 For references see Bhandarkar: Vaisnavism, Saivisna and Jiror religious systems, pp.
170-173. Poona edition, 1928. 5 For the early history of the Päśupata sect and its expansion see Chap. XIII.