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XXXIV] Literature and History of Southern Saivism 7
Mr Dalal in his introduction to Gaņakārikā says that the Lākulīša-pāśupata-darśana is so called from Lakulīsa, who originated the system. Lakulīša means “a lord of those bearing a staff". Lakulīša is often regarded as an incarnation of God Siva with a citron in the right hand and a staff in the left. The place of the incarnation is Kāyārohaņa in Bhrgu-kşetra which is the same as Kāravana, a town in the Dabhoi Taluka of the Baroda State. In the Kāravaņa-māhātmya it is said that a son of a Brahmin in the village Ulkāpurī appeared as Lakulīša and explained the methods and merits of worshipping and tying a silken cloth to the image of the God Lakulīša. This work is divided into four chapters; the first is from the Vāyu-purāna, the remaining three are from the Siva-mahāpurāņa. At the commencement of the work, there is obeisance to Maheśvara, who incarnated himself as Lakuța-pāņāśa. There is a dialogue there between Siva and Pārvatī, in which the latter asks Siva of the merits of tying a silken cloth. Siva then relates the story of his incarnation between the Kali and Dvāpara yugas as a Brahmin named Visvarāja in the family of the sage At His mother was Sudarśana. Some miraculous myths relating to this child, who was an incarnation of Siva, are narrated in the Kāravana Māhātmya, but they may well be ignored here.
We have already mentioned the name of Atri as being one of the important teachers of the Pāśupata school. But according to the account of these teachers as given above, Nakulīša should be regarded as the first founder of the system. We have seen also that by the middle of the tenth century there was a teacher of the Pañcārtha-lākulāmnāya, which must be the same as the doctrine propounded in the Pāśupata-sūtra. It is difficult to say how early the concept of Pasupati might have evolved. From the Mohenjodaro excavations we have a statuette in which Siva is carved as sitting on a bull, with snakes and other animals surrounding Him. This is the representation in art of the concept of the lord of pasus or paśupati, which is found in pre-Vedic times. The concept of Siva may be traced through the Vedas and also through the Upanişads and particularly so in the Svetāśvatara Upanişad. The same idea can be traced in the Mahābhārata and many other Purāņas. The religious cult of Siva, which defines the concept of Siva in its various mythological bearings, has to be given up here, as the interest of the present work is definitely restricted to
