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46
Vira-śaivism
[CH. financial and other kinds of patronage. It seems from the Basavapurāna that his financial assistance to the devotees of Siva was of rather an indiscriminate character. His money was poured on all Saivas like showers of rain. This probably made him the most powerful patron of the Saivas of that time, with the choicest of whom he founded a learned assembly where religious problems were discussed in a living manner, and he himself presided over the meetings.
The present writer is of opinion that the kernel of Vira-śaiva thought is almost as early as the Upanişads, and it may be found in a more or less systematic manner by way of suggestion in the writings of Kālidāsa who lived in the early centuries of the Christian erał. The Sūta-samhitā, a part of the Skanda-purāņa, seems to teach a philosophy which may be interpreted as being of the same type as the Vīra-saiva philosophy propounded by Srīpati, though the commentator interprets it in accordance with the philosophy of Sankara. The Sūta-samhitā gives a high place to the Agama literature such as the Kāmika, and others, which shows that it was closely related with the Agamic Saivism'.
But it is difficult to say at what time the Vīra-saiva sect was formed and when it had this special designation. Vīra-saivism differs from the Agamic Saivism and the Pāśupata system in its philosophy and its doctrine of sthala, the special kind of lingadhārana and also in some other ritualistic matters which are not quite relevant for treatment in a work like the present one. It is unfortunate that Siddhānta-śikhāmani, a work probably of the thirteenth century, should contain the earliest reference to Virasaivism in literature. A small manuscript called Vira-saiva-guruparamparā gives the names of the following teachers in order of priority: (1) Viśveśvara-guru, (2) Ekorāma, (3) Vīreśārādhya, (4) Vīra-bhadra, (5) Viraņārādhya, (6) Māņikyārādhya, (7) Buccayyārādhya, (8) Vīra-malleśvarārādhya, (9) Deśikāradhya, (10) Vrşabha, (11) Akşaka and (12) Mukha-lingeśvara. In the Virasaivāgama', eighth pațala, it is said that in the four pīțhas or pontifical seats, namely yoga-pīțha, mahā-pīķha, jñāna-pīķha and
1 See author's A History of Sanskrit Literature, Vol. 1, pp. 728 et seq.
2 Sūta-samhitā, yajña-vaibhava-khanda, ch. 22, verses 2 and 3. See also ch. 20, verse 22; ch. 39, verse 23.
3 Madras manuscript.
