Lakulish
Encyclopedia
Lakulisha (Etymology: लगुड (Staff) or लकुट (Mace) + ईश (Lord) = Meaning, The Lord with a Staff or Mace or Club or Stick) was a prominent Shaivite revivalist, reformist and preceptor of the doctrine of the Pashupata
Pashupata
The Pashupatastra , in Hindu mythology, is the irresistible and most destructive personal weapon of Shiva, discharged by the mind, the eyes, words, or a bow. Never to be used against lesser enemies or by lesser warriors, the Pashupatastra is capable of destroying creation and vanquishing all beings...

s, one of the oldest sects of Shaivism. Lakulisha has also been mentioned as ‘Nakulisha’ in several texts Cintra Prashasti of the Reign of Sarangadeva, former being possibly the older one.

According to some scholars, Lakulisha is the founder of the Pashupata Shaivism sect. While, another section argues that the Pashupata doctrine was already in existence before Lakulisha, and he was only its first formal preceptor. It is believed that he was born in a Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...

 family and lived in Kayavatara or Kayavarohan
Kayavarohan
Kayavarohan is a village in the Vadodara district of the state of Gujarat, India. Kayavarohan is popularly known as Karvan and is situated on the National Highway 8 at a distance of 30 km from Vadodara. Kayavarohan is the birth place of Lakulish, the 2nd Century C.E. Shaivite revivalist,...

 (Present day Karvan
Karvan
Karvan may refer to:*Claudia Karvan, an Australian actress*FK Karvan, an Azerbaijani football club*Kayavarohan, a village near Vadodara, Gujarat, India, famous for Pashupata Guru Lakulish and Shiva temple...

), located in Vadodara district
Vadodara district
Vadodara District is a district in the eastern part of the state of Gujarat in western India. The city of Vadodara , in the western part of the district, is the administrative headquarters. Vadodara District covers an area of 7,794 km². It had a population of 3,641,802 of which 45.20% were...

 of Gujarat state in western India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

According to a tradition stated in the Linga Purana
Linga Purana
The Linga Purana is one of the major eighteen Puranas, a Hindu religious text. The extant text is divided into two parts, comprising 108 and 55 chapters respectively. These parts contain the description regarding the origin of universe, origin of the linga, and emergence of Brahma and Vishnu, and...

, Lakulisha is considered as the 28th and the last Avatar
Avatar
In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....

 manifestation of Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 and the propounder of Yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...

 system. According to the same tradition, Lakulisha had four disciples, viz., Kaurushya, Garga, Mitra and Kushika.
According to another tradition mentioned in the Avanti Khanda of the Skanda Purana
Skanda Purana
The Skanda Purana is the largest Mahapurana, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text is devoted mainly to the lilas of Kartikeya , a son of Shiva and Parvati. It also contains a number of legends about Shiva, and the holy places associated with him...

, Lakulisha and his four disciples while passing Mahakalavana
Ujjain
Ujjain , is an ancient city of Malwa region in central India, on the eastern bank of the Kshipra River , today part of the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative centre of Ujjain District and Ujjain Division.In ancient times the city was called Ujjayini...

, installed a linga at that place, which was then known as Kayavarohaneshvara. The Kurma Purana
Kurma Purana
-Contents:The printed editions of this text are divided into two s , the and the . The has 53 chapters and the has 46 chapters.According to the tradition, the originally consisted of four s : the , the , the and the . The extant text would correspond to the .The gives a brief overview of...

 (Chap. 53), the Vayu Purana
Vayu Purana
The Vayu Purana is a Shaiva Purana, a Hindu religious text, dedicated to the god Vayu , containing about 24,000 shlokas.-Date:Banabhatta refers to this work in his Kadambari and Harshacharita...

 (Chap. 23), and the Linga Purana
Linga Purana
The Linga Purana is one of the major eighteen Puranas, a Hindu religious text. The extant text is divided into two parts, comprising 108 and 55 chapters respectively. These parts contain the description regarding the origin of universe, origin of the linga, and emergence of Brahma and Vishnu, and...

 (Chap. 24) predicted that Shiva (Maheshvara) would appear in the form of a wandering monk called 'Lakulin' or 'Nakulisha', and that he would have four disciples named, Kushika, Garga, Mitra, and Kanrushya, who would re-establish the cult of Pashupati
Pashupati
Pashupati , "Lord of cattle", is an epithet of the Hindu god Shiva. In Vedic times it was used as an epithet of Rudra. The Rigveda has the related pashupa "protector of cattle" as a name of Pushan. The Pashupatinath Temple is the most important Hindu shrine for all Hindus in Nepal and also for many...

 and would therefore be called Pashupata(s). Lakulisha was the fruition of these divine predictions. According to Vayu Purana
Vayu Purana
The Vayu Purana is a Shaiva Purana, a Hindu religious text, dedicated to the god Vayu , containing about 24,000 shlokas.-Date:Banabhatta refers to this work in his Kadambari and Harshacharita...

 V. 1.23.202-214, Lakulisha was a contemporary of Veda Vyasa and Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...

, and was the 28th incarnation of Rudra (Shiva).

Life

As per Alain Daniélou
Alain Daniélou
Alain Daniélou was a French historian, intellectual, musicologist, Indologist, and a noted Western convert to and expert on Shaivite Hinduism.-Life:...

, Lakulisha was an ajivaka
Ajivika
Ājīvika was an ancient philosophical and ascetic movement of the Mahajanapada period of the Indian subcontinent....

, who restored Shaivism, re-established the pre-Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...

 Indus civilizational cults. Lakulisha united the different Shaivite sects that had survived in semi-secrecy for centuries under the name of the Pashupata(s) (Pashupata: Meaning, followers of Pashupati
Pashupati
Pashupati , "Lord of cattle", is an epithet of the Hindu god Shiva. In Vedic times it was used as an epithet of Rudra. The Rigveda has the related pashupa "protector of cattle" as a name of Pushan. The Pashupatinath Temple is the most important Hindu shrine for all Hindus in Nepal and also for many...

, the Lord of Beasts).

Lakulisha has been stated to have descended from a dynasty of non-Aryan priests called Jangama. It has been maintained that Lakulisha’s thesis conflicted with that of Gosala
Makkhali Gosala
Makkhali Gosala was an ascetic teacher of ancient India, often identified as the founder of the Ajivika movement. He was a contemporary of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, and of Mahavira, the last and 24th Tirthankara of Jainism.- Sources :Details about Gosala's life are sparse...

, and Lakulisha opposed Vedism, Jainism
Jainism
Jainism is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state...

, and most particularly, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

. Lakulisha is said to have restored practices of Hatha Yoga
Hatha yoga
Hatha yoga , also called hatha vidya , is a system of yoga introduced by Yogi Swatmarama, a Hindu sage of 15th century India, and compiler of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika....

 and Tantrism and the cosmological theories of the Samkhya
Samkhya
Samkhya, also Sankhya, Sāṃkhya, or Sāṅkhya is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy and classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered as the founder of the Samkhya school, although no historical verification is possible...

 and the duality associated with Samkhya tenets.

Historicity

Around 1st century A.D., the Lakulisha cult was established with iconographic representation of Shiva appearing with a club. Two hundred years later, Lakulisha was accepted as an avatara of Shiva.

A pillar erected by Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II the Great, very often referred to as Vikramaditya or Chandragupta Vikramaditya in Sanskrit; was one of the most powerful emperors of the Gupta empire in northern India. His rule spanned c...

 at Mathura in 380 CE states that a ‘Guruvayatana’ (Abode of the Gurus) was established by certain Uditacharya, who was 4th in descent from a teacher of Pashupata sect named Parashara, who in turn was 6th in descent from Kushika. If this Kushika is one of the four disciples of Lakulisha as described in the Linga Purana, the latter must have existed around 125 CE.

Renowned epigraphist John Faithfull Fleet
John Faithfull Fleet
John Faithfull Fleet C.I.E was an English civil servant with the Indian Civil Services and became known as a historian, epigraphist and linguist...

 contends that in the North India, the Kushana emperors like Huvishka
Huvishka
Huvishka was a Kushan emperor from the death of Kanishka until the succession of Vasudeva I about forty years later. His rule was a period of retrenchment and consolidation for the Empire...

 (140 CE) replaced the pictures of Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...

 on their coins with ones of Shiva, and of Heracles
Heracles
Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

 with images of Lakulisha.

In the Fourth century A.D., beginning with the reign of Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya , was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in conquering most of the Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and its first genuine emperor...

, icons and representations of Lakulisha have been frequently found, which portray him as a naked yogi
Yogi
A Yogi is a practitioner of Yoga. The word is also used to refer to ascetic practitioners of meditation in a number of South Asian Religions including Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.-Etymology:...

 with a staff in his left hand and a citron
Citron
Not to be confused with Cintron.The citron is a fragrant citrus fruit, botanically classified as Citrus medica by both the Swingle and Tanaka systems...

 (matulinga) in his right, with his penis erect (Urdhvalinga/ Urdhva-reta: Aroused linga representing life-force), and either standing or seated in the lotus posture. At about the beginning of the eleventh century, the Lakulisha cult shifted its activities to southern India.

A sect of Pasupata ascetics, founded by Lakulisa (or Nahulisa), is attested by inscriptions from the 5th century and is among the earliest of the sectarian religious orders of Shaivite Hinduism. The present day Christian Pentecostal Movement is very similar to the Lakulisa Pasupata sect with intra-group mannerisms like speaking in tongues, visions, revelations, and even holy laughter.

Influence on Philosophy and Religion

Author M. R. Sakhare argues in “The History and Philosophy of Lingayat Religion”, the influence of Lakulisha was immense and spread rapidly, first in the North and then in the South of India. The Shaivite revival, supported by the Bharashiva Nagas (Those carrying the Linga on their shoulders, Circa. 305-310 A.D.) A Journey Through India's Past: Chandra Mauli Mani of Mathura and Vakataka dynasty in Central and Northern India, gradually spread in the south under the impetus of artisan class Shaiva mystics, the Nayanars
Nayanars
The Nayanars or Nayanmars were Shaivite devotional poets of Tamil Nadu, active between the fifth and the tenth centuries CE...

.

Teachings

Lakulisha Pashupata has been identified as ‘Dualistic-cum-Non-dualistic Monism’ (bheda-abheda) Shaivism http://www.acns.com/~mm9n/articles/dev/17Saivism.htm, and there was strong emphasis on Yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...

 system.
The principal text of the Pashupata sect, the is attributed to Lakulisha. The manuscripts of this text and a commentary of it, the by Kaundinya (c.500 CE) were discovered in 1930. The formalizes various canons of the Pashupata sect, and contains the basic theology of the sect.
However, the authorship of Lakulisha over the Pashupata sutras have been a subject of debate. The Pashupata sutras are of an archaic character and do not bear the name of any author. Though certain traditions mention Lakulisha as the author, there is nothing to support this in the form of internal written evidence from the Sutras. Even, Kaundinya
Kaundinya
Kaundinya also known as Ajnata Kaundinya was a Buddhist bhikkhu in the sangha of Gautama Buddha and the first to become an arahant...

’s commentary only states the following:

“...Tatha shishta pramanyat kamitvad ajatatvach cha,
Manushya-rupi bhagavan brahmana-kayam asthaya kayavata-rane avatirna iti |
Tatha padbhyam ujjayinim praptah..”

Meaning, Shiva incarnated in the form of a human being by entering the body of a deceased Brahmana in the forest of Kayavata and thereafter, wandered to Ujjain.

This account matches those narrated in the Puranas and the Karvana Mahatmya where Lakulisha incarnates in Kayavarohana (Karvan) village. However, unlike the latter accounts, the name Lakulisha is never mentioned, even though in the subsequent lines Kaundinya mentions that Shiva as the Brahmana imparted Shastra to the student Kushika. Only in subsequent Pashupata texts, Ratna Tika and Gana Karika), a clear mention of Lakulisha as the founder of the Pashupata system appears. This raises questions regarding Lakulisha being the actual composer of the Sutras.

Notwithstanding, the authorship of the Sutras, the philosophical doctrine of the Pashupata(s) as enunciated by Lakulisha are called “Ishvara Kartri Vadaha (the creative power of the sovereign being)”, which was first found to be quoted in the Ninth century by Adi Shankaracharya
Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara Adi Shankara Adi Shankara (IAST: pronounced , (Sanskrit: , ) (788 CE - 820 CE), also known as ' and ' was an Indian philosopher from Kalady of present day Kerala who consolidated the doctrine of advaita vedānta...

 in commentary on the Brahma Sutras
Brahma Sutras
The Brahma sūtras , also known as Vedānta Sūtras , are one of the three canonical texts of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. A thorough study of Vedānta requires a close examination of these three texts, known in Sanskrit as the Prasthanatrayi, or the three starting points...

 (3.2.37).
An analysis of it is found in one of the main Pashupata texts, the Gana Karika of Haradatta, and its commentary by Kaundinya called Panchartha Bhashya (commentary of the five subjects). Ramanuja
Ramanuja
Ramanuja ; traditionally 1017–1137, also known as Ramanujacharya, Ethirajar , Emperumannar, Lakshmana Muni, was a theologian, philosopher, and scriptural exegete...

 attributed this philosophy to the tradition of the Kalamukha
Kalamukha
Kalamukha or Kālāmukha refers to a member of a medieval Shaivite sect noted for its asceticism. Scholars have commonly been associated the Kalamukhas with the Kāpālikas, or skull-bearers, another group of ascetics who undertook ascetic practices common to both Buddhist and Hindu Tantra...

(s), the sect of "Black Faces" to which Lakulisha belonged.
This Nakulisha Pashupata doctrine is divided into six parts, known as:
(1) Karana (cause),
(2) Karya (work/task),
(3) Kala (divisibility),
(4) Vidhi (method),
(5) Yoga (union), and
(6) Dukhanta (the end of suffering).

According to some scholars, Lakulisha modified the Maheshwara doctrine by putting different interpretations on all 5 main concepts in that doctrine and placed special emphasis on the different kinds of behaviour to be adopted at each of the 5 stages, in their progress from initiation to the attainment of the unlimited powers of knowing, willing and acting on the terrestrial place.
The doctrines of the Lakulisha Pashupatas are explained at length in Sayana Madhava
Sayana
' was an important commentator on the Vedas. He flourished under King Bukka I and his successor Harihara II, in the Vijayanagar Empire of South India...

's Sarva Darshana Sangraha (p. 108, Cowell & Gough) Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha by Sayana-Madhava – Tr. by E.B. Cowell.

Iconography and Images

Lakulisha has been deified as an incarnation of Shiva, is represented in front of the linga in the 6th-8th centuries and also in the medieval period in temples of Kayavarohana and Timberva in Gujarat. These icons are some more examples of iconic, image-lingas. D.R. Bhandarkar in op cit http://www.archive.org/stream/journalasiatics16bombgoog/journalasiatics16bombgoog_djvu.txt mentions that the image in the sanctum of the Lakulishvara temple in Karvan is "the conjoint figure of Brahmeshvara and Lakulisha, confirming the statement of the Mahatmya that Lakulisha merged himself with Brahmeshvara". Brahmeshvara refers to the Shiva-linga. Lakulisha was identified with Mahesha (Shiva) in the Karvan Mahatmya and in iconographical programmes of several temples of Orissa and Rajasthan. So the images of Lakulisha conjoint with the linga, like other image-lingas, combine both the sakala (with form, manifest) and nishkala (formless, unmanifest) aspects of Shiva.

Lakulisha images have also been found in Saurastra, Gujarat, and also in some parts of the eastern India. Some of the images depict Lakulisha as a naked yogi and he carries prayer beads, a club, a cup of human skull. Lakulisha is shown as accompanied by animals. Almost all of Lakulisha’s images appear as urdhva-retah (ithyphallic).

Image of Lakulisha have been found depicted on the walls of the large hall at Elephanta Caves
Elephanta Caves
The Elephanta Caves are a network of sculpted caves located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri in Mumbai Harbour, to the east of the city of Mumbai in the Indian state of Maharashtra...

, suggesting that the caves may have been associated with Pashupata Shaivism. Icons of Lakulisha have also been found on the Laxmaneswar group of Temples at Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar is the capital of the Indian state of Orissa, officially Odisha. The city has a long history of over 2000 years starting with Chedi dynasty who had Sisupalgarh near present-day Bhubaneswar as their capital...

, namely, the Satrughneswar, Bharateswar and Laxmaneswara temples.

External Links

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