North Indian Inscriptions

RELIGIOUS HISTORY

As regards the moon we find that it was one of the gems churned out of the Milky Ocean and selected by him for adornment.¹ We now turn to a different incident which occurred during his life and is mentioned in the Mandasōr inscription (No. 35 below) of Kumāragupta I and Bandhuvarman. Verse 40 describes “the season” (of spring) when Kāmadēva, whose body is purified by Hara displays (his) arrows, having verily attained to (his) identity, with the distinct and fresh burstingforth of the flowers of the Aśōka tree, the Kētaka, the Siṁduvāra, the pendulous Atimuktaka creeper, and the Madayantikā . . .” The ordinary story of Kāma as connected with Śiva is too well-known to be repeated at length. When the gods wanted a commander for their forces in their war with Tāraka, they sought the aid of Kāma in attracting Śiva to Pārvatī, whose issue alone could vanquish the demon. Kāma undertook the mission, but Śiva, being offended at the disturbance of his austerities, reduced him to ashes with the fire of his third eye, and he became Anaṅga (the bodiless one). Subsequently he was allowed by Śiva to be born again in the form of Pradyumna at the request of Rati. His friend is Vasanta, ‘the Spring’. He is armed with a bow and arrows-the arrows being flowers of five different plants.² This story is unknown to us from any literature prior to the composition of the Purāṇas, that is, prior, in fact, to the Gupta period. This story of Kāma referred to in stanza 40 of inscription No. 35 below is all-right so far as it goes. But stanza 13 of the same record speaks of two wives of Smara (=Kāma), namely, Prīti and Rati. No authority in support of this statement has yet been adduced from the Mahābhārata or any one of the Purāṇas. Nevertheless, we have lighted upon a passage from the Matsya-Purāṇa³ which expatiates on the efficacy of performing the Vibhūtidvādaśī-vrata, and says: “That courtezan is now the rival of Rati, wife of the god Kāma and is known as Prīti.”

       Let us now see whether there was any sect also among the Śaivas in the Gupta times. We have in this connection to take into consideration the Mathurā pilaster inscription (No. 6 below) of Chandragupta II. It will be seen from the summary given below that there was one Uditāchārya, a Māhēśvara, who established in the Teacher’s Shrine (Gurv=āyatana) two Liṅgas called Upamitēśvara, and Kapilēśvara called after his teacher and teacher’s teacher respectively. Even the name of Kapila’s teacher has been specified, namely, Parāśara. Further, we have to note that Uditāchārya is mentioned not only as fourth in succession from Parāśara but also tenth from Kuśika. Excepting the living teachers all the others have been described as Bhagavat, implying that they had already been absorbed into the divinity of Mahēśvara. The question now arises: who could this Kuśika be? As early as 1906 we contributed a paper to the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,⁴ where we drew the attention of scholars to a passage which is common to both the Vāyu and the Liṅga-Purāṇas. On the strength of this passage, we showed (1) that Lakulin was the twenty-eighth or last incarnation of Mahēśvara, (2) that this incarnation took place at Kāyārōhaṇa or Kāyāvatāra, which was identical with Kārvāṇ, in the Dabhoi tāluk, Baroda prānt of the former Baroda State, and (3) that he had four ascetic pupils, namely, Kuśika, Garga, Mitra and Kaurushya. The same information is contained in the Cintra praśasti of the reign of the Chalukya ruler Sāraṅgadēva which was last critically edited by G. Bühler in the Epigraphia Indica.⁵ The record corroborates practically all that has been said by the Purāṇas about Lakulin. The order and names of the pupils is slightly different, namely, that these four disciples of Lakulī became the founders of four lines for the thorough performance of the religious austerities (vratas) of the Pāśupatas. There can
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¹ Vishṇu-P., I. 9. 25; Padma-P., V. 4. 51-52.
² Matsya-P., 154. 272; Padma-P., V. 40. 265.
³ Chapter 100, verse 32.
⁴ Vol. XXII, pp. 154 ff.
⁵ Vol. I, pp. 271 ff.