North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

need of mentioning Kuśika at all unless he was the most important personage of the line to which Uditāchārya belonged. We are therefore compelled to infer that Kuśika, though he may not have propounded any new religious system, must have at least originated a line of teachers to which pertained Parāśara, Kapila, Upamita and Udita. Who could this Kuśika be? Years ago I had occasion to point out who Lakulī was. I then drew attention to a passage which is common to both the Vāyu-Purāṇa and the Liṅga-Purāṇa.¹ On the strength of this passage I showed (1) that Lakulī was the last incarnation of Mahēśvara, (2) that this incarnation took place at Kāyārōhaṇa or Kāyāvatāra which was identical with Kārvāṇ, in the Ḍabhōi tāluk, Baroda District, Gujarat State, and (3) that he had four ascetic pupils, namely, Kuśika, Garga, Mitra and Kaurushya. The same information is contained in a stone slab inscription, which originally belonged to a temple at Sōmanātha in Kāṭhiāwāḍ, but is now preserved in the Quinta of Don João de Castro at Cintra in Portugal. The inscription is thus known as the Cintra praśasti of the reign of the Chaulukya ruler Sāraṅgadēva, and was last critically edited by G. Bühler in Ep. Ind., Vol. I, pp. 271 ff. This inscription corroborates practically all that has been said by the Purāṇas about Lakulī. The order and names of his pupils are, however, slightly different in this epigraphic record, being Kuśika, Gārgya, Kaurusha and Maitrēya. But this much is certain that in both Kuśika remains unaltered in name and also stands first in order. The Cintra praśasti, however, tells us one thing more, namely, that these four disciples of Lakulī were the founders of four lines amongst the Pāśupatas. There can thus hardly be a doubt that the Kuśika of our record must be regarded as the first pupil of Lakulī and that the four Ācharyas mentioned here were, of course, his descendants. In the Cintra praśasti three Āchāryas are mentioned, namely, Kārttikarāśi, Vālmīkirāśi and Tripurāntaka, the last of whom was a contemporary of Sāraṅgadēva during whose reign it was incised. Verse 19 of this inscription distinctly tells us that these teachers belonged to the line (gōtra) of Gārgya. While the Cintra praśasti thus gives an account of the ascetic teachers who sprang in the line of Gārgya, the second pupil of Lakulī, our present record throws light upon the line of teachers that was founded by Kuśika, the first disciple of Lakulī. It appears that while some descendants of Gārgya established themselves at Sōmanātha in Kāṭhiāwāḍ, those of Kuśika were settled at Mathura.²

       If the teachers mentioned in our inscription belonged to the Lakulīśa sect, it clears up two or three points of our inscription which would otherwise have remained obscure. The first is how the liṅgas, if they were installed as memorials to Upamita and Kapila, could also contain their portraits. The second point is why all the dead teachers of this line, namely, Kuśika, Parāśara, Upamita and Kapila, have been styled bhagavat. The third is why the living teacher Uditāchārya has been called ārya. Let us now take up the first point: how could the liṅgas, put up in memory of Upamita and Kapila, also comprise their portraits? I have alluded above to the paper on Lakulīśa which I wrote for the JBBRAS., Vol. XXII, pp. 151 ff. in 1906. Not long after, I contributed another on the same subject to the A.R. ASI., 1906-07, pp. 179 ff. This latter contained copious illustrations of the figures of Lakulī whether on the door jambs and friezes of shrines, on the outside walls of temples, or in separate sculptures. I have shown that wherever Lakulī appears, he figures as a human being, invariably with two hands, but with his characteristic signs, namely a lakuṭa or staff in his left hand and a citron in his right.
_______________________________________

¹ JBBRAS., Vol. XXII, pp. 154 ff.
² It does not seem likely that the whole line of teachers descended from Kuśika were settled at Mathurā. We have already noticed that Uditāchārya, the teacher living at the time of this record, has been mentioned as chaturtha or fourth from Parāśara and daśama or tenth from Kuśika and whereas all the teachers from Parāśara onwards are specified, those intervening between him and Kuśika have not been mentioned at all though they were not less than five. It thus seems that the Pāśupata Āchāryas at Mathurā were a branch of the Kuśika line established by Parāśara.