South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

A. D. mentions a student of the Nyāya and Vaiśēshika philosophies, by name Sōmēśvara-sūri, as having caused the Lākula-siddhānta to bloom.^[1] A record of 1117 A. D., from Dharwar, registers a gift entrusted to Āchārya Sōmēśvara-paṇḍita who was well-versed in the Lākul-āgama.^[2] In an inscription of 1177 A. D. certain ascetics are mentioned as the upholders of the Lākul-āgama-samaya (i.e. the religious system following the views of Lakulin) and the adherents of the Kālāmukha sect,^[3] and in another of 1213 A. D. a person is described as an upholder of the system of Lakulin.^[4] An epigraph of 1285 A. D. similarly refers to a supporter of the Lākula system.^[5]

Medieval authors like Vāchaspati, Bhāskara, Yāmunāchārya and Rāmānuja mention four schools of Śaivism, viz. Śaiva. Pāśupata, Kāpālika, and Kālāmukha, this last also called Kāruka-siddhāntin, Kāṭhaka-siddhāntin or Kāruṇika-siddhāntin^[6] and supposed by some scholars to have been followers of Kaurushya who was a disciple of Lakulin.^[7] The Kāpālika and Kālāmukha sects represented two extremist orders of Śaivite ascetics, while the doctrines of the Śaivas were even more moderate and rational than those of the Pāśupatas.^[8] The sect of the Vīraśaivas or Liṅgāyatas of the Kannaḍa-speaking area is believed by Bhandarkar to have developed out of the moderate Śaiva school.^[9]

The foundation of the Vīraśaiva (Liṅgāyata) sect is attributed to Basava, a contemporary of the Southern Kalachuri king Bijjala (c. 1156-67 A. D.) of Kalyāṇa ; but Bhandarkar suggests that the system came into being before the days of Basava.^[10] He points out how, according to the Basava Purāṇa, Śaiva saints like Viśvēśvarārādhya, Paṇḍitārādhya, Ēkōrāma and others flourished from time to time and worked for the establishment of Śiva-bhakti amongst the people before Basava’s age.^[11] He also draws our attention to certain works^[12] describing the dīkshā (i.e. the

____________________________________________________

^[1] Ep. Carn., Shikarpur, No. 98 ; trans., p. 64.
^[2] Prog. Kan. Res., 1941-46, p. 19. Since Sōmēśvara was a rather common name, it is difficult to say whether he was identical with Sōmēśvara-sūri mentioned above.
^[3] Ep. Carn., Vol. V, Arsikere, No. 62 ; trans., p. 135. See below, note 7.
^[4] Ibid., Arsikere, No. 46. Bhandarkar (Vaisṇavism, Śaivism and Minor Religious Systems, Poona edition, p. 172), relying on the faulty translation of the record in op cit., trans., p. 126, speaks in this connection of ‘Vāgi-Lākula, i.e. the system of the learned Lakulin’ although the letters vāgi form a part of another expression (nandādīvigegav-āgi, i.e. ‘for a perpetual lamp’) and can in no way be connected with Lākula.
^[5] Ep. Carn., Vol. XII, Tiptur, No. 12. Bhandarkar (loc. cit.), relying on the wrong translation in op. cit., trans., p. 45, finds here a reference to the ‘new system of Lakulin’ which he understands in the sense of the later school of the Vīraśaivas or Liṅgāyatas. But there is no word for ‘new’ in the original. It should also be pointed out that the Vīraśaivas do not appear to have recognised Lakulin.
^[6] Loc. cit.; Handiqui, Yaśastilaśa and Indian Culture, p. 234.
^[7] Bhandarkar, loc. cit. In the Kannaḍa country, the Kālāmukhas are often identified with the Lākilas. An epigraph of 1035 A.D. from Baḷagāmi in Mysore records certain grants accepted by a great saint named Lakulīśvara-paṇḍita on behalf of the temple of the god Pañchaliṅga which was ‘the college of the Kāḷāmukha Brāhmaṇa students of Baḷḷigāve, the capital of the Banavase 12000’ (cf. above, Vol. V, p. 227). He is also mentioned in some other records (ibid., p. 228). See above, note 3.
^[8] Bhandarkar, op. cit., pp. 180, 187. See The Sākta Pīṭhas, p. 10, note ; of. Sachau, Alberuni’s India, Vol. 1, p. 121. For the practices of the Pāśupatas, see also Handiqui, op. cit., pp. 199 ff.
^[9] Op. cit., p. 190.
^[10] Loc. cit.
^[11] Bhandarkar, op. cit., pp. 188. 190. As Dr. G.S. Gai points out to me, the names are not found in Nārada’s report to Śiva on the state of Śaivism on the earth, as stated by Bhandarkar, in the Basava Purāṇa published by ever, no doubt that the saints in question are believed to be earlier than Basava. Some of the Vīraśaiva vackanakāras (i.e. saints credited with religious sayings), such as Jēḍara Dāsimayya and Śaṅkara Dāsimayya who were contemporaries of Chālukya Jayasiṁha II (1015-42 A.D.), flourished about a century before Basava (cf. Mugali, Kannaḍa-Sāhitya Charitre, pp. 149-50).
^[12] Vivēkachintāmaṇi, Purva-bhāga, pp. 230 ff. ; Vīraśaivāchārapradīpikā, pp. 33-37 ; Paṅchāchāryapaṅch. … atti prakaraṇa, pp. 1, 35.