Hinduism: A Short History (28 page)

It is difficult to say when a sect of Śaivites, worshipers of Śiva (-Rudra) as the highest god, came into existence. References in the
Atharvaveda
may indicate that at such an early date there had been Śaivites.
⁹
The eight names given to Śiva in the
Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
seem to prove that he received worship both as the benevolent and as the terrible one at that time.
¹⁰

The earliest reference to the (probable) existence of a sect of Śiva worshipers is found in Pāṇini, mentioning Śiva-bhāgats;
¹¹
Patañjali refers to Śiva images.
¹²
When Megasthenes writes about Dionysos and Herakles as being very popular in India he probably refers to the cult of Śiva and Kṛṣṇa.
¹³
According to Haribhadra, Gautama, author of the
Nyāya-sūtras
, and Kaṇāda, author of the
Vaiśeṣika-sūtras
, were Śaivas.
¹⁴
According to numismatic evidence some of the early Kusana kings have been Śaivas.
¹⁵

The oldest Śiva sect known seem to be the Pāśupatas, with various sub-sects. They believed that Śiva himself descended in the form of Nakulīśa or Lakulīśa in order to teach the tenets of the Pāśupata religion. Modern research tends to accept Lakulīśa as a historical figure. Sir R.G. Bhandarkar thought that the Pāśupata sect began in the second century B.C.E.; the Mathurā inscription of the reign of Candragupta II proves that Lakulin flourished in the first quarter of the second century C.E.

The Epics contain numerous references to Śiva; the older versions of the Śiva myths are usually found in the
Rāmāyaṇa
. In one hymn a number of names and titles of Śiva are enumerated, and it is said that “from that time on Śaṅkara was called Mahadeva.”
¹⁶

The
Śiva-Purāṇas are
comparatively late compositions, though they contain ancient myths and tales.
¹⁷
They seem to have been written in imitation of the earlier
Vaiṣṇava-Purāṇas
.

Under the Guptas, as pointed out before, Hinduism experienced a renaissance. Though most of the Guptas were devotees of Viṣṇu-Kṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva, some were Śaivas, and others also allowed Śaivism a share in worship beside Vaiṣṇavism. Kumāra Gupta I (415–55 C.E.) had been a Śaiva. So were the famous poets Kālidāsa
¹⁸
and Bhāravi. Even the Hūṇa king Mihirakula seems to have been a Śaiva. Also many contemporary kings in Bengal and Deccan were Śaivas. In South India, Śaivism became the dominating religion very early. Mahendra Varman I (600–630 C.E.) had been a Jaina first, persecuting followers of other religions. After his conversion to Śaivism, his capital Kāñcīpura became a stronghold of Śaivism, embellished with temples and statues of Śiva. His successors continued his work. Many of the sixty-three
Nayanmārs
(“lords”) flourished at this time and helped to propagate
Śiva-bhakti
among the masses.
¹⁹
Between 700 and 1000 C.E. Śaivism seems to have been the dominant religion of India and many ruling families were Śaivites.
²⁰

The great Śaṇkarācārya was a Śaiva by family background, believed by his followers to be “an incarnation of Śiva, born for the purpose of consolidating Hindu
dharma
, in answer to the implorings of Śaiva-guru and Āryāndā at Kāladī.”
²¹
However, in his time Śaivism was already split into several rival sects. Śaṅkara himself is said to have battled against left-hand Śaiva practices and to have vanquished at Ujjain an
ācārya
of the Pāśupatas, described as a “worshiper of Mahākāla.” According to tradition he also visited Kashmir, and it is not improbable that Kashmir-Śaivism was influenced by him. We find, during this time, royal patrons of Śaivism in most parts of India: in Kashmir, Assam, Bengal, Kanauj (Benares), Ujjain, Tripura, Mysore, Tamilnadu (Tanjore, Kāñcī).
²²
From the twelfth century C.E. onward tension between Śaivas and Vaiṣṇavas mounted in the South. In the following centuries the North experienced a renaissance of Vaiṣṇavism. The early rulers of Vijayanagara were Śaivas; they considered themselves the vice-gerents (deputies) of Virūpākṣa (Śiva). Later they became Vaiṣṇavas but tolerated Śaivism.

In the twelfth century a powerful new Śaiva movement arose in Karṇāṭaka – the Liṅgāyats. The last great achievement of Śaiva scholarship seems to have been the
Srīkarabhāṣya
written by Śrīpati (c.1400 C.E.), which explains the
Brahmasūtras
in light of the tenets of Vīraśaivism. It cannot be determined definitely when the various other Śaiva sects originated. Rather early on, Śiva seems to have been connected with
saṃnyāsa
, Yoga, and asceticism.

According to a widespread tradition, Śiva became incarnate as Sveta in order to originate the
Śaiva-Āgamas
. Śrīkaṇṭha enumerates twenty-eight teachers of Śaivism-founders of Śaiva sects. The
Bhāmatī
on the
Śaṅkara-Bhāṣya
mentions four sects of non-Vedāntic Śaivites: Pāśupatas, Śaivas, Karuṇaka-Siddhāntins, and Kāpālikas. Rāmānuja mentions Kālamukhas and Kāpālikas, whereas Mādhava describes at length Nakulīśas (Pāśupatas), Śaivas, Pratyabhijñās, and Raseśvaras. In South India, Śaiva-siddhānta became the dominating Śaiva philosophy. In Kashmir an advaitic type of Śaivism developed from the tenth century onward, whose main exponent was Abhinavagupta.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ŚIVA MYTHOLOGY

The Veda is only one of the sources of Śaivism, perhaps not even the most important. But it is the only source that provides us with literary documents ancient enough to trace at least some components of Śaivism. The main element of Vedic religion that went into the making of Śaivism is the figure of Rudra, who was identified in later times with Śiva. Here already we encounter the predominantly terrifying aspects of Śiva-Rudra: Rudra himself is a terror to those whom he visits. Whereas Viṣṇu is invoked to come and destroy his enemies who molest humans, Rudra is asked to stay away from men. Well-being consists in the absence of the god rather than in his presence. Fever and all kinds of sickness are his work; natural calamities and enmities are his manifestations.

Only three hymns are addressed to Rudra in the
Ṛgveda.
²³
Śiva
is used as an epithet for several gods in its original meaning “propitious.”
²⁴
The name Rudra itself was apotropaic; the very utterance of it was dangerous. Some scholars, who take Śiva to be a solar deity, find references to Śiva in other hymns also, directed, for example, to
sūrya.
²⁵

The Rudra hymns themselves are quite revealing: it is plain fear of Rudra that makes the Vedic singer ask Rudra “not to harm either great or small of us, not the growing boy nor the full-grown man, not to slay the sire, nor the mother, not to harm our dear bodies, not to harm us in our seed and progeny, not to slay our heroes.”
²⁶
But Rudra is not only the inflicter of evil, he also saves from evil. He can be asked either not to send evil to his devotees or to provide for them a remedy against the evils sent by him. Thus the Vedic singer implores Rudra to give health, strength, grace, bliss, to protect cattle, to heal all sickness, to help the devotee out of his troubles, to repel all assaults of mischief, to give strengthening balm to the heroes. Rudra is the great physician who possesses a thousand medicines, the giver of health and the remover of the woes which the gods have sent, whose gracious hand brings health and comfort.

One of the most interesting texts in the whole of Vedic literature is the famous Śatarudriya in the Yajurveda.
²⁷
A. P. Karmarkar sees in it “a non-Āryan document
par excellence.”
²⁸
J. Eggeling calls it “a dismal litany;” it is of interest, however, insofar as it reflects “popular belief in demoniac agencies to which man is constantly exposed.”
²⁹
The hymn is connected with the Śatarudriya offering described in the
Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
. “Agni has on completion become Rudra and this ceremony is performed to avert his wrath and secure his favour.”
³⁰
This Śatarudriya certainly displays many features of classical Śaivism. Śiva is both terrifying and gracious. After homage to Rudra’s wrath his auspicious Śiva form is addressed and asked to give health and well-being to all people, as he is the great divine physician. Several verses of the Ṛgvedic Rudra hymns are included. Thus, either the Śatarudriya is a collection of otherwise unconnected Rudra invocations, or the Ṛgvedic Rudra hymns are excerpts from the longer hymn, most of which were not acceptable to the priests who edited the
Ṛgveda
. The most striking feature of the Śatarudriya is its constant change from one Rudra to many Rudras, from praise to imploration not to do harm. The bow, the constant companion of Rudra, is dreaded as harmful and also invoked for protection; homage is paid to it, after it has been unstrung. Also, the act of “grace” of Rudra consists not so much in doing good to his devotees but in refraining from doing harm, not exposing them to his wrath and his arrows. It is beyond doubt that the author of the Śatarudriya believed in a great number of Rudras – “innumerable Rudras are on the face of the earth”
³¹
-but the epithets given to “Him,” i.e. Rudra in the singular, are often names which play a great role in later Śaivism and make Rudra appear the Supreme Being. Apart from names like Nīlakaṇṭha, Śarva, Paśupati,
ilagrīva, Śitikaṇṭha, Bhava, and Śobhya, Rudra is the one who stretched out the earth, who is immanent in places and objects, in stones, plants, and animals. There is also the paradoxical ascription of contradictory attributes. After being praised as the great Lord of all beings, he is called “cheat” and “Lord of the thieves”; he is a dwarf and a giant; he is fierce and terrible and the source of happiness and delight. These elements make Rudra appear as the Supreme Being, responsible for the creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe, as the giver and taker of all goods. Certain groups of people are mentioned: thieves, robbers, pilferers, troops and soldiers, deformed people, carpenters, carmakers, potters, blacksmiths, dog-leaders, hunters. Perhaps these were the sections of the population among whom Rudra worship developed first. Several times Rudra is addressed as
kapardm
and as
vyuptakeśa
. He may have had worshipers in two sects: one who used to wear a
kaparda
and one who used to shave the head completely, customs which we notice even today amongst Śaiva ascetics.

As in the Ṛgvedic Rudra hymns, the singer of the Śatarudriya asks Śiva-Rudra to turn away his fearful form and to approach the worshiper with the auspicious, friendly form. Since the Śatarudriya forms part of the
Yajurveda
, it also is part of a Vedic ritual as described in the
Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa?
³²

Only a few hymns in the
Atharvaveda
are addressed to Rudra. In one of them Rudra and Soma are mentioned as redeemers from disease and sin; in another the two forms of Rudra – Śarva and Bhava – are treated as two distinct persons. They are implored “not to harm our bipeds and quadrupeds.” Vultures and flies, as the consumers of dead bodies, are evidently connected with Rudra. But he is also the Lord of Cattle who can prevent death. “Yours are the four directions, yours the heaven, yours the earth, yours this wide atmosphere, you terrible one. Yours is all this that has
ātman
, that is breathing upon the earth.” The best thing he can do is to stay away from his worshipers: “Do not harm us, bless us, avoid us, be not angry, let us not come into collision with you.”
³³
As in the Śatarudriya, here, too, Rudra is asked to spare the worshipers and harm their foes: “Be not greedy for our kine, our men; be not greedy for our goats and sheep; elsewhere, o you formidable, strike out, strike the offspring of our detractors.”
³⁴

The
Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
offers in connection with the Śatarudriya recitation a very interesting myth explaining the origin of Rudra-Śiva:

When Prajāpati had become disjointed the deities departed from him. Only one god did not leave him,

(wrath). Extended he remained within, he cried and the tears of him that fell down settled on

. He became the hundred-headed, thousand-eyed, hundred-quivered Rudra. And the other drops that fell down spread over this world in countless numbers, by thousands; and inasmuch as they originated from crying

they were called Rudras (roarers). That hundred-headed, thousand-eyed, hundred-quivered Rudra with his strong bow strung and his arrow fitted to his string, was inspiring fear, being in quest of food. The gods were afraid of him.

The purpose of the Śatarudriya offering was to appease the wrath of hungry Rudra. Both Rudra in the singular and Rudras in the plural are met with here. It is noteworthy that the sacrificer is to undergo a purificatory ceremony whenever he mentions the name Rudra; the same ceremony as prescribed when uttering
rakṣasas, asuras, pitṛs
, or enemies, or his own body.
³⁶
Another text states that to Rudra is due whatsoever is injured in sacrifice. Several times Paśupati, Śarva, and Bhava are mentioned as names of Rudra. Only in one place is he Rudra-Śiva;
³⁷
here too the kindliness of Rudra is only the effect of the appeasement made by the sacrificer. His region is the North. In several places he is identified with Agni and even called “Agni’s immortal form.” One text represents a Śiva magic in order to save cattle from Rudra Paśupati. Rudra is treated in the ritual quite differently from the other gods. At the end of the sacrifice a handful of straw is offered to him to propitiate him; at the end of the meal any food left over is placed in a spot to the North for him to take. The bloody entrails of the victim are made over to his hosts, which attack men and beast with disease and death, in order to avert their anger. Snakes are also connected with him. When the gods reached heaven Rudra was left behind. In a place infested with snakes one should offer to Rudra who is Lord of cattle.
³⁸
The
Aitareya Brāhmaṇa
states that “Rudra is an embodiment of all the dread forms of whom gods are afraid.”
³⁹
The bull that is to be sacrificed for Rudra is sacrificed outside the village. The character of Rudra in the
Brāhmaṇas
is still predominantly that of a fierce power, the enemy of civilization rather than its protector.