Thanesar, the P¯Asupata Order and the Skandapur¯An. A
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Thanesar, the P¯a´supata Order and the Skandapur¯an. a∗ Studies in the Skandapur¯an. a IX The tradition of the four pupils of Lagud¯ . i By the middle of the sixth century the city of Kanauj seems to have emerged as the capital of the rising dynasty of the Maukharis under its king ¯I´s¯anavarman. 1 This town, in the Sanskrit tradition named K¯anyakubja/ Kanyakubja, is known from the Skandapur¯an. a, and from this text only, as the seat of one of the P¯a´supata lineages. The Skandapur¯an. a (SPS 167.123–29) informs us that the fourth pupil of L¯agud. i was a brahmac¯arin who came from a distinguished family in the (Land 2 of the) Kurus. He received initiation in Kanyakubja and, as implied by SPS 167.130, established the fourth lineage of P¯a´supata teachers there. L¯agud. i bestowed on him (and the other three pupils) ‘His own doctrine’ (and) yoga. 3 ∗ The first version of this article was published in Journal of Indological Studies 19 (2007), 1–16. 1 As far as I am aware, there exists no direct evidence for this statement. There is circumstantial evidence, though, which has led the majority of historians to accept it as the most plausible hypothesis. Tripathi 1964, 32–36; Majumdar in HCI III, 69 f.; Goyal 1967, 363; Thaplyal 1985, 19 f. Among this evidence is the clay seal-matrix, probably to be ascribed to Avantivarman, that was found in Kanauj (Thaplyal 1985, 153). The major argument for Kanauj being the Maukhari capital, at least at the time of Grahavarman, is based on the evidence of B¯an. a’s Hars.acarita (see Tripathi 1964, 32–36). 2 We deduce from this evidence that the name of the fourth pupil was unknown to the composer of the SP, but that there was a living tradition that connected him with the Kurus or Kuruks.etra. In order to supply a name for the founder of this lineage, this tradition later invented the name Kaurus.ya (LiP 1.7.51, 1.24.131, SiP´ Satarudrasam´ . hit¯a 5.49) or Kaurus.a (see above, n. 16 on p. 287). 3 SPS 167.122–123, 129: ujjayany¯am. gurujyes..thah. kau´sikon¯aman¯amatah. | dvit¯ıyog¯argya ity eva jambum¯arge sat¯apanah. k 122 k tr.t¯ıya´sc¯abhavanmitro mathur¯ay¯am. mah¯aman¯ah. | brahmac¯ar¯ıcaturthas tu kurus.v eva sugotrajah. k 123 k [...] kanyakubje tata´sc¯anyamanugr.hya jagatpatih. | svasiddh¯antam. dadau yogam uv¯acedam. ca l¯agud. ih. ** k 129 k * The reading of SPS 167.123d is uncertain. The syllables ku-ru are relatively certain as they are attested in all manuscripts: both SPS mss (S1and S2) and all SPRA mss (R before 527 Hans Teye Bakker - 9789004412071 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 02:38:14PM via free access 528 Hans Bakker The route along which the P¯a´supata movement had reached the Land of the Kurus may also be deduced from the Skandapur¯an. a: 1) K¯arohan. a (where Siva’s´ incarnation took place), 2) Ujjayan¯ı(initiation of Kau´sika), 3) Jambum¯arga between Ujjayan¯ıand Pus.kara (initiation of G¯argya), 4) Mathur¯a(initiation of Mitra), 5) Land of the Kurus, 6) Kanyakubja (initiation of the Kuru). 4 The major city in the ‘Land of the Kurus’ in the 5th and 6th centuries was Thanesar. In his Hars.acarita B¯an. a depicts Thanesar (Sth¯an. v¯ı´svara) under (the 5 legendary) King Pus.yabh¯utias a country completely devoted to Mahe´svara. It is therefore not impossible, at least it is suggested by the Skandapur¯an. a, that the P¯a´supata movement had reached Kanauj from Gujarat via Kuruks.etra and had thus passed through Thanesar. Plate 117 Thanesar: Excavations at the Hars.ak¯aT. ¯ıl¯a ◦ ◦ correction). The S mss read the corrupt s.vava instead of s.veva, but the latter reading is supported by all A mss. The latter mss read sa gotrajah. instead of sugotrajah. ** In 129d S1 reads l¯agud. ih. :S2 l¯akul¯ı. ‘And’ (SPS 167.129d) L¯agudideclares: rahasyam. paramam. h¯ıdam. pa˜nc¯arthaiti sam. j˜nitam | vipr¯anmocayitum. datto yus.mabhyam. martyabandhan¯at | anay¯ad¯ıks.ay¯avipr¯anpr¯apayadhvam. param. padam k 130 k SPS 167.130 thus defines the svasiddh¯anta doctrine as ‘Pa˜nc¯artha’and explicitly declares that these four pupils have the right to initiate, i.e. that they are established as the founders of four lineages. 4 Above, n. 3 on p. 527. For a discussion of this route see below, p. 563. 5 HC* p. 164 gr.he gr.he bhagav¯anap¯ujyatakhan. d. apara´suh. | A seal reading ‘´sr¯ırudrah. ’ in ‘first-second century characters’ was reportedly found in the Kushana layers of the so-called Hars.ak¯aT.¯ıl¯ain Thanesar (IAR 1987–88, 29). Hans Teye Bakker - 9789004412071 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 02:38:14PM via free access 27 / Thanesar, the P¯a´supataOrder and the Skandapur¯an. a 529 Some information about this ‘Kuru lineage’ seems to have survived the ages. The (Jaina) tradition—preserved in Gun. aratna’s (fourteenth century) commentary on the S. ad. dar´sanasamuccaya of Haribhadra (ninth century) and R¯aja´sekharas¯uri’s S. ad. dar´sanasamuccaya (fourteenth century)—records the first four names of the teachers in each of the four lineages that are said to derive from Lakul¯ı´sa. The fourth teacher, here named Kaurus.a, was succeeded 6 by Manus.yaka, Pus.paka and R¯a´s¯ıkara. L¯agud. i The idea of a guru with four pupils named L¯agud. i/L¯akulinor Lakul¯ı´sa seems to be an example of ‘invention of tradition’. Kaun. d. inya does not know a teacher (incarnation) by the name of Lakul¯ı´sa, but speaks only about the Lord (bhaga- vat) descending in K¯ay¯avataran. a (= K¯arohan. a), who initiated only one pupil, Ku´sika, in the city of Ujjayan¯ı. 7 Nor does the name Lakul¯ı´sa, or any of its vari- ants, occur in the Mathur¯aPilaster Inscription of Candragupta II, Year 61. 8 It may have been coined in the fifth century to refer to the (divine) teacher who carried a club (lagud. a), portrayed in several fifth-century images, and as such 9 came to be attested in the Skandapur¯an. a. The apparently oldest image of an ithyphallic Saiva´ teacher with a lakula resting against his left shoulder is accompanied by only two pupils and may date from the 5th century (Plate 118). 10 6 Gun. aratna ad Haribhadra’s S. ad. dar´sanasamuccaya (Dalal 1920, 29): tasya c¯as..t¯ada´s¯avat¯ar¯aam¯ı | nakul¯ı´so’tha, [1.1] kau´sikah. , [1.2] g¯argyah. , [1.3] maitryah. , [1.4] kaurus.ah. , [2.1] ¯ı´s¯anah. , [2.2] p¯arag¯argyah. , [2.3] kapil¯an. d. ah. , [2.4] manus.yakah. , [3.1] ku´sikah. , [3.2] atrih. , [3.3] pi ˙ngalah. , [3.4] pus.pakah. , [4.1] br.had¯aryah. , [4.2] agastih. , [4.3] sant¯anah. , [4.4] r¯a´s¯ıkarah. , vidy¯aguru´sca | Cf. R¯aja´sekharas¯uri’s S. ad. dar´sanasamuccaya, Dayal op. cit. 35. For an elaborate discussion of this param. par¯a see Bisschop 2006, 48 ff. The commentator of the P¯a´supatas¯utra, Kaun. d. inya ad PS 4.10, apparently placed himself in the lineage of Ku´sikaand ¯I´s¯ana: ku´sike´s¯anasambandh¯at. No doubt the lineage of Ku´sikais the oldest P¯a´supatatradition (Indraji 1881–82, 322 f., 327; Sircar: SI I, 278), a fact corroborated by the Skandapur¯an. a itself (see above, n. 3 on p. 527). 7 Kaun. d. inya ad PS 1.1 (for translation see below, p. 542): k¯amitv¯adaj¯atatv¯acca manus.yar¯up¯ıbhagav¯anbr¯ahman. ak¯ayam ¯asth¯aya k¯ay¯avataran. e avat¯ırn. a iti | tath¯a padbhy¯am ujjayan¯ım. pr¯aptah. | [...] ato rudrapracoditah. ku- ´sikabhagav¯anabhy¯agatya [...] k¯ale vaidyavad avasthitam ¯aturavad avasthitah. ´si- s.yah. pr.s..tav¯an:bhagavan kim etes.¯am¯adhy¯a¯tmik¯adhibhautik¯adhidaivik¯an¯am. sarvaduh. - kh¯an¯amaik¯antiko’tyantiko vyapoho ’sty uta neti k 8 Bhandarkar 1931–32. Above, p. 494. 9 SPS 167.129 (above, n. 3 on p. 527). See further below, p. 554 ff. and p. 559 f. 10 Shah 1984, 97, Pl. 81: ‘Mathur¯a,Sv¯am¯ıgh¯at., Lakul¯ı´sawith two disciples, ca. fifth century A.D.’ See Kreisel 1986, 167–169; Bisschop 2004, 46. The image (below, Plate 121) of a (non-ithyphallic) Saiva´ ascetic holding a staff or club in his right hand and vessel (kala´sa) in his left, dating from the Kus.¯a n. a period and preserved in the Mathura Museum, may be ‘a prototype of the figure of Lakul¯ı´sa’(Shah 1984, 97, Pl. 80). Hans Teye Bakker - 9789004412071 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 02:38:14PM via free access 530 Hans Bakker Plate 118 Mathur¯a:Lakul¯ı´sawith two pupils In the first half of the 6th century images of Lakul¯ı´sasurrounded by four pupils began to appear, such as the one in the Yoge´svar¯ıCave near Bombay (below, Plate 128). 11 In short, at some stage in the process by which the P¯a´supata movement was gathering momentum, the avat¯ara of Siva/Pa´supati´ received the name L¯agud.