
Establishment Of Shaivism

The association of Kayavarohana with shaivism has given rise to some other speculations. These have their basic in the stories found in various puranas. It is well known that both Jainism and Buddhism began to assert themselves about two thousand five hundred years ago. The pasupata sect was also in vogue at that time, but as it did not have any influential exponent it lost. Many of its followers turned to Buddhism and Jainism. About 1800 hundred years ago, Lakulisha was born in Medhavati or Kayavarohana. Such is the consensus among experts of shairvite history. Lukulisha reformed the earlier saivite doctrine and set about spreading the message with great rigour. With the rise of this sect and the immense growth of its popularity Kayavarohana at once began to appear as an affluent centre. There are some experts, though in a minority, who argue that Lakulisha was a contemporary of Lord Krishna and hence lived some five thousand years ago. Whatever the era, his belief in monotheism was his strongest point and it took the form of social integration when he initiated even the Vaishnavas and the Saktas into his Pashupata fold.

From the time of Lakulisha for a very long time the twelve Jyotirlingas in India were looked after by the authorities in Kayavarohana. The sectarian heads in Kayavarohana deputed their disciples to administer the different Jyotirlinga centers. The power and wealth of Shaivite sects can be well surmised from the glory of Somnath temple complex which attracted the plunderer Ghaznavi from a long far off place. The explanation of the word Pashupata can be given as follows. Shiva is also called Pashupati, or the lord of animals. As the Linga Purana defines it, man is 'animal' as he is bound by various desires. The master who can free man or 'animal' from these bondages is the true lord of animals.

It is said that Lakulisha had four chief disciples. Kaushika, Gargya, Mitra and KauriJshya. Kaushika propagated the faith around Mathura. Gargya was sent to Kashi and its surroundings.

Mitra worked in Southern India and Kaurushya in Central India. Apart from propagating the tenets of Pashupata these four also popularized the doctrines of Patanjali's yoga sutras and yoga asana.

In 1025 AD Mahmud Ghaznavi plundered the great Somnath temple and tried to break the Jyotirlinga. However, the Jyotirlinga entered the earth and stayed unharmed. Ghaznavi reduced the town of Somnath to ashes wiping it out for ever. It was many centuries later on 24 May 1899 that this Jyotirlinga surfaced again. It is said that some four hundred years ago the peasants of charotara came and revived a village called Karvana located a few miles from Baroda. It was in this village the Jyotirlinga resurfaced. The village folks valued the idol arid installed it in a small village temple. Close by there was ancient temple in ruins, structures similar to which were discovered in large numbers when incarnations were done in Kayavarohana. It seems that there are still many temples waiting to be dug out. A moksha kunda can be discerned in the bed of the river Rangavati that flows through the village today. A decade ago when the Archeological survey of India began the excavation projects many ancient temples were dug out and gold and silver coins of ancient eras were too discovered. That is, even by modern historical research Kayavarohana has been acknowledged as an ancient site of cultural achievement.

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