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Lakulisha ( ) (Etymology: लगुड (staff) or लकुट (mace) + ईश (lord) = meaning, the lord with a staff or mace or club or stick) was a prominent Shaivism revivalist, reformist and preceptor of the doctrine of the Pashupatas, one of the oldest sects of Shaivism.
According to some scholars, Lakulisha was the founder of the Pashupata sect. Others argue that the Pashupata doctrine was already in existence before Lakulisha, and he was only its first formal preceptor.
According to a tradition stated in the Linga Purana, Lakulisha is considered as the 28th and the last avatar of Shiva and the propounder of the Yoga system. In this tradition, Lakulisha had four disciples: Kaurushya, Garga, Mitra and Kushika. According to another tradition mentioned in the Avanti Khanda of the Skanda Purana, Lakulisha and his four disciples installed a Lingam at Ujjain, which was then known as Kayavarohaneshvara.Joshi, N.P. (1981). Regional Trends in some of the Mediaeval Brahmanical Sculptures of Malwa in M.D. Khare (ed.) Malwa through the Ages, Bhopal: Directorate of Archaeology & Museums, Govt. of M.P., p.112 The Kurma Purana (Chapter 53), the Vayu Purana (Chapter 23), and the Linga Purana (Chapter 24) predicted that Shiva (Maheshvara) would appear in the form of a wandering monk called 'Lakulin' or 'Nakulisha', and that he would have four disciples named Kushika, Garga, Mitra, and Kanrushya, who would re-establish the cult of Pashupati and would therefore be called Pashupata(s). Lakulisha was the fruition of these divine predictions. According to Vayu Purana V. 1.23.202-214, Lakulisha was a contemporary of Vyasa and Krishna, and was the 28th incarnation of Rudra (Shiva).
The epigraphist John Faithfull Fleet contends that in North India, Kushan Empire emperors like Huvishka (140 CE) replaced the pictures of Hercules on their coins with ones of Shiva, and of Heracles with images of Lakulisha.John Faithfull Fleet ‘Siva as Lakulisa’ JRASGBI : 1907, p. 419-427
In the 4th century CE, beginning with the reign of Chandragupta II, icons and representations of Lakulisha have been frequently found. They portray him as a naked yogi with a staff in his left hand and a citron (matulinga) in his right, either standing or seated in the Lotus position. At about the beginning of the 11th century, the Lakulisha cult shifted its activities to southern India.
A sect of Pasupata Asceticism, founded by Lakulisa (or Nahulisa), is attested by inscriptions from the 5th century and is among the earliest of the sectarian religious orders of Shaivite Hinduism.
The Urdhva linga (), pointing upward, conveys not only the retention of the seed once "stirred" but its upward condition, "through the spinal cord to the brain", retaining its integrity as 'creative substance', while being transformed and absorbed mentally as Bodhicitta, the "thought of Awakening". The symbol of the ascent and transmutation of vital (sexual) energy into mental power, a channeling of the procreative into creative faculty, is artistically seen as Tantra in Mukhalinga or "face-linga", the two overlapping components forming a visual unity, according to Stella Kramrisch.
In Kramrisch's view, the pictorial rendering of the ascent of the vital energy should not be mistaken for fertility or sexuality. Lakulisa, who is an ascetic manifestation of Shiva, is seen in later peninsular Indian scriptures, whose ithyphallic aspects connotes asceticism and conserved procreative potentialities (Brahmacharya), rather than mere eroticism.O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. "Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Śiva. Part I." History of Religions 8, no. 4 (1969): 300-37. Accessed September 7, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1062019. The ithyphallic representation of the erect shape connotes the very opposite in this context, as it stands for "seminal retention", and represents Lakulisha as "he stands for the complete control of the senses, and for the supreme carnal renunciation". In the path of Brahmacharya, Asceticism or Sannyasa, the yogi does not deny sexual urges, but transforms sexual energy and directs it away from procreation and pleasure towards intuited wisdom, Moksha and bliss.
" ... Tatha shishta pramanyat kamitvad ajatatvach cha, Manushya-rupi bhagavan brahmana-kayam asthaya kayavatarane avatirna iti | Tatha padbhyam ujjayinim praptah.."
("Shiva incarnated in the form of a human being by entering the body of a deceased Brahmana in the village Kayavatara, thereafter wandered to Ujjain.")
This account matches those narrated in the Puranas and the Karvana Mahatmya, where Lakulisha incarnates in Kayavarohan (Karvan) village. However, unlike the latter accounts, the name Lakulisha is never mentioned, even though in the subsequent lines Kaundinya mentions that Shiva as the Brahmana imparted Shastra to the student Kushika. Only in the subsequent Pashupata texts, Ratna Tika and Gana Karika, does a clear mention of Lakulisha as the founder of the Pashupata system appear. This raises questions regarding Lakulisha being the actual composer of the sutras.
Notwithstanding the authorship of the sutras, the philosophical doctrine of the Pashupata(s) as enunciated by Lakulisha are called "Ishvara Kartri Vadaha (the creative power of the sovereign being)", which was first found to be quoted later by in commentary on the Brahma Sutras (3.2.37). An analysis of it is found in one of the main Pashupata texts, the Gana Karika of Haradatta, and its commentary by Kaundinya called Panchartha Bhashya (commentary of the five subjects). Ramanuja attributed this philosophy to the tradition of the Kalamukha(s), the sect of "Black Faces" to which Lakulisha belonged. This Nakulisha Pashupata doctrine is divided into six parts, known as: Karana (cause), Karya (work/task), Kala (divisibility), Vidhi (method), Yoga (union), and Dukhanta (the end of suffering).
According to some scholars, Lakulisha modified the Maheshwara doctrine by putting different interpretations on all five main concepts in that doctrine and placed special emphasis on the different kinds of behaviour to be adopted at each of the five stages, in their progress from initiation to the attainment of the unlimited powers of knowing, willing and acting on the terrestrial place. The doctrines of the Lakulisha Pashupatas are explained at length in Sayana Madhava's Sarva Darshana Sangraha (p. 108, Cowell & Gough) Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha by Sayana-Madhava – Tr. by E.B. Cowell.
Lakulisha images have also been found in Saurastra, Gujarat, and also in some parts of the eastern India. Some of the images depict Lakulisha as a naked yogi and he carries prayer beads, a club, a cup of human skull. Lakulisha is shown as accompanied by animals. Almost all of Lakulisha's images appear as urdhav-linga (with an Erection) but neither symbolizing fertility nor sexuality, but the refined energetic principles ( Urdhva Retas) during Sāyaṇa or Asceticism.
Image of Lakulisha have been found depicted on the walls of the large hall at Elephanta Caves, suggesting that the caves may have been associated with Pashupata Shaivism. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century, Upinder Singh (2008) Icons of Lakulisha have also been found on the Laxmaneswar group of temples at Bhubaneswar, namely, the Satrughneswar, Bharateswar and Laxmaneswara temples.
A rock-cut Shiva temple with bas reliefs of Ganesha and Lakulisa, carved by the seventh century Pandya dynasty, is located at Arittapatti near Madurai. This temple is maintained by the Archeological Department of Tamil Nadu.
Lakulisha carvings are also found on Kudavelly Sangameswara and Balabrahmeswara Swamy temples at Alampur, Gadwal Jogulamba district, Telangana.
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