| But
this is not certain, for the last four syllables in verse 8 may have contained some other
geographical name, and the sense of the verse may be that a matha or sanctuary was
established there by the spiritual descendants of the four pupils of Lakulisha (the use of
the verb equivalent to abhut for 'was made' is not uncommon in the modern Indian
vernaculars, and it is not impossible that our poet has fallen into a Gujaraticism). But,
in any case, it is in disputable that Karshana in Lata or Central Gujarat was the head
establishment of these Shaivas because Shiva is said to have become incarnate there as
Lakulisha. Karshana is, it would seem, the modern
Karvan on the Miyagam-Dabhoi railway; this village was, according to its mahatmya,
formerly called Kayavirohana or Kayarahun (Kayarohana?) and was, according to tradition,
the place where Mahadeva, who had been born as Nakuleshvara n the family of a Brahmana of
Ulkapuri or Avakhal, reassumed his divine shape (cf. BB Gazetteer, Vol. VII, 19-20 and pp.
550-51). Ulkapuri is possibly a mistake for Ulukapuri and mahatmya may still contain a
reminiscence of the myth narrated in verse 14. (The Gazetteer gives the names of Shiva as
Nekleshvar or Nakleshvar, corruption’s of the form Nakuleshvara.) |
