| Soma
Sharma was the last great teacher who came to Prabhasa and settled down there, and was
also considered an incarnation of God Shiva. His four sons are also mentioned as having
settled down at Prabhasa Tirtha. This tradition is also preserved in the Shiva Purana and
may be taken to be authentic.1 Long before the
second century A.D., the head of the Pashupata cult had his headquarters at Prabhasa.
Somanatha as the principal shrine of Shiva can there fore be taken to have been
established at least by the beginning of the Christian era to which period perhaps
the First Temple belongs.
1 Shiva Purana - Saptamavayaviyasamhita ----
Uttarabhaga: adh. 7.5.
Ibid., Chaturthakoti-rudra samhita-Vs 21-24. Vayu purana Mitra's Ed. Vol. I., adh. 23,
201-02. |
