nd from its general style I should
imagine the Narayaniya to be a later poem. If so, the evolution of
Bhagavata theology will be that Krishna, a great hero in a tribe
lying outside the sphere of Brahmanism, is first identified with
Vasudeva, the god of that tribe, and then both of them with Vishnu.
At this stage the Bhagavad-gita was composed. A later current of
speculation added Narayana to the already complex figure, and a
still later one, not accepted by all sects, brought the pastoral and
amorous legends of Krishna. Thus the history of the Bhagavatas
illustrates the Indian disposition to combine gods and to see in each
of them only an aspect of the one. But until a later period the types
of divinity known as Vishnu and Siva resisted combination. The
worshippers of Siva have in all periods shown less inclination than
the Vishnuites to form distinct and separate bodies and the earliest
Sivaite sect of which we know anything, the Pasupatas,[493] arose
slightly later than the Bhagavatas.

5

Patanjali the grammarian (_c._ 150 B.C.) mentions devotees of
Siva[494] and also images of Siva and Skanda. There is thus no reason
to doubt that worshippers of Siva were recognized as a sect from at
least 200 B.C. onwards. Further it seems probable that the founder or
an early teacher of the sect was an ascetic called Lakulin or
Lakulisa, the club-bearer. The Vayu Purana[495] makes Siva say that
he will enter an unowned corpse and become incarnate in this form at
Kayarohana, which has been identified with Karvan in Baroda. Now the
Vayu is believed to be the oldest of the Puranas, and it is probable
that this Lakulin whom it mentions lived before rather than after our
era and was especially connected with the Pasupata sect. This word is
derived from Pasupati, the Lord of cattle, an old title of Rudra
afterwards explained to mean the Lord of human souls. In the
Santiparvan[496] five systems of knowledge are mentioned. Sankhya,
Yoga, the Vedas, Pasupatam and Pancaratram, promulgated respectively
by Kapila, Hiranyagarbha, Apantaratamas, Siva the Lord of spirits and
son of Brahma, and "The Lord (Bhagavan) himself." The author of these
verses, who evidently supported the Pancaratra, considered that these
five names represented the chief existing or permissible varieties of
religious thought. The omission of the Vedanta is remarkable but
perhaps it is included under Veda. Hence we may conclude that when
this passage was written (th