83 - Discourses on Tantra Volume One
Chapter 21
Throughout the Ages (6)
There is another interesting thing which people generally ignore. You will notice that when Buddhism was gradually transformed into Puranic Shaivism, that transitional period was the age of the Nátha Cult. The word nátha [lord] used to be appended to the names of the prophets of the Nátha Cult, for instance Ádinátha, Miinanátha, Matsyendra-nátha (who invented Matsyendrásana), Gorakśanátha, Gohiniinátha, and Caoraungiinátha (after whom Chowringee street in Calcutta has been named). These were the spiritual teachers of the Nátha Cult.
This Nátha Cult was the result of the synthesis between Buddhist Tantra and the Puranic Shiva Cult. All the masters of the Nátha Cult were considered as avatáras [incarnations] of Shiva; that is, after the death of these masters, people made idols of them and worshipped them in the temples as incarnations of Shiva. Thus just as the word nátha was appended to the names of the masters, it was also appended to the names of Shiva when He was worshipped – for instance, Tárakanátha, Vaedyanátha, Vishvanátha, etc.
These deities were the objects of worship for the followers of the Nátha Cult; they had nothing to do with the Sadáshiva of seven thousand years ago. There was a vast time gap of about 5500 years between the two. Although in the Shiva Cult and the Shákta Cult of the Puranic Age people continued the worship of Shiva-liuṋga, they used to append the word iishvara [controller or lord] to the names of Shiva just to differentiate their Shiva from the Shiva of the Nátha Cult. For instance, Tárakeshvara, Vishveshvara, Rámeshvara, etc. Sometimes they used to name Shiva with the addition of both nátha, in the manner of the Nátha Cult followers, and iishvara, in the manner of the Puranic Shiva Cult. For instance, they would say either, or both, Tárakanátha or Tarákeshvara, Vishvanátha or Vishveshvara. (But the Vaedyanátha of Deoghar cannot be called Vaedyeshvara.)
From this one can easily distinguish which Shiva was worshipped by which cult – which was worshipped by the Nátha Cult followers, and which by the Puranic Shiva Cult followers.
Saoráśt́re Somanathaiṋca,
Shriishaela Mallikárjunám;
Ujjayinyáḿ Mahákálaḿ,
Oṋḿkáramamaleshvaram.
[Shiva of Saurashtra is called Somanátha; in Shriishaela He is Mallikárjunam; in Ujjayinyá He is Mahákálaḿ, and in Oṋḿkárnáth He is Amaleshvaram.]
Váráńasyáḿ Vishvanáthah,
Setubandhe Rámeshvarah;
Jháŕakhańd́e Vaedyanáthah,
Ráŕhe ca Tárakeshvarah.
[He is known as Vishvanátha in Varanasi, as Rámeshvara in Setubandha, as Vaedyanátha in Jharakhańd́a, and as Tárakeshvara in Ráŕh.]
This is how Shiva is variously worshipped by the followers of different cults. In some places He is addressed as nátha by the followers of the Nátha Cult, in other places as iishvara by the followers of the Puranic Shiva Cult. The acoustic root for Shiva in all these cases is haoḿ, and as there has been a change in the acoustic root, this Shiva is not the Shiva of seven thousand years ago.