Kashmir, Tamilnadu, Panini, Abhinavagupta, etc.

[DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA]

PARVATA-2

I need not mention that zrIsailam is a great zaivate
center. In "zivAnandalahari" of Adisankara the only kSEtra
that is mentioned by name is zrIsaila. The slokAs are the ones
starting with "sandhyArambha" and "bhRGgIcchAnatanOtkataH".
Perhaps he has composed it in zrIsailam. KaJci PeriyavAl
is of the view that Adisankara did tapasya there.

In common people the usage without the honorific "zrI"

1. Even today people in the neighbourhood of zrIparvata call it
   as "parvata" only.

2. In the telugu country even today people are named as "parvatAlu",
   where "lu" simply indicates plural.

3. These practices are there even earlier can be seen from the
   following.

        i) In the 12 th century the great zaivate preacher
           mallikhArjuna paNDitArAdhya wrote a composition on
          zrisailaM by the name "parvata gadya".
                                 ^^^^^^^
      ii) pAlakuriki sOmanAtha in his biography of mallikhArjuna
           paNDitArAdhya i.e., "paNDitArAdhya caritra" names the
           chapter pertaining to zrIsailam simply as "parvata prakaraNa".
                                                     ^^^^^^^
           He  belongs to the 13th century.

     iii) The ruler of rajahmundry in the same period has the name
          "parvata mallu".
           ^^^^^^^

      iv) An inscription in telugu of the latter half of 14th century
           obtained in zrIsailaM concerning the steps carved from kriSNA
           river says

           "... yadagaMga parvatamu sObhanAlu sEyiMcina puNyamu..."
                         ^^^^^^^^^                Epigraphia Andhrica vol.1

       v) An inscription of virUpAkSarAya of vijayanagar of 1465-66 A.D.

           "...zrIman parvata mallikhArjunamahAdEvasya.........
                        ^^^^^^^                        EI vol XV, p.20.
           Here  srIman is for mallikharjuna and not
           for parvata.

      vi) A telugu inscription of 1525 A.D.

          "... parvatabhaktuni kumAruNDu cinavIrAbhaktuMdunnU..."
               ^^^^^^^                                  SII, vol 16, p.92
                                                   Inscription 77, line 153
          Here "parvatabhaktudu" is the name of a person.

     vii) A telugu inscription of 1545 A.D.

          ".....anaMtaya(gAru) paravatayagAru dAravOsi iccina..."
                               ^^^^^^^^                SII, vol 16, p.164
                                                   Inscription 156, line 14
           "paravataya" is the name of a person.

One would like to see even earlier inscriptions. But all the inscriptions
in zrIsailam are from 14th century, the time of pratAparudra of kAkatIya
dynasty. It appears that renovation done to the temple at his time has
destroyed the earlier inscriptions.

"paNdithArAdhya caritra" itself gives a mythological story for the
name parvata. The great devotee zilAda had three sons. The eldest is
nandikEswara who became the vehical of Lord ziva by his tapasya. The
second one is "parvata". He also did tapas and asked lord ziva as a boon
to reside always on his head . So he became the mountain and Lord ziva
resided oon him.

We are not interested in the veracity of this mythological story which
is good or as bad as that of any mythological story. The point to note
here is that the name of the person is "parvata" and not zrIparvata.
Thus the proper name of person corresponds to the proper name of the
mountain.

This shows that along with zrIparvata (used for formal occassions)
simply "parvata" meant zrIparvata.
                                                - to be continued

regards,

sarma.