Yogācārya Avatāras of Śiva

The Yogācārya Avatāras are twenty-eight forms in which Bhagavān Śiva came into the world, one after another, as a human yogācārya (teacher of yoga). They all belong to the present Vaivasvata Manvantara, the current great age ruled by Manu Vaivasvata. The Vāyuvīya Saṃhitā of the Śiva Mahāpurāṇa lists them in chapters 8 and 9 of its Uttarakhāṇḍa (second part).

Each of these avatāras came with four disciples and passed on Śaiva yoga and the Pāśupata teaching (the path sacred to Śiva as Paśupati) to humanity. Together the twenty-eight trained 112 main disciples. In this way they formed an unbroken line of Śaiva teaching reaching from Śiva himself down to historical times. The last and most famous of the twenty-eight is Lakulīśvara, honoured as the founding ācārya (teacher) of the Lākulīśa-Pāśupata school.

Background

Chapter 8 of the Uttarakhāṇḍa tells how Śiva, in his Āditya (sun) form, came before the devas at the start of the present Vaivasvata Manvantara and taught them about his true solar form. In the same place the chapter describes Śiva’s past vyāsa-avatāras, his forms as ṛṣis who gathered and arranged Vedic knowledge. It then turns to the yogācārya avatāras: his twenty-eight forms as a teacher of yoga and Pāśupata wisdom, given especially to the human world.

Chapter 9 gives the full list of all twenty-eight yogācāryas, with the four main disciples of each.

The Twenty-Eight Yogācāryas and Their Disciples

What These Avatāras Were

Each yogācārya was Śiva himself, born in human form for a clear purpose: to bring fresh life to the Pāśupata teaching and Śaiva yoga in the age or region where he appeared. They did not all come at the same time. Each appeared in turn, at different points in the Vaivasvata Manvantara, whenever the teaching needed to be renewed.

The First Yogācārya: Śveta

Śveta means “white”, a sign of purity and light. He is the first of the twenty-eight and appeared at the very start of the present manvantara. A ṛṣi named Śveta also appears in other Purāṇic settings, for example as the main figure of the story of King Śveta in the Skanda Purāṇa. Here he is the first Śaiva teacher, who set up the tradition afresh in the present age of the universe.

Lakulīśvara: The Twenty-Eighth

Lakulīśvara (also called Lakulin or Nakulin) is the last of the twenty-eight, and the one whose place in history can be traced most clearly. He is honoured as the founding ācārya of the Lākulīśa-Pāśupata school, one of the earliest organised schools of Śaiva thought. His four disciples, Kuśika, Garga, Mitra and Kauruṣya, founded the four main branches of the Lākulīśa-Pāśupata line. Evidence from archaeology and from texts places Lakulīśvara in the early centuries of the Common Era, which makes him the most recent of Śiva’s twenty-eight yoga-avatāras.

Why the List Matters

The Vāyuvīya Saṃhitā’s list of twenty-eight yogācāryas and their 112 disciples does several things:

1. It shows the Śaiva guru-paramparā (line of teachers) is genuine: every Śaiva ācārya traces his line through one of these twenty-eight back to Śiva himself.
2. It roots the Pāśupata tradition in a real succession of teachers: the teaching was not made up by people but received from Śiva’s own avatāras.
3. It explains the variety within the Śaiva tradition: different Śaiva schools may trace back to different yogācāryas and their disciples.
4. It matches the idea of the vyāsa-avatāras: just as Viṣṇu or Brahmā sends a Vyāsa from time to time to arrange the Vedas again, Śiva sends a yogācārya from time to time to bring fresh life to his direct teaching.

Link with Śiva’s Āditya Form

Chapter 8 links the yogācārya avatāras with Śiva’s teaching of his Āditya (solar) form to the devas. The Vāyuvīya Saṃhitā teaches that Śiva’s solar form (as one of the Ādityas) and his human yogācārya forms spring from the same wish: Śiva teaching his own nature to every being at its own level. Beings of the higher worlds receive the solar teaching, and human beings receive the teaching of the yogācāryas.

Sources

• Śiva Mahāpurāṇa, Vāyuvīya Saṃhitā (Book 7), Uttarakhāṇḍa, Chapters 8–9