Pashupati

Paśupati or Pashupatinatha, means "Lord of the animals". It was an epithet of Rudra in the Vedic period[1] and is one of the epithets of Shiva.[2]

The Pashupati seal, surrounded by animals; circa 2350-2000 BCE. It is preserved in National Museum, New Delhi.

The earliest claimed evidence of Pashupati comes from the Indus Valley civilization (3300 BCE to 1300 BCE), where the Pashupati seal has been said to represent a proto-Shiva figure.[3]

Pashupatinath is an avatar of Shiva, one of the Hindu Trinity. He is the male counterpart of Shakti.

The five faces of Pashupatinath represent various incarnations of Shiva; Sadyojata (also known as Barun), Vamdeva (also known as Uma Maheswara), Tatpurusha, Aghor & Ishana. They face West, North, East, South and Zenith respectively, representing Hinduism's five primary elements namely earth, water, air, light and ether.[4]

Puranas describe these faces of Shiva as:

Sadyojata, Vamdeva, Tatpurusha & Aghora are the four faces, The fifth is Ishana, unknowable even to the seers.[4]

Pashupata Shaivism is one of the oldest Shaivite sects that derives its name from Pashupati. The sect upholds Pashupati "as the supreme deity, the lord of all souls, and the cause of all existence".[7]

• Potnia Theron
• Religion of the Indus Valley Civilization

• Flood, Gavin (1996). An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43878-0.
• Flood, Gavin, ed. (2003). The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell. ISBN 1-4051-3251-5.
• Kramrisch, Stella (1981). The Presence of Śiva. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01930-4.
• Michaels, Axel (2004). Hinduism: Past and Present. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08953-1.
• Possehl, Gregory (2003). The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. AltaMira Press. ISBN 978-0-7591-0172-2.
• Śarmā, Rāmakaraṇa (1996). Śivasahasranāmāṣṭakam : eight collections of hymns containing one thousand and eight names of Śiva. Delhi: Nag Publishers. ISBN 9788170813507. OCLC 36990863. Includes Śivasahasranāmakoṣa, a dictionary of names. This work compares eight versions of the Śivasahasranāmāstotra. The preface and introduction (in English) by Ram Karan Sharma provide an analysis of how the eight versions compare with one another. The text of the eight versions is given in Sanskrit.
• Zimmer, Heinrich (1972). Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-01778-5.