Acknowledgements

I am and will always remain indebted to the entire Art History and Aesthetics Department of M.S.U for their continuous support since the time I joined this family as an undergraduate student.

My sincere thanks to Dr. Deepak Kannal for being my teacher and guide in the true sense. It would not have been possible to investigate and come up with ‘weird’ sounding ideas without his helpful and encouraging nature. Many a times when I thought I had hit a dead end, he was always there motivating me and coaxing me to go further. His approval of the ideas I was proposing gave me strength to go forward and delve in areas which probably otherwise I would not have ventured into. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Mrs.Uma Kannal for her warmth and hospitality always.

Special thanks to Dr, Vijayanti Shette for her interest in my study and for devoting her time to study the cryptic passages from various Sankrit sources.

Oriental Institute, M.S.U has a wealth of information and I thank the friendly staff of the institute for their cooperation during my long reading sessions there. Especially I am grateful to Dr.Siddhartha Wakankar who right in the outset introduced me to the major studies on Pasupata philosophy and theology and introduced me to a great amateur scholar of Pasupata studies Mr.R.K. Purohit.

I feel tremendous gratitude towards Mr. R.K. Purohit who gave me a totally new insight in the philosophy of Lakulisa-Pasupata order and made me interested in their worship patterns. His extensive documentation of the Lakulisa images from Rajasthan and his forty year experience have proved beneficial for formation of my own thoughts about the system.

Back in Delhi I have been a regular visitor to the library at IGNCA and have benefited from their extensive collection. Thanks are due to Dr. Advaitvadini Kaul with whom I have discussed my work many a times and who helped me in procuring books needed for my study. My interactions with Dr. Shashi Shekhar Toshkani, who is more like a father figure to me made me, see Saivism in a holistic perspective, especially adding to my knowledge about Kashmir Saivism in particular.

I sincerely thank Dr. Krishna of Archeology and Ancient History Dept, M.S.U for asking me to write a paper on Vajrayana Buddhism and its connections to Nath Sampradaya. This enquiry into Buddhism helped me a lot in understanding some features of later Saivism.

I thank my colleague at Amity School of Fine Arts, Mr.Gautam Dutta for helping me in designing the much needed flow chart for explaining the intricacies of Lakulisa-Pasupata order and its impact.

I can’t express in words my gratitude towards Dr. Priyanka Kacker of Dept. of Psychology, M.S.U for her understanding and support. Her motivating words and care have been instrumental in the process of finalizing this study.

Family is a pillar that provides us the unconditional and everlasting support and I am grateful to God for having bestowed a wonderful family to me. I am what I am today because of my father who right from my early years inculcated a questing nature in me. Himself an extremely scholarly person he has been my ideal role model as an eternal student. The loving care of both set of parents and their blessings motivate me always. Heartfelt thanks are due to my husband, who has been more of a friend, critique and a guide and of course to a little bundle of joy, my daughter Tarini who grew up seeing her mother vanish time and again for her work yet remained most cooperative and understanding.