SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

126 THE SVETASVATAftA UPANISHAT.
petrified in the Godless school of Mimamsa was really broken ;
and it was here that the Agamas stepped in and used the same
old Mantras again but with a new force and significance, deleting
whatever was unmeaning, and preserving only what was use
ful. It substituted also new symbols though preserving the
old names. And from this time, therefore, Modern Hinduism
and Hindu system of worship may be said to have com
menced. But for these beginnings, we have to go far behind
the days of the Mahabharata and the Puranas, for the Agarha
doctrines and rituals are fully bound up with these.
A clear advance in the use of symbols was also made, at the
same time effectually preserving the distinction between symbols
and truth, by the use of proper words. The Sabdha Brahman or
the Pranava was only a symbol and not the truth, as fancied by
the Mlmamsakas, and it was called a mark or Linga. And the
figured mark of the Pranava, (Linga is merely
the Pranava as
figured to the eye) the Linga, became the universal symbol
of God and object of worship, as the Pranava in mantra or
sound form was before. In the new system of worship, the
Temples
that were built were more on the models of the old
yajna-sala and the
; yupa stambha (Dhvaja-stambha) and
Balipitha, Pasu (Basava or Nandi) and the Gods in their
various places were also retained ;
and a Brahmotsava sup
planted virtually the old sacrifice.* In the field of philosophy,
into a whole what
it did as much to systematise and build up
* In commencing and going through a Brahmotsava, the priests
observe technically
almost the same rituals as in commencing and going
through a great sacrifice. There is a Yajna Sala in every Saiva Temple
in which the Fire is started by the Dikshita and the Dhvaja Arohana is
made by running up a flag with the
figure of a bull (Pasu or Basava) on
the Yupastambha and tying Kusa grass to the Post. The Pasu and the
Kusa grass standing merely for the soul or jiva that was bound and
offered in sacrifice. After Avarohana, the soul or Pasu becomes freed
and is no more called Pasu, but is called God or Naridi the blissful. It
will require more space for us to draw out here the parallel
Yajiia Sala and a Hindii Temple.
between the