Source: here.
“tato devA rudraM nApashyaMs te devA rudraM dhyAyanti tato devA
UrdhvabAhavaH stunvanti
brahmaikaM tvaM dvi-tridh-ordhvam adhash cha tvaM shAntish cha tvaM
puShTish cha tvaM tuShTish cha tvaM hutam ahutaM vishvam avishvaM dattam
adattaM kR^itaM akR^itaM paraM aparaM parAyaNaM cheti “
The circumstances and the details of the migration of my ancestors from
the southern country to the northern zone, where they stayed for almost
4-5 centuries is poorly known. But inscriptional records and tantric
ogha-valli-s record one member of my clan from the period just after the
initial migration. While not much is known of others, this member of my
clan, nephew to my direct male ancestor, attained considerable fame in a
particular sense. The vaidiki “smArta-s” were always the source of
intellectual capital for diverse sectarian matas through their
defections to those paths. We have jayarAshI, the brahmin exponent of
the chArvAka-mata, others like vAsubandhu of the AghamarShaNa kaushika
gotra from puShpapura (now Peshawar in the Moslem Terrorist State)
benefitted the bauddha mata, and rAmAnuja expanded shrI-vaiShNavism.
This clansman of mine, varmashiva, was likewise a case of brain-drain,
but into the shaiva-mata. While I generally tend to identify myself with
saMkarShaNa in jayanta’s play, Agama-Dambara, I still have my sympathies
for varmashiva for certain reasons. Inscriptions records associated with
the vodAmayUtA temple of rudra clearly mention his pravara as being:
pravara pa~NchakAnvito vatsa-bhArgava sugotra-maNDitaH| bhArgava-
chyAvanaka- ApnavAnakair- AurvvanAma-jamadagnibhir yutaH ||
His father, my ancestor’s brother was vasAvaNa hailing from the village
of siMhapallI. Born in the north in the region of pa~ncha-gauDa he was
in Gujarat in very turbulent times after the Ghaznavid storm. He learnt
the atharva-veda at aNahilapATaka, the great pAshupata center. He also
studied the vaisheShika and nyAya of which he remained a great advocate
till the end and wrote a treatise building on the
padArtha-dharma-saMgraha. He performed the pAshupata vrata as per the
atharvaNa AdeshaH and became inclined towards the shaiva mata. He then
proceeded to the drAviDa desha in dakShiNa patha where he encountered
bauddhas and is said to have blasted them in fiery polemics. It was
there that he completed the study of various shaiva tantras of the
bhairava, bhUta, garuDa, vAma and siddhAnta srotas and became firmly
established in the siddhAnta stream. varmashiva became a great proponent
of the siddhAnta tantras, developing a school parallel to that of king
bhoja-deva of the paramAra-s, with a nyAya-vaisheiShika orientation. He
then journeyed to Kashmir, where debated with towering scholars of the
lAkulIsha kAlAmukha, trika and shrIvidyA schools and his scholarly and
independent philosophical abilties was much respected by his rivals. He
was honored by AnandarAja the lohara king of Kashmir. He also was widely
respected for his tAntric abilities in the KShudra vidyA-s acquiring the
yakShiNi, chUrNa, chetaka, DAmarikA and DAvI prayoga-s (latter for
invoking terrifying agents that can cause a variety of rogas in course
of uchChATana prayoga-s). varma then settled in the temple of
vodAmayUtA, where he was appointed as the head of a shaiva maTha. There
he acted in un-orthodox ways. He took as his primary student, a
brilliant shUdra named mUrtigaNa. mUrtigaNa was initiated into all the
tantric rahasya-s by varmashiva and became a great tantric himself. He
was made the preceptor of the Rathod king shUrapAla, despite being
shUdra on account of his learning. He succeeded varMashiva as the lord
of the maTha. At that time a nambUthiri from the chera country,
ishAnashiva, journeyed to vodamayUtA and impressed by mUrtigaNa became
his student. He then succeeded mUrtigaNa and became an illustrious
shaiva tantric himself.