Tripura and the Pashupata Vow in the Linga Purana
त्रिपुरदाह
Why the gods agreed to be called pashus
The Linga Purana tells the burning of the three cities in chapters 71 to 73, and adds something the other tellings do not stress: before he would act, Shiva asked the gods to accept the status of pashu, a bound soul, with himself as Pashupati. The text offers this as the origin of the Pashupata vow. This page follows the chapters in order.
Three cities and a condition
After Skanda kills the asura Taraka, Taraka's three sons Vidyunmali, Tarakaksha and Kamalaksha practise severe austerity. Brahma will not grant them deathlessness, so they ask instead for three cities that join into one only once in a thousand years, and for death only by a single arrow that strikes them while joined. The builder Maya makes the cities, one of gold in heaven, one of silver in the sky and one of iron on earth. The text stresses that the asuras there are devoted to Shiva, keep fire rites and study the Veda, and that their strength comes from this devotion. They begin to oppress the gods.
Vishnu's illusion
Vishnu reasons that people who follow their dharma and worship Shiva cannot simply be killed. The text says goblins sent against them by a sacrifice were burned up like moths. So Vishnu produces a person from his own body and teaches him a false teaching that rejects the Vedas, with the sage Narada joining him, and the people of the cities give up their rites and their devotion. The Purana presents this as its own explanation of how the cities became vulnerable. A translator's note connects it to the Mayamoha story found in several other Puranas. This page reports it as the text's account and takes no side about the groups the text describes as misled.
A delay that is not a delay
Vishnu repeats the Rudra mantra ten million times in the water, and the gods praise Shiva. Shiva answers kindly, but just then Uma points out their small son Skanda, richly dressed, and Shiva is so absorbed in watching him that he forgets the waiting gods. He asks the child to dance, and for a moment the whole universe dances with him. Then Shiva goes inside with Uma and Skanda, and the gods are left at the door, worried and arguing among themselves about what it means. The gatekeeper Kumbhodara drives them off with his staff, until Nandi arrives on his white bull and the gods praise him as though he were a second lord.
The chariot of the universe
In chapter 72 the gods build a chariot for Shiva out of the cosmos itself. The sun and moon are its wheels, the sky its roof, Mount Meru its base, the four Vedas its horses, and the oceans its covers. Brahma is the charioteer and the syllable Om the whip. Himalaya is the bow, the serpent Vasuki its string, Vishnu the arrow, and the fire of the world's end its point. The text has the Vedic horses stumble when Shiva steps up, Vishnu in the form of a bull strain and drop to his knees, and Brahma steady it at Shiva's word.
The lordship of the pashus
Before leaving, Shiva sets a condition: the gods must give him the lordship of the pashus. The asuras, he says, can be killed only if the gods accept the status of pashu, a bound soul, as distinct from him. They grow uneasy. He answers that anyone who keeps the Pashupata vow, whether for twelve years, half of that, or even three, is freed from that state, and that sin does not stain a person who keeps it. The gods agree. The text concludes that gods, asuras and humans are all pashus and that Rudra is Pashupati, their lord and the one who frees them. The translators say this legend is the basis for the Pashupata sect, whose aim is release of the individual soul from rebirth.
Ganesha, the procession and the burning
Ganesha then blocks the gods, because nobody has honoured him first. They worship him with sweets and food and ask that there be no obstacles, and Shiva kisses his son on the head before setting out. The procession is long: Nandi in front on a mountain-sized chariot, Vishnu on Garuda at Shiva's left and Indra on his elephant at his right, the guardians of the directions, Virabhadra with beings born of his hair, Mahakala, Skanda and Kali, Durga on her lion and the Mothers, with Parvati beside Shiva. Brahma, Vishnu and Indra remark that he could burn the cities with a thought, so the display must be play. Shiva draws the bow with the Pashupata missile and the three cities merge into one. He lingers in play until Brahma reminds him that the right moment is passing, then glances at the cities and they turn to ash. The gods in the arrow ask him to loose it too, so he draws it to his ear, laughing, and fires. It burns the cities and returns to him.
Brahma's hymn and the boons
The daityas who had stayed devoted to Rudra to the end become chiefs among his ganas. Brahma praises Shiva as five-faced, as the three letters of Om, as the eight forms, and as the yogi who is also beyond yoga. He admits that all the care spent on the chariot was unnecessary, since Shiva is himself the chariot, the charioteer, the bow and the arrow. Shiva offers a boon. Brahma asks for the deepest devotion and to stay his charioteer. Vishnu asks to be his vehicle, with devotion, strength and knowledge. Shiva grants these, then vanishes with the goddess, the ganas and Nandi.
The Pashupata vow, as Brahma states it
In chapter 73 Brahma explains why the daityas fell: they left Shiva, while the gods stand firm only as long as they worship him in the linga. He then outlines the vow. The practitioner cleanses the five elements with five repetitions of Om together with breath-control, then the same with four, three and two, fills the limbs with knowledge, and purifies the three qualities, the ego and the subtle elements. He says that fire is ash, air is ash, water, sky and earth are ash, and smears ash on his body at the three twilights, for life. The text says this makes him a yogi who knows the principles of reality and frees him from bondage. This page reports the practice as described. It is a text's account, not instructions.
Read the source chapters
Source note
Retold in our own words from the English translation of the Linga Purana by a board of scholars led by J.L. Shastri (Motilal Banarsidass), chapters 71 to 73, checked against page images of the printed book. It is condensed and does not reproduce the translation. The long processions, hymns and lists of attendants are shortened, and the end of chapter 73 is left for another page. The Sanskrit was not consulted.