The epigraphist John Faithfull Fleet contends that in North India, Kushana emperors like Huvishka (140 CE) replaced the pictures of Hercules on their coins with ones of Shiva, and of Heracles with images of Lakulisha.
A sect of Pasupata ascetics, founded by Lakulisa (or Nahulisa), is attested by inscriptions from the 5th century and is among the earliest of the sectarian religious orders of Shaivite Hinduism.
[12][6] The symbol of the ascent and transmutation of vital (sexual) energy into mental power, a channeling of the procreative into creative faculty, is artistically seen as tantric realization in Mukhalinga or "face-linga", the two overlapping components forming a visual unity, according to Stella Kramrisch.
[5] Lakulisa, who is an ascetic manifestation of Shiva, is seen in later peninsular Indian scriptures, whose ithyphallic aspects connotes asceticism and conserved procreative potentialities (Brahmacharya), rather than mere eroticism.
[16][6] M. R. Sakhare argues in The History and Philosophy of Lingayat Religion that the influence of Lakulisha was immense and spread rapidly, first in the north and then in the south of India.
The Shaivite revival, supported by the Bharashiva Nagas of Mathura and Vakataka dynasty in central and northern India, gradually spread in the south under the impetus of artisan class Shaiva mystics, the Nayanars.
[citation needed] Lakulisha Pashupata has been identified with the Bhedābheda tradition, which combines dualistic and non-dualistic monism, and his teachings had a strong emphasis on the yoga system.
This Nakulisha Pashupata doctrine is divided into six parts, known as: Karana (cause), Karya (work/task), Kala (divisibility), Vidhi (method), Yoga (union), and Dukhanta (the end of suffering).
The doctrines of the Lakulisha Pashupatas are explained at length in Sayana Madhava's Sarva Darshana Sangraha (p. 108, Cowell & Gough) Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha by Sayana-Madhava – Tr.
Lakulisha has been deified as an incarnation of Shiva, and is represented in front of the linga in the 6th to 8th centuries and also in the medieval period in temples of Kayavarohana and Timberva in Gujarat.
So the images of Lakulisha conjoint with the linga, like other image-lingas, combine both the sakala (with form, manifest) and nishkala (formless, unmanifest) aspects of Shiva.
Almost all of Lakulisha's images appear as urdhav-linga (with an erect penis)[note 1] but neither symbolizing fertility nor sexuality, but the refined energetic principles (Urdhva Retas) during Sāyaṇa or Asceticism.
A rock-cut Shiva temple with bas reliefs of Ganapati and Lakulisa, carved by the seventh century Pandyas, is located at Arittapatti near Madurai.