The ancient and medieval architecture of India: a study of Indo-Aryan civilisation

io6

SIVA'S

LINGAM

shrine, built in three

stories; the

other a

cyHndrical

shrine

built in one

storey. One

was

crowned by

a Brahmanical

symbol which

was also

Buddhist;

the other by

a Buddhist

symbol which

wasalso Brahmanical.

Thereis no

need todemonstrate

the fact

that the

sculp-

tured Mahiyina

chaitya ofAjanti

wasa

developmentof the

Hinayana chaitya of

Karld (PI. XIX);

it must

therefore

be

obvious

that the Siva,

or so-called

Dravidian temple,

is

also

derived from the chaitya

or sttapa. Its

prototype was the

cubicaltombwithadomed

roofshown in the

Nineveh,sculp-

ture

(fig.

40)

;

the chaitya

of Hinayana

Buddhism was

a

variety ofthis prototype

-with a circular (lotus) plan.instead

ofasquare

one.

Thisderivation throws'new

light both upon the history

of the Saivacult and upon the oagin of

the phallie symbol,

the lingam, which now.belongs to it. *Siva,

as the Lordof

Death and Immortality, was always

assec^ted

'

with the

cremationorburialground, and haturallyone of his symbols

wouldbe the st^pa, which became a cenotaph in India, but

wasatombin itsearlierderivations. In his Brahma aspect,

asthe Lordof Life, Sivahad anothersymbol, the bull, which

iscarvedbesideArjtina'sRathatMamallapuram(PI.XXVIII).

AmongtheAryancommunity,whose wealthconsisted largely

of cattle, the bull had'been the sy^mbol'of procreation from

prehistorictimes. It

wasalsothe sacrificial aninpal,andthere-

fore

connoted in

itssymbolism the ideas not onlyof.life and

death, but of the bliss

of immortality! which Vedic India

hopedtoattain bymeans

ofsacrifices-.

'

Now, there was

an early phallicworship,

common tothe

whole primitiveworld,
butexceptforone or two
casual allu-

sionstoitin the

Upanishads, theAryan phi|osophy

of India

was in no way
identified with it. Oriental
scholars, like

'

Siva'sbulliscalledJVandi—

bliss.