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

SIVA'S

LINGAM

107

H. H.

Wilson

and

Monier

Williams,

have been

puzzled

to

accountfor

the

Saivaites

usinga

symbol

associatedwith

the

licentious

orgiesof

Western

paganism

;

for

notonly,as

Monier

Williams

'observed,

isthe

relation

between

the sexes

in India

regarded asa

sacred

mystery and

never held

tobe

suggestive

ofindecent

ideas, but

Saivism is

oneof

themost

austerecults

of all

Indiaand

preaches asceticism

asa

religion. I

believe

the explanation

is this

: the original

symbols of

Saivism in

ancient India

were the

bull and the

sttlpa—life,

death and

sacrifice.

But the ideas

connected

with symbols

arealways

interchanging,

especially

in the

case of thosewhich,

like the

bullandthe stdpa,

represent

pairs of

opposites. The oldest

Saivaite

lingams yetdiscovered

'

(apartfrom

the sttipa itself)

have no phallic

suggestions of any

kind. They consist

of

four carvedheads,

arranged crossways

onashort pillarwhich

isfixed

in the centre of a square

lustration salver, and

evi-

dently,correspond to the

Mahayanist Brahma,

symbol of a

sttipa with four

slirines facing the four cardinal

points

(fig.

54).

This

was the first step,in the transference

of the

Brahma,

orprocreative, attributes of the bull

to theSaivaor

tamasic attributes of,fhe sttipa

—

or rather,

their combination

in one and tiie same symbol. When

it is considered that

the

low-caste priestswho attend Saiva temples are generally

illiterate,and on that account held in great

contempt bythe

learned Brahman pandits who expound

the philosophy of

the

Saiva'cult, it is easy to understand how vulgar phallic

notions became.associated with the symbol. The influx of

Scythian tribes into"India probably tended towards the cor-

ruption ofthe popjildr aspects of Hinduism; but it was not

until Muhammadan times, and as a concession to the hatred

^

The IndianMuseutp,Calcutta,hasmanyexamplesofthem;they are probably

contemporary
with

therise

ofMah%4naBuddhismabout

thefirstcenturyoftheChristian

era,
whentheaniconicsymbolsofVedicIndiabegantobeanthropomorphosised.