Part 48 - References of Linga worship in Literature

The worship of Siva is closely associated with the linga. 1285 The earliest reference to the linga is to be found in the Rig-Veda, where the context shows that it refers to a kind of worship prevalent not among the Aryans, but among their enemies, whom one authority identifies with the Dasyus. 1236 The worship of the linga, it has been suggested, has been taken to correspond to the worship of the phallus, the emblem of the generative power in nature, especially in certain religious or solemn usages. Literally the term linga means nothing more than a symbol, mark or sign. Secondarily, it has come to signify Siva worshipped in the form of a phallus. In one passage of the Rig-Veda, Indra is requested not to allow those whose god is Sisna to disturb the rites of the singers; 1237 while in another, he is spoken of as having acquired the riches of a city after having killed those whose god is Sisna.1288 Sir Ramakrishna Bhandarkar thinks that as we find phallic worshippers being denounced by the Aryans in these passages, Aryans must be taken to have been averse to such worship. He suggests that there is "no trace of this characteristic (i.e., the worship of the linga or phallus) in the earlier literature, so far as we have examined it", thereby meaning in the Rig-Veda. He also points out that this kind of worship should have been "borrowed" by the Aryans "from the 1234 Bhagavad-gita, X. 23. 1235 Siva has been identified with Avestic Saurva, see ZendAvesta, Sacred Books of the East , 4, lii; Pahlavi Texts, Sacred Books of the East , 5, 104. 1236 A. A. Macdonell, Sanskrit Literature, 153. 1237 Rig-Veda, VII. 21. 5. 1238 Bhandarkar does not quote the exact reference to the Rig-Veda for this statement. Professor A. A. Macdonell likewise refers to two passages in the Rig-Veda, but does not set down the exact references. See Sanskrit Literature, 153.

" " barbarian tribes with whom the Aryans came in contact In his view, the learned classes did not adopt it "all at once" but only gradually." 1230 Much weight must naturally attach to this authoritative suggestion, especially as we find that Patanjali does not mention any emblem of Siva as being worshipped in his time but only an image (pratikriti).124 But apart from Siva worship being identified in Rig-Vedic times with that of the linga or the generative principle in nature, there are at least three passages in the Rig-Veda which seem to refer to the possible identification of the male generative organ with the deity. Thus, in one passage, Vishnu is referred to in this manner: 'I offer, Vishnu, the oblation placed before thee with the exclamation 'Vashat '; be pleased Shipivishta, with my offering," etc.; 1241 then in another, we have the following hymn addressed to Vishnu : "What is to be proclaimed, Vishnu, of thee, when thou sayest, 'I am Shipivishta?' Conceal not from us thy real form, although thou hast engaged under a different form in battle."1212 In a third, the first of these hymns is thus repeated: "I offer, Vishnu, the oblation placed before thee with the exclamation, 'Vashat'; be pleased, Shipivishta, The allusion in the second of with my offering, " etc. 1243 these texts, is to an incident in which Vishnu is said to have aided Vasishtha in battle, under an assumed name, and, when questioned, to have said, "I am Shipivishta, -a word of ambiguous meaning. In the three contexts in which it occurs, it has been explained as 'penetrated, or clothed with rays of light, Rashmibhiravishta, the radiant, the splendid." In common use, however, it means a man naturally without prepuce, in which sense it may be here 1240 ae " 1939 Vaishnavism, Saivism and Minor Religious Systems, 114-115. Mahabhashya, on Panini V. 3. 99. Patanjali probably lived in the second half of the 2 nd century B.C., and in any case not later than the beginning of the Christian era. 1241 Rig-Veda, VII. 6. 10 (7). Ibid., VII. 6. 11 (6). 1243 Ibid., VII. 6. 11 (7).

interpreted as implying comparison; in like manner as a man is so denuded, so is Vishnu, according to his own declaration, uncovered by radiance-Tejasa anachchhaditat. But this seems, as Wilson remarks, 1244 a refinement and it is probably to be understood as usual. The Sabdakalpadruma makes sepha mean purusha sisna, the male generative organ. 1245 Modern opinion tends to the view that the worship of the linga is fore-shadowed by Vishnu Shipivishta, the Vedic deity Vishnu conceived as Shipivishta. 1248 Whether the evidence warrants our going so far as to affirm this as a fact may be doubted to some extent; but there can be no question that the idea of the worship of the generative principle in nature was not entirely absent in Vedic belief. There is ground for the belief, in fact, that the identification of a deity with such worship is also to be seen. But the manner in which it came to be fixed on Siva and how the linga came to be identified with Siva, and how Vishnu, the Vedic deity, came to be dissociated from it, are problems still awaiting consideration. Linga Worship in the Yajur-Veda and the Mahabharata. But since we do not see linga worship except in its incipient stages in the Rig-Veda and find it in an advanced state in the Sukla Yajur-Veda, where it is part 1244 Wilson, Rig-Veda, on VII. 6. 11 (6) and VII. 6. 11 (7). 1245 Rajaradhakantadev: Sabdakalpadruma ; Sepha; purusha sisna (male generative organ). See Mahabharata, X. 7. 38: Vikata kala lamboshta bruhaschchepanda pindakah Sepha sete retah patuna nantaram iti >> Sisnah | Sukrapate sepha sethe patati iti sephah; See also Taittiriya Brahmana, 3. 33. Idam praja pate retah sikta maghavat tatsarobhavatte deva abruvan medam prajapate retodushaditi yadubruvan medam prajapate retodushaditi, etc. 1246 See Sir John Woodroffe, Shakti and Shakta (Third Edition, 1929), note to Chapter IV, by Brij Lal Mukherji, 104.

of the Soma sacrifice, 1247 it might, perhaps, be inferred that Siva worship and the identification of such worship with the linga had become general by then. 1248 In the Mahabharata, we find the worship of the linga referred to in many passages. This shows that the linga had, by the time of the Epic period, come to be recognized as the emblem of Siva. Upamanyu's discourse with Krishna shows that this identification of Siva with the linga is complete. Upamanyu says that Siva and Uma are the real creators of animals, as these bear the marks of the two, and not the discus or the conch-shell or marks of any other god. 1249 This episode, in the opinion of Bhandarkar, fixes the adoption, in its final stage, of the linga as an object of worship by the higher classes.

1247 The worship of the linga is held to be recognized in the Pravargya. See Satapata Brahmana, Sacred Books of the East , Vol. 44. xlvii. 1248 The date of the Mohenjo Daro remains in Sindh, in which the worship of Siva and the linga appears in their full-blown forms, should, from the point of view of the evidence afforded by them, be fixed in a period posterior to the Rig-Veda, in which Siva (another form of Rudra) worship and linga worship are still in their early stages. The remains may be said to be post-Rig-Vedic and probably also postYajur-Vedic. The Yajur Veda introduces us not only to a new geo. graphical era but also to a new epoch of religious and social life in India. 1240 Mahabharata, Anusasanaparva (Chapter XIV).