Object Number: VRM3175

Dimensions: 66.9 cm height

Material: Basalt

Find Location: Goalkandi, Bagmara Upazila, Bangladesh

Date: 10th Century CE

Many of the stone sculptures within the Varendra Research Museum are intricately carved and contain numerous detailed motifs and symbols, which allow the observer to identify the deity represented. Shiva is one of the principal deities of Brahmanical tradition and is presented in many forms. He is often depicted holding a trident and, like other major deities, is often standing on a lotus plinth surrounded by attending figures. However, Shiva is also represented in a non-corporeal, yet easily recognisable, form - a lingam.

Lingams provide an abstract representation of Shiva and usually take the form of a cylindrical and smoothed pillar, which have been identified as phallic symbols. Lingams are often placed within a pedestal, known as a yoni or gauri-patta, the symbolic representation of shakti, or cosmic feminine power, as well as female reproductive organs. Placed together, the lingam and yoni represent reproduction, birth and creation. Often, lingams and yonis are separate objects but this example is carved from a single piece of black basalt.

It is worth remembering that objects such as this lingam would have been the focus of multiple intangible traditions. Religious practitioners and devotees often paint impermanent symbols onto lingams including the tripundra, three horizontal lines and a central dot, representing the three attributes of the power of Shiva, like the three tangs of his trident. Offerings placed on or poured over the lingam, would have been channelled over the carved spout.