Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/92



Siva is the third member of the Hindu Triad and in Southern India is more widely worshipped than Vishnu. Hundreds of Siva temples of historic fame are found in Southern India, round which are centred traditions of Saiva saints whose period may be assigned roughly to the seventh century A.D. One noticeable peculiarity of these ancient Siva temples is that they enshrine within them images of Vishnu as also of various other gods of the Hindu Pantheon, whereas Vishnu temples are exclusive in this respect. Exception must, however, be made in the case of some very old Vishnu temples sung in the hymns of the Nālāyiraprabandham which are as ancient as the corresponding Saiva scriptures collectively called Dēvāram. Here we find Siva and Vishnu often mentioned together as located in the same temple and, in a higher philosophical sense, as forming different aspects of one and the same Divine Energy.

Siva is generally worshipped in the form of the phallus (linga) fixed on a pedestal. The phallic cult has been traced to very ancient times, its origin, however, being still involved in mystery. The worship of the creative energy of God, interpreted by the sense-perception of man and represented by the symbols yōni and linga in union, has apparently been as old as man himself. Whatever may be the origin of linga-worship, there is no doubt that it has come to be recognized like the Vaishnavite Sāligrāma described above, a perfect symbol of the formless, all-pervading Divine Being, unlimited by time and space. The Skānda-Purāna says:—"The sky is the shaft and the earth its pedestal; all gods dwell in the linga;