The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c18.18

c18.18

Here is plain evidence of the form which Siva's lingam took about the sixth or seventh century a.d. It was a Brahmâ image, which at this time took the form of an anthropomorphosised stûpa : *i.e.* the early stûpa of the Mahâyâna type (fig. 54), with a square or octagonal base and the four shrines—the symbol of the universe, or Brahmâ's temple—was converted into the four-headed image of Brahmâ, in which the dome of the stûpa remained as the top of his *mukuta* or tiara (fig. 55). When the Muhammadan iconoclasts came, the Brahmâ symbol reverted to its ancient aniconic form, and, the original symbolism having been forgotten in the decadence of Hinduism which set in after the Muhammadan conquest, the phallic ideas now popularly connected with it were read into it by the low-caste guardians of Siva temples.