The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c11.73.3

v1.c11.73.3

In an old catalogue of Pagan antiquities, he occurs in the form of a *Liṅgam*, and is described as a “Rot”, and some Pagan families, before the introduction of Christianity in Norway, are said to have “worshipped the *Liṅgam* of a horse preserved in a glass case”, (*ante* p. [66]). Here the union of Rudra with Priapus is intimate, and other instances could be easily multiplied, were the subject not so repulsive, to show that it was so united from long before the commencement of the Christian era. That the Vedas originally abhorred the phallic idea is evident, and that it was engrafted on the Vedic cult in later times is also undeniable; but there is wanting that mass of irrefragable evidence which can prove unquestionably that the worship of the *Liṅgam* was taken from the aborigines of India. The Semites of the West and the Turanians of the North cherished the dogma very extensively, and much may be said in favour of the loan having proceeded from them and not from the original inhabitants of India. It may be even questioned whether or not it was evolved by the dreamy mystic sages of India in the course of their own cogitations.