Elements of Hindu Iconography v2.c16.27

v2.c16.27

brought Purāṇapurusha into existence” and “Skambha in the beginning shed forth that gold (*hiraṇya*, out of which Hiraṇyagarbha arose) in the midst of the world” and lastly “He who knows the golden reed standing in the waters is the mysterious Prajāpati.” From the first two of the three passages quoted above, we see that one of the functions of Skambha is to beget Hiraṇyagarbha, or Purāṇapurusha, the god of reproduction. He pours forth his golden seed in begetting Prajāpati. The original of the third passage runs thus: *Yō vētasam hiraṇyayam tiṣṭhantam salilē vēda sa vai guhyah Prajāpatih*. In the *Ṛig-vēda* and the *Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa*, the word *vaitasa* has the sense of *membrum virile*. Hence the word *vētasa* in the present passage also might be understood to refer to Liṅga and the non-Aryan worshippers of the phallus might have based the identity of the Liṅga with the Skambha of the texts of the *Atharvaṇa vēda* quoted above. It is this same Skambha that has given birth to the purāṇic story of Śiva’s appearance as a blazing pillar between Brahmā and Viṣṇu when they were quarrelling about the superiority of the one over the other. At a later time a sort of philosophical clothing is given to the primitive Liṅga; by a section of scholars the Liṅga and its pedestal are viewed, with some justification, as the representation of the araṇis, the two pieces of wood which were rubbed together by the Vēdic Indian in making fire. At that period the upper stick was considered as male and the lower as female, by the co-operation of which fire was generated. If this explanation is to be taken, the object generated is the fire, which the Vēdic Indian identified with Rudra, same as Śiva of the later mythology and the objects that gave birth to Rudra cannot represent the hermaphroditic form of Rudra. Hence, it is undoubted that the Liṅga and the Yōni represent the Great Generative Principles of the Universe, Purusha and Prakṛiti. That in its earlier stages Liṅga worship was purely phallic can be established by means of a number of Sanskrit texts from various works of authority.