Elements of Hindu Iconography v2.c16.s2.3

v2.c16.s2.3

HAVING described the various forms of liṅgas, let me now proceed to a description of the Liṅgōdbhavamūrti. This is one of the common icons in Southern India, which according to the Āgamas is required to be placed in the niche in the western wall of the garbha-griha or the central shrine. Śiva is said to have appeared in the form of a blazing pillar of immeasurable size to quell the pride of Brahmā and Viṣṇu. The story, which is almost identically given in the Liṅga-purāṇa, the Kūrma-purāṇa, the Vāyu-purāṇa and the Śiva-purāṇa, runs as follows:—Viṣṇu at the end of a kalpa was slumbering on the deep abyss of waters; a great illumination occurred then near Viṣṇu and from it emerged Brahmā. Brahmā saw before him another person Viṣṇu; Brahmā approached Viṣṇu and introduced himself to Viṣṇu as the creator of the whole universe and demanded of Viṣṇu who he was; towhich Viṣṇu replied that he was also the architect of the universe. Brahmā could not brook the statement of Viṣṇu and a quarrel ensued between them both. At this juncture there appeared a *liṅga* resembling the great cosmic fire, with hundreds of tongues of flames blazing out of it. Instead of quarrelling with each other Brahmā and Viṣṇu set about to find out the top and bottom respectively of this huge mass of fire, for which purpose the former assumed the form of a swan (*haṃsa*) and flew up in the air; while the latter took the form of a boar and burrowed down into the earth. The attempt of these two gods to discover the reality and measure of this fiery pillar proved futile. They then came to realise that there certainly was something far greater than themselves; whose top or bottom they could not find out: thus humiliated they approached this pillar of fire and began to praise it. Pleased with their prayers Śiva manifested himself to them in the body of this fiery *liṅga* with a thousand arms and legs, with the sun, the moon and the fire as his three eyes, bearing the bow called the *pināka*, clad in the hide of an elephant, carrying the *triśūla*, wearing the *yajñopavīta* made of snakes and with a voice resembling the rumbling of the clouds or the noise of the drum, addressed Brahmā and Viṣṇu thus:—" You both are born from me, Brahmā having come from my