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The old belief was retained, but in a mysterious or sublimated form. As symbols of the male, or active element in creation, the sun, light, fire, a torch, the phallus or lingam, an erect serpent, a tall straight tree, especially the palm or fir or pine, were adapted.
There is scarcely a temple in India which has not its lingam, and in numerous instances this symbol is the only form under which the god Siva is worshipped."
The union of the Phallus and Cteis, or the Lingam and Yoni, in one compound figure, as an object of adoration, was the most usual mode of representation. This was in strict accordance with the whole system of ancient mythology, which was founded upon a worship of the prolific powers of nature.
They consist, invariably, of a "cella" containing the object of veneration, the lingam, surmounted by a high-pitched conical stone roof. In structure they show apparently signs of Greek influence in the doorways, and the triangular pediments above them.
Think of it! He lived there always, with the slow dropping of water from the dead weight of the mountain above his head, drop by drop tolling the minutes away: the little groping feet through the cave that would bring him food and drink, hurrying into the warmth and sunlight again, and his only companion the sacred Lingam which means the Creative Energy that sets the worlds dancing for joy round the sun that, and the black solitude to sit down beside him.
They are easily recognizable for all carry the lingam, which is commonly enclosed in a red scarf worn round the neck or among the richer classes in a silver-box. It is made of grey soapstone and a Lingâyat must on no account part with it for a moment. They are divided into the laity and the Jangams or priests.
"Huge heaps of assafoetida, in bags, from the mountains beyond Cabool tons of raisins of various sorts almonds, pistachio nuts, sheep with four or five horns Balkh cats, with long silken hair; of singular beauty faqueers begging, and abusing the uncharitable with the grossest and most filthy language long strings of elderly ladies, proceeding in a chant to the priests of the Lingam, to bargain for bodily issue Ghât priests presenting their books for the presents and signatures of the European visitors groups of Hindoos surrounding a Bramin, who gives each of them a certificate of his having performed the pilgrimage" such are a few of the component parts of the scene; but the colonel's attention seems to have been principally fixed upon the horses, and the tricks of the dulals or brokers, to whom the purchase is generally confided, it being almost hopeless for an European to make a personal bargain with a native dealer.
But in Hebrew, ho is the masculine pronoun, equivalent to the English he; and hi is the feminine pronoun, equivalent to she; and therefore the word HO-HI, literally translated, is equivalent to the English compound HE-SHE; that is to say, the Ineffable Name of God in Hebrew, being read cabalistically, includes within itself the male and female principle, the generative and prolific energy of creation; and here we have, again, the widely-spread symbolism of the phallus and the cteis, the lingam and the yoni, or their equivalent, the point within a circle, and another pregnant proof of the connection between Freemasonry and the ancient Mysteries.
It is rich in historical memories; rich in British achievement military, political, commercial; rich in the results of the miracles done by that brace of mighty magicians, Clive and Hastings. And has a cloud kissing monument to one Ochterlony. It is a fluted candlestick 250 feet high. This lingam is the only large monument in Calcutta, I believe.
These two great classes of conventional symbols were often represented IN CONJUNCTION with each other, and thus symbolized in the highest degree the great source of life, ever originating, ever renewed . . . . . . . . . . "A similar emblem is the lingam standing in the centre of the yoni, the adoration of which is to this day characteristic of the leading dogma of Hindu religion.
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