Changing Forms of Sivalinga through history.

The following are the photographs of various sculptures of Sivalinga that date from Kushana (1st century B.C.E) and Gupta period (5th century C.E).  In those days, it was customary to sculpt a face of a deity, including that of Siva, on the linga.  However, these days, the sivalinga is made without any deity face on it.  This is a major change in the design of the sivalinga over time.  A sculpture of Sivalinga shown below is 5 faced i.e., it has been made as a group of 5 lingas, with a deity face on the lingas (1 lingam in the centre and 4 lingas around it; Gupta period).  It is made from mottled red sand stone (typical stone used in the Mathura School of Art sculptures).  It is housed in the State Museum at Mathura (India).  Such deity faced lingam's remind one of oval shaped Buddhist stupas which by Mahayana period (around Gupta period i.e., 4th century C.E) started appearing with the image of Gautama Buddha on them, as in Ajanta caves.  As per ancient Indian mindset, meditation involves focussing on 'shoonyata' (nothingness) and in that regard, oval sort of shape of the lingam and the stupa is helpful. The oval shape of lingam and stupa was originally meant to be an icon/symbol of deity and buddha respectively. Over time, actual images of deities and that of buddha were sculpted on the lingam and stupa respectively. During the life time of Buddha, he forbade his image worship or for that matter did not permit his image to be drawn. This continued all through the Hinayana phase but by the time Mahayana phase of Buddhism ushered in full force, buddha images were quite popular.


The one faced Sivalingam is from the Kushana period, now housed in the State Museum of Mathura.

Mathura Museum Artifacts.

The above photo is of a Boddhisatva sculpture from 2nd century A.D.  The slipper design in India has not changed since then! 

The following photo shows Kushana King ,Wima, seated on a throne.  A script appears on the floor of the sculpture which identifies him as the Kushana King.  The sculpture is housed in the State Museum at Mathura, India.