A small collection of plates to illustrate Sellon's
Annotations
on the Sacred Writings of the Hindus
Contents of Plates:
Standard representation of the bisexual aspect of Shiva
as Adhanari.
Woodcut, 19th century.
A fine example of a lingam with the face of Shiva.
Stone
carving, 19th century, Bengal.
A modern example of lingam puja:
A priest
offers flowers to an Argha.
Bodha Nilakantha, Mandu.
Another example of modern lingam puja:
Pilgrims venerate a Shiva lingam at the temple of Mahakala at Uijain.
Madhya-Pradesh.
One more example of modern lingam puja:
A pilgrim
has come to the natural cave at Armakantak
to pay his respects to a Shiva
lingam.
Madhya-Pradesh.
A Shiva lingam shaded by the seven-headed Naga-serpent,
in the temple of the Nayak chiefs at Lepaskshi.
Anantapur District, Andhra
Pradesh State.
A fine example of yoni puja:
A male and female
pray and offer their thanks to the Goddess,
here represented by the stylised
vulva.
From the Sixty-Four-Yogini temple at Bheragat.
Madhya Pradesh, 12th
century.
The Divine Goddess as an altar with her vulva
prominent.
This design is clearly for ritual worship; you can see where the
libations
of the sacred oils will collect and run out at the junction of the
vulva and rim.
Stone carving, Alampur Museum, Hyberbad State, 8th
century.
Tantric painting of a Yogini with sun and moon on
her forehead,
perhaps indicative of the unification of the male and female
principles;
two small lingams are complemented by two small vulvas in her hands.
Her larger vulva is complemented by the upright lingam
encircled by the coiled
snake of kundalini symbolism,
which in turn is balanced by the feminine lunar
crescent.
Gouache on paper, Rajasthan, 19th century.
Another fine example of the Goddess is depicted:
Here she squats with her vulva prominent during a menstrual ritual,
the
menstrual blood, as rajas, is flowing out,
probably as iconic of an
actual part of the celebration.
It is known that this specifically female form
of energy
was worshipped by certain Tantric sects and imbibed.
Wood carving,
province unknown, 9th century.
A cowrie shell,
the natural type of the vulva,
and symbolic of the Yoni.
Found object, Madras.
An example of Maithuna:
The couple are depicted
in a state of ecstatic union,
representative of the marriage of Shiva and
Shakti.
Stone carving from a temple at Khajuraho,
11th century.