Shiva Lingam

Shiva Lingam Stones - Madhya Pradesh

Finely polished Shiva lingam stones from Madhya Pradesh, India.

These stones show rich, earthy colour and distinctive markings, which vary from piece to piece.

Their smooth, elongated shape makes them exceptionally tactile.

A Shiva lingam is an object used in Hindu worship to represent the god Shiva.

Devotees pray and make offerings before it, including pouring water or milk over its surface. The word ‘linga’ means a sign or mark.

Lingams commonly take the form of an upright pillar with a rounded top. Their phallic form is associated with creation and fertility, although interpretations vary: some understand the lingam as Shiva’s penis, while others regard it as an abstract representation of the god.

The oval stones associated with India’s Narmada River are a particular form of lingam, known as Narmada lingams or banalinga. Naturally rounded river stones are recognised as representations of Shiva. Artisans also shape and polish stones into symmetrical oval shapes.

An account in the Imperial Gazetteer of India published in 1908 offers a glimpse into how the stones were collected. It describes a stretch of the Narmada where the river had worn potholes into sandstone. Pebbles accumulated within these hollows and became polished through contact with each other and the surrounding rock.

Once the water had subsided, pilgrims collected the stones, using larger pieces as lingams.

The Gazetteer names several materials, including jasper, agate, diorite and sandstone. This shows that the tradition used different rock types, rather than one particular mineral.

Bakawan, a village in Madhya Pradesh, is one area where artisans produce lingams from stone collected from the Narmada.

Shiva lingam stones are frequently described as cryptocrystalline quartz. However, I have not found a published geological analysis that confirms what material is used to produce these stones.