There can be no doubt but that the god Baal, whose votaries the Hebrews frequently became, is identical with the lingam, and the god styled Chinn in Amos v. is Siva, whose name the races dwelling in Hindustan and along the valley of the Indus pronounce Seb, Seo, Sivin, and Chivin. Yet there is nothing to fix the date at which the worship of Siva was brought to India, nor by whom brought ; but the wars between the Buddhists and the lingo worshippers of the Dekhan extended up to the 11th century of the Christian era, and formed a series of important events in Hindu history.
The worship of Vishnu seems to have come from Tartary, and that of Siva about the begin ning of the Christian era, from the basin of the Lower Indus through Rajputana, and to have displaced the nature-worship of the Vedas. But which race brought the lingam-worship is not known. At Ujjain it was particularly celebrated about the period of the Muhammadan invasion, but probably long before, and one particular linga was named Vinda-swerna, from Vindu, drop, Swerna, gold. At present there is a four-faced lingam, sometimes three-faced or tri-murti ; and tri-lingam is raid to be the source of the name Telinga and Telingana, the country extending from north of Madras to Ganjam, and west to Bcllary and &der. The four-faced lingam is called the Choumurti Mahadeva, such as may be seen in the caves of Ellora, and of common occurrence in other districts; and a famous shrine of ek-linga or the one lingam is situated in a defile about six miles north of Udaipur, and has hills towering around it on all sides.
This ek-lingam, or one phallus, is a single cylindrical or conical stone ; but there are others, termed Seheslinga and Kot-Iswant,with a thousand or a million of phallic representatives, all minutely carved on the monolithic emblem, having then much resemblance to the symbol of Bacchus, whose orgies both in Egypt and Greece are the counterpart of those of the Hindu I3agh-es, so called from being clad in a tiger or leopard's hide, as Bacchus had that of the panther for his cover ing. There is a very ancient temple to Kot-Iswara at the embouchure of the eastern arm of the Indus ; and there are many to Seheslinga in the peninsula of Saurashtra. At the ancient Dholpur, now called Barolli, the shrine is dedicated to Gut-Iswara 3fahadeva, with a revolving in the yoni, the wonder of those Who venture amongst its almost impervious and unfrequented woods to worship. Very few Salve followers of the south of India over realize the lingam and the yoni as representations of the organs of the body, and when made to apprehend the fact they feel overpowered with shame that they should be worshipping such symbols.