48 Exiulltlon of a FanchaviiihJia Lingam. [Feb. 



small platform just outside the village of Ucbah in the Augassie per- 

 gunnah of the Banda district. There was another larger specimen in 

 the same place which varied a good deal in detail, but was too heavy to 

 remove easily. They both lay comparatively unnoticed among the other 

 fragments, and it would not appear that the people of this village at- 

 tached any importance to them, though worshippers of Shiva and Parvati 

 in the personifications of the Ling and Yoni. The significance of these 

 latter emblems I have found to be fully understood by every intelligent 

 Hindu I have questioned on the subject. 



The glorious science of Anthropology marks the dawn of a new era in 

 philosophy, and no apology is I conceive needed for describing an emblem 

 worshipped in some shape or other by two-thirds of those professing the 

 Hindu rehgion. 



The only reference I have been able to find to the Panchanan ling is 

 by Lieut. F. Maisey in his account of the antiquities of Kalinjar, J. A. S. 

 Vol. XVII, pp. 177, 187, 198, PL XIII, fig. 22. No description has been 

 given and the specimen figured in Plate XIII is a purer and more conven- 

 tional form than any I have come across. 



The specimen figured by Lieut. Maisey may be described as a group of 

 five hemispherical prominences arranged in a quinquarticular shape in the 

 centre of a square : with four smaller similar groups at the four angles. 

 The slab is often thick and the surface is excavated while a small spout 

 projects on one face for the purpose of draining off water. This spout 

 may represent the fourchette of a yoni formed by the inscribed square. 



The specimen found by me is a block of mottled sandstone about 

 Q^ inches square on the surface and 3| inches thick. The side faces ^re 

 ornamented with the usual moulding which has the effect of giving it the 

 appearance of a miniature altar. Slotts in the basal angles indicate that it 

 was clamped to some larger object. The upper surface is excavated to 

 the depth of a quarter of an inch and the spout has been broken off. It 

 thus forms a bagha or yoni. This inner square is occupied by four 

 hemispherical prominences 2i inches in diameter arranged in a quartette, 

 one in each angle of the square while in the centre is a similar hemi- 

 sphere more prominent than the others and raised about half an inch 

 higher. The arrangement is thus quinquarticular. Attached to the central 

 hemisphere is a small perpendicular Priapus, which in the specimen left 

 behind had evidently a well marked glans. Between each of the hemi- 

 si^heres is a small ridged keel an inch in length. This keel, the central 

 portion of which is concealed, is in the shape of a crux ansata. 



Without any offence to delicacy I will attempt to interpret this sym- 

 bol. The central hemisphere and erect projection represent a basal view 



I 



