KARKOTA STYLE YANTRIC SHIVA-LINGA

                                       

               

Karkota Style Yantric Shiv Linga 

( Above two  photographs by Robin Koul )

My Thanks to Robin Koul who went to Narannag Temple Ruins in the Ganderbal Valley in Kashmir and photographed this rare  Yantric Style Shiv Linga  . Since he has sought details of this geometric  stone sculpture, I thought it better to  say what I know about it .

Karkota Style Yantric Shiva- Linga 

This is the famous  Karkota style Yantric Shiva Linga  of the Naranag Temple ruins in Ganderbal, Kashmir;  unfortunately, lying in a state of   absolute  neglect.

The Naranag group of temples were built in the 8th century and  dedicated to Lord Shiva and were once a great centre  of Kashmir Shaivism. What has been photographed by Robin Koul  is not just a Shiva Linga, it is a Linga installed on a Yantra. In the centre is the Shiva Linga standing inside a circular Yoni. This represents Shiva and Shakti together. Around it you can see a square border. In Yantra Shastra this square is called Bhupura. Inside the square there are four triangles that intersect each other and form an eight-pointed star. This is called an Ashta-dala or eight-petalled lotus Yantra.

Many people call it Sri Yantra, which is  correct only in a popular sense. The real Sri Yantra has nine interlocking triangles and 43 smaller triangles. This stone is a simpler and older version of the same idea. The principle is the same - showing the union of male and female energy.The bindu is Shiva, the triangles and yoni are Shakti, the square is earth. It is a Manusha Linga made by Shilpa rules and consecrated by prana prathistha.

The small channel we see on one side is called Pranala. It was used to drain the water and milk poured on the Linga during Puja. The fact that can still holds water today shows how precisely it was carved more than 1200 years ago. Unlike a Swayambhu Linga that is self originated or a Bana Linga that is found naturally in some rivers ( the Narmada river in partic) , a Yantric Linga is made by human hands according to very precise rules of proportion laid down in the Shilpa Shastra. It has to have the correct division of Brahma-bhaga, Vishnu -bhaga and Shiva-bhaga and it only becomes worthy of worship after Prana Prathistha or ritual consecration.

                                             

          ( A Yantric Shiv Linga of later period from a temple in Karnataka)

I saw similar Yantric Shiv Lingas in Bali( Indonesia) , especially at Gaja Guha near Ubud. Inside the cave behind the demon mouth sits a Tri Linga with yoni wrapped in white red black cloth for Shiva Brahma Vishnu. It mirrors this Yantra slab, showing Shiva as Bindu within Shakti.

So in short, it is a decorated Yoni-peetha, a tantric base for Shiva worship, which is the ancestor of the Sri Yantra we know today.

                                             

                 ( A Yantric Shiv Linga in Kolhapur Museum)

The group of temples at Naranag in Ganderbal valley on the bank of the Wangath stream was first founded in antiquity and tradition attributes the earliest shrine to Jaluka son of Ashoka but the stone temples that survive today in grey granite were built in the eighth century by Lalitaditya Muktapida the most powerful ruler of the Karkota dynasty of Kashmir with later endowments by Avantivarman and the site was dedicated to Shiva as Bhuteshwar and served as a centre of Kashmir Shaivism and a gateway for pilgrims to the sacred lakes of Harmukh and Gangabal. The temples were destroyed in two distinct phases of iconoclasm. The first phase occurred during the reign of Sultan Sikandar Butshikan who ruled from thirteen eighty nine to fourteen thirteen and whose minister Suha Bhatta was tasked to destroy majority of the   Hindu shrines across the valley as recorded in Jonaraja continuation of Kalhana Rajatarangini. The second and final phase is described in detail in Tohfatul Ahbab the Persian biography of the Iranian Nurbakhshi missionary Mir Shams ud Din Muhammad Araqi who entered Kashmir in fourteen eighty one and again in fifteen hundred one and fifteen hundred five under the patronage of Musa Raina and Kaji Chak. Tohfatul Ahbab openly celebrates Araqi mission to cleanse Kashmir of idol worship and states that he and his accomplices  pulled down huge temples and razed imposing structures to the ground and that upon their ruins mosques were erected. The text  details this pattern of destruction and reuse of the sacred material . Once a great centre of Shaivism, Naranag now stands as roofless ruins with fallen pillars,  lingas and Yantric pedestals .

( Avtar Mota )

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