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452

relics lingas and

other auspicious material remains in south asian religionsbenjamin j fleming

university of pennsylvania

ABSTRACTThis article reconsiders sites practices and ideas about the physical remains of the special dead in South Asian religions Questioning the common notion of ldquorelicsrdquo as a point of distinction between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo it explores the constellation of ideas and practices surrounding the remains of gods demons people and animals in South Asian religions Archaeological and literary evidence for lin

gas stupas and related sites and

structures are used to explore shared discourses and practices among Buddhists and Saivas in particular Through such test cases it shows how bones and other physical remains of the special dead could become areas of engagement especially when linked to sacred landscape Attention to these contact zones reveals sharing borrowing and competition among ancient and medieval groups that modern scholarship has studied primarily in terms of assumed differences between ldquoHinduismrdquo and ldquoBuddhismrdquo

Keywords relics Hinduism Saivism Buddhism linga

stupa brahmanical special dead

Benjamin Fleming is currently a visiting scholar in the Department of Religious Studies and Cataloger of Indic manuscripts at the Kislak Center for Speical Collections Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania His research focuses on ritual myth and iconography in medieval South Asia with a particular concern for traditions about pilgrimage and sacred geography He has presented and published on Puran as inscriptions and art especially related to the history of Saivism and his volume Material Culture and Asian Religions edited with Richard Mann was published with Routledge in 2014 He has received awards from the British Library Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada He held a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania

Material Religion volume 10 issue 4 pp 452ndash471DOI 102752175183414X14176054221364copy Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2014

ABSTRACTThis article reconsiders sites practices and ideas about the physical remains of the special dead in South Asian religions Questioning the common notion of ldquorelicsrdquo as a point of distinction between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo it explores the constellation of ideas and practices surrounding the remains of gods demons people and animals in South Asian religions Archaeological and literary evidence for lin

gas stupas and related sites and

structures are used to explore shared discourses and practices among Buddhists and Saivas in particular Through such test cases it shows how bones and other physical remains of the special dead could become areas of engagement especially when linked to sacred landscape Attention to these contact zones reveals sharing borrowing and competition among ancient and medieval groups that modern scholarship has studied primarily in terms of assumed differences between ldquoHinduismrdquo and ldquoBuddhismrdquo

Keywords relics Hinduism Saivism Buddhism linga

stupa brahmanical special dead

Benjamin Fleming is currently a visiting scholar in the Department of Religious Studies and Cataloger of Indic manuscripts at the Kislak Center for Speical Collections Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania His research focuses on ritual myth and iconography in medieval South Asia with a particular concern for traditions about pilgrimage and sacred geography He has presented and published on Puran as inscriptions and art especially related to the history of Saivism and his volume Material Culture and Asian Religions edited with Richard Mann was published with Routledge in 2014 He has received awards from the British Library Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada He held a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania

Material Religion volume 10 issue 4 pp 452ndash471DOI 102752175183414X14176054221364copy Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2014

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454

In the past few decades the study of relics has helped scholarship in Buddhist Studies move beyond doctrinal concerns and Protestant assumptions about religion (Schopen 1997 130) Consequently recent research has shaped a new frontier for material considerations of Buddhist religion culture and practice across Asia In this context however Buddhism is typically posited as something of an exception to South Asian religions In particular its treatment of the special dead is described as a departure from those traditions categorized under the rubric of ldquoHinduismrdquo It is common to describe the prominence of relics in Buddhism in contrast to a characterization of Hinduism as a Brahmanical tradition that deplores corpse impurities and eschews the treatment of human remains as potential sources of power sacrality or worldly benefit1

In a recent article however Phyllis Granoff (2008 70) has posited that ldquolsquorelic worshiprsquo was ubiquitous and ancient in Indiardquo and that ldquoBuddhism by no means constituted a major exception in the Indian religious environmentrdquo even if ldquoBuddhology as an academic discipline has tended to decontextualize Buddhism and emphasize its uniquenessrdquo Pointing to examples from Vedic and Puran ic literature Granoff (2008 59) posits that ldquothe diversity of these sources indicates a widespread belief in the power of bodily remains which hellip should be seen as a pan-Indic rather than specifically Buddhist constellation of beliefsrdquo This essay expands on Granoffrsquos work approaching South Asian ideas about bodily remains as a ldquoconstellation of beliefsrdquo To do so I focus on a small selection of intriguing examples drawn from key regions and time periods in the development of Saivism What I suggest is that Saiva examples may prove especially useful for exposing the limitations of the common modern use of the category ldquorelicrdquo as a point of distinction between South Asian religions Parallels between Saiva and Buddhist traditions draw attention to the potential of relics and the special dead to serve as contact zones Consideration of such contact zones may reveal sharing borrowing and competition among ancient and medieval groups that modern scholarship has studied in terms of assumed differences between ldquoHinduismrdquo and ldquoBuddhismrdquo

Relics in HinduismConsistent with the pattern noted above little attention has been paid to discourses and practices surrounding Hindu counterparts to what is studied under the rubric of ldquorelicsrdquo within Buddhismmdashor even to the possibility that such counterparts might exist In and beyond Buddhist Studies the very notion of relics is widely assumed to be

455

incompatible with ldquoHinduismrdquo Accordingly only a few specialists have reflected on the history of ldquoHindu relicsrdquo

Among the notable exceptions are recent treatments by Hans Bakker (2007) and Johannes Bronkhorst (2011) On the basis of finds from excavations in northern India for instance Bakker (2007) posits that practices of burial may have been marginally part of Brahmanical tradition until as late as the seventh century In his view such practices were dormant or suppressed for centuries in favor of the submersion of cremated remains into bodies of water at pilgrimage centers Hindu veneration of the buried dead only resumed again within the context of samadhi or parivrajaka practices beginning in the twelfth century More specifically Bakker proposes that the interment of Hindu saints and gurus reemerged under Islamic rule as a result of Sufi influence In Bakkerrsquos reconstruction Hindu attitudes towards the dead transformed significantly between the seventh and twelfth centuries at least in northern India owing to contact with Islam

By contrast Bronkhorst (2011) posits an indigenous tradition of venerating mortal remains of spiritual leaders in Magadha the region of northeast India where both Buddhism and Jainism took form Drawing primarily on textual evidence Bronkhorst (2011 213) speculates that ldquothe original funerary practices of Greater Magadha are behind a number of customs that have survived most notably the relic and stupa worship of Buddhists Jainas and perhaps Aj ıvakas and the peculiar burial customs used for certain types of Hindu renouncersrdquo In his view these practices preceded and influenced Buddhism and Jainism although marginally integrated into some Brahmanical practices in contact with Magadhan culture they were largely eschewed by pan-Indic Hinduism In Bronkhorstrsquos view (2011 213) ldquothe fact that these last customs are strongly represented in Nepal where Muslims are relatively few in number and marginal argues against the alternative hypothesis that these Hindu customs are mere imitations of originally Muslim onesrdquo

Bakker and Bronkhorst differ in their treatment of Islamic influence What I would like to question however are the assumptions that they share At the root of both theories is the idea that Buddhism fully embraced the veneration of relics which remained peripheral or problematic to Hinduism by virtue of the Brahmanical ldquoabhorrence of everything connected with deathrdquo (Bakker 2007 42) Evidence of the veneration of mortal remains in a pre-Buddhist or non-Buddhist context is thus interpreted as exceptional and regional rather than part of ldquoHinduismrdquo Bronkhorst (2011) describes Buddhism as arising in Magadha with relatively little contact with

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Brahmanical communities relic veneration predates Buddhism but as part of practices he assigns as unique to that region it is still ultimately distinct from ldquoHinduismrdquo Nevertheless since much evidence he presents is drawn from materials far from that region particularly Nepal (Bronkhorst 2011 168ndash70 213) it could be used to argue the opposite as well the same evidence can speak to relic veneration as part of a more diverse and dynamic range of attitudes towards the dead within Brahmanical and related traditions

Bakker and Bronkhorst are not alone in their basic assumption that Brahmans have an aversion to the remains of the dead in contrast to Buddhists (cf Strong 2004 172) Both however offer examples that potentially subvert this assumption by pointing to variance in different regions at different periods of time Buddhismrsquos distinctiveness is taken for granted Consequently material evidence for continuity is interpreted as representing exceptions to the difference asserted in theological literature Following Granoff (2008) however we might ask how might our understanding of South Asian religions differ if we take these supposed exceptions as our starting-point

For this Saiva traditions surrounding lingas may

be especially useful In what follows I begin with an investigation of material evidence for stupas and lin

gas not

compatible with rigid distinctions between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo I then turn to literary evidence for tensions surrounding the dead within Hinduism surveying myths about lin

gas that explore the power and danger of bodily

remains In focusing on such examples I do not mean to suggest that Saivism can or should stand for the whole of ldquoHinduismrdquo or that conclusions from Saiva materials can be mapped simply onto Vaisnava Sakta or other traditions2 Nevertheless Saivism offers some striking examples that counter the above-noted generalizations about relics thus challenging us to rethink the place of the special dead across South Asian religions

Human and Divine Material RemainsThe category of ldquorelicrdquo (cf Latin reliquiae) as taken from the study of Christianity and applied to Buddhism (cf Pali dhatu) emphasizes the human elementmdashthat is the harvesting of the residual presence of extraordinary people3 Their remains allow something of their physical presence and spiritual aura to reside on earth bestowing favor health wealth and miracles to communities shaped by their memory Scholarship in Buddhist Studies has recognized the importance of studying the social political and archaeological contexts in which such

457

relics functioned (eg Eckel 1990 Strong 1987b 2012 Sharf 1992 1999mdashinspired by Brown 1982 86ndash105) including Buddhist examples connecting human remains to sacred places regularly visited by devotees undertaking a pilgrimage

When we look to similar structures sites and practices related to physical remains of gods demons and animals as well as people we can recover part of the ritual world that Buddhists shared with other South Asian religions Early and medieval Hindu literary tradition is full of references to remains of gods and demons (Granoff 20081ndash9) These remains are described as deposited or purified at specific locales transforming the land into something sacred and defining special spaces where devotees wish to die leaving their corpses in the sacred center and thus purifying their souls (that is gaining ldquoreleaserdquo or ldquomoksardquo)4 What is suggested in literary evidence is even clearer in material evidence In both Hindu and Buddhist examples it is the power of objectsmdashincluding but not limited to bonesmdashthat enlivens a place making it sacred Such remains can transform a site or structure into a living conduit for the presence of a deity saint or teacher This dynamic has been richly studied in relation to stupas a Buddhist structure that houses relics and generates pilgrimage to them I suggest that something similar can be seen in Saiva ideas sites and rites surrounding lin

gas

As the liturgical object that hosts the worldly presence of Siva the lin

ga is primarily understood as his ldquomarkrdquo

or ldquosignrdquo (Figure 1) Yet it is also a mythic depiction of a divine bodily relicmdashthe godrsquos phallus Myths about its removal and the origins of lin

ga-worship abound in

Sanskrit and vernacular literature (Fleming 2009 Granoff 2008 61ndash9) To be sure such traditions regarding lin

gas

do not refer to human remains in the same sense seen in Buddhist examples Nevertheless we do find a number of early traditions related to Saiva lin

gas that hint at some

intersections with Buddhism in general and stupas in particular Stupas and lin

gas have similar functions

in relation to sacred landscapemdasha locus of pilgrimage worldly power and spiritual transformation The sites they sanctify are often nearby or identical The two categories may be distinguished in modern scholarship and in some premodern literary evidence but archaeological evidence points to significant overlaps stupas were sometimes worshipped at the same sites as lin

gas and some of their

elements were worshipped as lingas

Archaeological evidence from ancient and medieval sites across South Asia speaks to the confluence and contestation of Saiva and Buddhist spaces designated for

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458

the dead and for their ritual and liturgical remembrance by devotees These can be found in Mathura Ahicchatra Ujjain Nagarjunakon da Orissa Bihar Nepal and Pakistan The ancient city of Mathura in north India for instance features fragments of Buddhist and Hindu relief-carvings from abandoned stupas and from religious architecture connected to Saivism5 Interesting for our purposes is a fourth-century pillar inscription that mentions two lin

gas The lin

gas are described as the

gurvvayatana or ldquodwelling place of the gurus (teachers)rdquo and appear to have been erected as memorials to Kapilesvara and Upamitesvara6 D R Bhandarkar (1931) suggests these teachers were connected to branches of Pasupata Saivism one of the earliest forms of Saivism prominent in that region since antiquity7 In addition to its connection with Pasupatas Mathura is the earliest known source for sculptural production iconography and liturgical employment of lin

gas Given the concentration

of early evidence Saiva practices surrounding lingas likely

first emerged here (Kreisel 1986)8 Among numerous examples of early lin

gas are stone shards of relief-carvings

depicting scenes of linga worship with iconographical

parallels to the fragments of stupa railings at Mathura and other early Buddhist funerary sites (eg winged divinities and worshippers) (Figures 2 3 and 4) Thus in Mathura we find some evidence for the association of lin

gas with

veneration of the special dead as well as for iconographical parallels in Buddhist and Saiva art associated with stupas and lin

gas

While the evidence from Mathura is limited on its own we also see the convergence of Saiva and Buddhist art and architecture in Nagarjunakonda Andhra Pradesh There additions to earlier Buddhist stupas were made

FIG 1 Modern lin

ga and base near

Ghrsnesvara Maharashtra Photograph by Benjamin Fleming

459

FIG 2 Relief-fragment depicting lin

ga worship from

Mathura (firstndashsecond century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

FIG 4 Relief fragment of winged figures worshiping stupa Vrindivan Mathura district (ca first century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive The Ohio State University

FIG 3 Relief fragment of a lin

ga worshiped by winged figures Bhuteshwar (ca first century) Photograph by

John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

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460

by the wives of Saiva kings These include ayaka pillars (ie pillars with emerging figures)9 as well as memorial pillars dedicated to members of the ruling families One such pillar is dedicated to the third-century Iksvaku king Cam tamula I (Dutt 1931 633ndash4 Stone 1994 33) On the pillar is an inscription and relief-carving bearing a lin

ga

and Cam tamula I is said to have been favored by the warrior deity Mahasena (form of Skanda) whose Lord was Siva10 Its location is noteworthy the inscriptions make explicit their association with Saivism even as these rulers integrated their memorials into the structure and architecture of stupas housing remains of Buddhist figures Saiva kings perpetuated their presence beyond death at the same site in part through the image of the lin

ga

evoking its power to mediate spiritual power and worldly benefitsmdashmuch like the stupas to which these additions were attached There is a confluence of symbolism that draws meaning from a shared set of sites practices and beliefs among religious communities in Nagarjunakonda

If we see an overlap of linga and stupa it may be

because both form part of a broader continuum of related objectsmdashall resisting scholarly categorization as either ldquoBuddhistrdquo or ldquoHindurdquo For instance fourth- to sixth-century petroglyphs from northern Pakistan delineate stupas that are phallic and resemble lin

gas (Neelis 2006)

in one instance a stupa is drawn ejaculating (Figures 5

FIG 5 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) ejaculating stupa Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis

461

and 6)11 The blurring of Buddhist and Hindu funerary or memorial structures is also seen at Saiva centers in Ahicchatra and Mansar featuring pyramidal brick constructions (Agrawala 1947ndash8 167 Allchin 1957 1ndash4 Bakker 2007 25ndash30) There is limited evidence of human remains associated with them The Saiva pyramid builders employed techniques similar to those used for the construction of layered stupas (ie layers built up with boxes of earth stones rubble etc Bakker 2007 27) Especially on the basis of the surviving parts of one such structure found at Ahicchatra V S Agrawala (1947ndash8 167) likened them to the aid uka (relic repository) named in the Visnodharmottarapuran a [VDhP]12 Bakker (2007 26) questions their categorization as either aid uka or lin

ga but he does note some visual parallels ldquothe mass

of bricks ordered in a pyramidal ie tapering framework ending in a column or lin

ga has an outward similarity with

the structure described in the VDhPrdquo Ultimately Bakker (2007 27ndash9) prefers the hypothesis that it served as a kind of sacrificial post (yasti ) used in funerary rites related to human sacrifice Whatever its precise identification it is worth noting the challenge of categorization such objects resist binary approaches that associate ldquorelicsrdquo with Buddhism together with the sites and practices of the veneration of the bodies of the dead while characterizing the lin

ga as a Saiva object completely unrelated to human

burial bones tombs or remainsSomething similar occurs at other Buddhist and

Saiva sites bearing pillars or fragments of pillars In Bihar

FIG 6 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) stupa with Brahmı inscription of ldquoHarisenardquo (suggesting Hindu background of Buddhist devotee) overlaps Chinese inscription Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis (2006 163)

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and Orissa a number of ancient Mauryan pillars were originally connected to stupas and attributed to Asokan times (Figure 7) Some of these pillars such as at Vaisal ı Lauriya-Nandangarh and Bhubanesvara were later repurposed and venerated as Saiva lin

gas (Irwin 1973

716ndash17 Panigrahi 1961 Parmeshwaranand 2004 95 Kuraishi 1931 10 Tripathy 2004 9ndash14) For instance the Bhaskaresvara temple in Bhubanesvara Orrisa houses a nine-foot pillar-fragment A temple was built around it in about the seventh century when much of the Hindu architecture in the region took shape (Panigrahi 1961 171) As much as scholars have been interested in the origins of this temple there has been little attention to the Saiva reconfiguration of Buddhist sites of this sort (Panigrahi 1961 226) If there were an abhorrence of human remains in Hinduism why would Saivas establish pilgrimage sites in places housing Buddhist relics We may find a clue in the lin

gas erected on graves of Pasupata

teachers also found at Bhubanesvara which parallel those that served as a ldquodwelling place of the gurusrdquo where dead leaders were memorialized in Mathura13 In both cases the material culture of commemoration within Saivism remains more complex than any generalization about an essential Hindu aversion to human remains and the sanctity of the tombs of human teachers stands in continuum with the veneration of the physical remains of Siva himself

Evidence from Nepal is also suggestive Bronkhorst (2011) employs examples from Nepal to counter Bakkerrsquos suggestion that entombment or samadhi practices in northern India resulted from Muslim influence These examples could also be interpreted however as evidence for the interaction of Buddhist and Saiva traditions about the dead Veacuteronique Bouillier for instance has noted that many Saiva monasteries in Nepal are centered around the tombs of founders of a particular matha (cloister) which may take the form of lin

gas (Bronkhorst 2011

209) Similarly Bronkhorst (2011 211ndash12) points to an

FIG 7 Stupa and Mauryan-era pillar Bihar India Showing proximity of pillars and stupas from that era possibly derived from pre-Buddhist models Photograph by Hideyuko Kamon

463

eighteenth-century Jesuit eyewitness account of burials in Nepal where an earthen (parthiva) lin

ga was placed

over the interred ritually prepared body of an ascetic (samnyasin) and rites were performed over the lin

ga to

be repeated every ten days and on the anniversary of his death14

To these Nepalese examples we might add others where lin

gas are erected for the dead Twelfth- and

fourteenth-century inscriptions dedicate lingas to

deceased ancestors in one case a linga is erected

for attaining immortality (Inscriptions II XIII and XVIII in Regmi 1983) Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 23ndash35) has demonstrated the fluidity between lin

ga and stupa

iconography in depictions of burning grounds in sixteenth-century Nepali art (Figures 8 and 9) Likewise in his study on stupas Giuseppe de Marco (1987 222ndash5) gives examples of lin

gas in Nepal serving as grave markers

Above I noted Bronkhorstrsquos suggestion that examples of this sort all have their ultimate origins in pre-Buddhist traditions distinctive to Greater Magadha Even if this were the case it remains to be explained why such traditions came to be integrated into a broad range of Saiva sites and practices Taken together the above examples

FIG 8 Eighteenth-century painting of Guhyakal ı from National Art Gallery Bhaktapur Cremation grounds are featured in the background with caitya-reliquaries and lin

gas Photograph by Rajan Shrestha

courtesy of Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 29)

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from Orissa Bihar Ujjain Nagarjunakonda Ahicchatra Pakistan and Nepal point to a set of practices and objects that cross and connect Buddhist veneration of the dead with Saiva lin

ga worship These examples attest

interreligious discourses marked by both contestation and ambiguity Although not universal within ldquoHinduismrdquo the evidence spans the subcontinent and beyond for more than a millennium It cannot be reduced to any one theory about origins or influence

One possibility is that practices of this sort featured in regional Brahmanical and other non-Buddhist traditions in South Asia15 developing alongside Buddhist practices and in continued interaction with them perhaps drawing from pre-Buddhist practices (Irwin 1973 215ndash17) We already see early instances of Buddhist integration of Brahmanical rites the Asvamedha Agnistoma and other Vedic rituals are attested in the inscriptions of early stupas at Nagarjunakonda and other centers in the Krsna River Valley (Andhra Pradesh) These practices were maintained into the medieval period as seen for instance in land-grant inscriptions of Buddhist kings (Vogel 1929ndash30 17ndash21 Fleming 2013) That there were shared practices and discourses about bodily remains among communities that lived side by side seems plausible even if those connections are difficult to reconstruct with precision If so the later engagement with Islam can be viewed as a continuing dialogue among South Asian religionsmdashsimultaneously from within each tradition and dynamically incorporating or answering others16

Linga as Skull and Relic

I have focused so far on archaeological and inscriptional evidence and have uncovered practices that have been

FIG 9 Detail of lin

ga and chaitya next to

cremation-pyre and jackal from wooden door-relief bearing six visible cremation grounds 1757 Kumar ı House Basantapur Tole Kathmandu Photograph by Gudrun Buumlhnemann

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

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466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

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min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

455

incompatible with ldquoHinduismrdquo Accordingly only a few specialists have reflected on the history of ldquoHindu relicsrdquo

Among the notable exceptions are recent treatments by Hans Bakker (2007) and Johannes Bronkhorst (2011) On the basis of finds from excavations in northern India for instance Bakker (2007) posits that practices of burial may have been marginally part of Brahmanical tradition until as late as the seventh century In his view such practices were dormant or suppressed for centuries in favor of the submersion of cremated remains into bodies of water at pilgrimage centers Hindu veneration of the buried dead only resumed again within the context of samadhi or parivrajaka practices beginning in the twelfth century More specifically Bakker proposes that the interment of Hindu saints and gurus reemerged under Islamic rule as a result of Sufi influence In Bakkerrsquos reconstruction Hindu attitudes towards the dead transformed significantly between the seventh and twelfth centuries at least in northern India owing to contact with Islam

By contrast Bronkhorst (2011) posits an indigenous tradition of venerating mortal remains of spiritual leaders in Magadha the region of northeast India where both Buddhism and Jainism took form Drawing primarily on textual evidence Bronkhorst (2011 213) speculates that ldquothe original funerary practices of Greater Magadha are behind a number of customs that have survived most notably the relic and stupa worship of Buddhists Jainas and perhaps Aj ıvakas and the peculiar burial customs used for certain types of Hindu renouncersrdquo In his view these practices preceded and influenced Buddhism and Jainism although marginally integrated into some Brahmanical practices in contact with Magadhan culture they were largely eschewed by pan-Indic Hinduism In Bronkhorstrsquos view (2011 213) ldquothe fact that these last customs are strongly represented in Nepal where Muslims are relatively few in number and marginal argues against the alternative hypothesis that these Hindu customs are mere imitations of originally Muslim onesrdquo

Bakker and Bronkhorst differ in their treatment of Islamic influence What I would like to question however are the assumptions that they share At the root of both theories is the idea that Buddhism fully embraced the veneration of relics which remained peripheral or problematic to Hinduism by virtue of the Brahmanical ldquoabhorrence of everything connected with deathrdquo (Bakker 2007 42) Evidence of the veneration of mortal remains in a pre-Buddhist or non-Buddhist context is thus interpreted as exceptional and regional rather than part of ldquoHinduismrdquo Bronkhorst (2011) describes Buddhism as arising in Magadha with relatively little contact with

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456

Brahmanical communities relic veneration predates Buddhism but as part of practices he assigns as unique to that region it is still ultimately distinct from ldquoHinduismrdquo Nevertheless since much evidence he presents is drawn from materials far from that region particularly Nepal (Bronkhorst 2011 168ndash70 213) it could be used to argue the opposite as well the same evidence can speak to relic veneration as part of a more diverse and dynamic range of attitudes towards the dead within Brahmanical and related traditions

Bakker and Bronkhorst are not alone in their basic assumption that Brahmans have an aversion to the remains of the dead in contrast to Buddhists (cf Strong 2004 172) Both however offer examples that potentially subvert this assumption by pointing to variance in different regions at different periods of time Buddhismrsquos distinctiveness is taken for granted Consequently material evidence for continuity is interpreted as representing exceptions to the difference asserted in theological literature Following Granoff (2008) however we might ask how might our understanding of South Asian religions differ if we take these supposed exceptions as our starting-point

For this Saiva traditions surrounding lingas may

be especially useful In what follows I begin with an investigation of material evidence for stupas and lin

gas not

compatible with rigid distinctions between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo I then turn to literary evidence for tensions surrounding the dead within Hinduism surveying myths about lin

gas that explore the power and danger of bodily

remains In focusing on such examples I do not mean to suggest that Saivism can or should stand for the whole of ldquoHinduismrdquo or that conclusions from Saiva materials can be mapped simply onto Vaisnava Sakta or other traditions2 Nevertheless Saivism offers some striking examples that counter the above-noted generalizations about relics thus challenging us to rethink the place of the special dead across South Asian religions

Human and Divine Material RemainsThe category of ldquorelicrdquo (cf Latin reliquiae) as taken from the study of Christianity and applied to Buddhism (cf Pali dhatu) emphasizes the human elementmdashthat is the harvesting of the residual presence of extraordinary people3 Their remains allow something of their physical presence and spiritual aura to reside on earth bestowing favor health wealth and miracles to communities shaped by their memory Scholarship in Buddhist Studies has recognized the importance of studying the social political and archaeological contexts in which such

457

relics functioned (eg Eckel 1990 Strong 1987b 2012 Sharf 1992 1999mdashinspired by Brown 1982 86ndash105) including Buddhist examples connecting human remains to sacred places regularly visited by devotees undertaking a pilgrimage

When we look to similar structures sites and practices related to physical remains of gods demons and animals as well as people we can recover part of the ritual world that Buddhists shared with other South Asian religions Early and medieval Hindu literary tradition is full of references to remains of gods and demons (Granoff 20081ndash9) These remains are described as deposited or purified at specific locales transforming the land into something sacred and defining special spaces where devotees wish to die leaving their corpses in the sacred center and thus purifying their souls (that is gaining ldquoreleaserdquo or ldquomoksardquo)4 What is suggested in literary evidence is even clearer in material evidence In both Hindu and Buddhist examples it is the power of objectsmdashincluding but not limited to bonesmdashthat enlivens a place making it sacred Such remains can transform a site or structure into a living conduit for the presence of a deity saint or teacher This dynamic has been richly studied in relation to stupas a Buddhist structure that houses relics and generates pilgrimage to them I suggest that something similar can be seen in Saiva ideas sites and rites surrounding lin

gas

As the liturgical object that hosts the worldly presence of Siva the lin

ga is primarily understood as his ldquomarkrdquo

or ldquosignrdquo (Figure 1) Yet it is also a mythic depiction of a divine bodily relicmdashthe godrsquos phallus Myths about its removal and the origins of lin

ga-worship abound in

Sanskrit and vernacular literature (Fleming 2009 Granoff 2008 61ndash9) To be sure such traditions regarding lin

gas

do not refer to human remains in the same sense seen in Buddhist examples Nevertheless we do find a number of early traditions related to Saiva lin

gas that hint at some

intersections with Buddhism in general and stupas in particular Stupas and lin

gas have similar functions

in relation to sacred landscapemdasha locus of pilgrimage worldly power and spiritual transformation The sites they sanctify are often nearby or identical The two categories may be distinguished in modern scholarship and in some premodern literary evidence but archaeological evidence points to significant overlaps stupas were sometimes worshipped at the same sites as lin

gas and some of their

elements were worshipped as lingas

Archaeological evidence from ancient and medieval sites across South Asia speaks to the confluence and contestation of Saiva and Buddhist spaces designated for

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min

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458

the dead and for their ritual and liturgical remembrance by devotees These can be found in Mathura Ahicchatra Ujjain Nagarjunakon da Orissa Bihar Nepal and Pakistan The ancient city of Mathura in north India for instance features fragments of Buddhist and Hindu relief-carvings from abandoned stupas and from religious architecture connected to Saivism5 Interesting for our purposes is a fourth-century pillar inscription that mentions two lin

gas The lin

gas are described as the

gurvvayatana or ldquodwelling place of the gurus (teachers)rdquo and appear to have been erected as memorials to Kapilesvara and Upamitesvara6 D R Bhandarkar (1931) suggests these teachers were connected to branches of Pasupata Saivism one of the earliest forms of Saivism prominent in that region since antiquity7 In addition to its connection with Pasupatas Mathura is the earliest known source for sculptural production iconography and liturgical employment of lin

gas Given the concentration

of early evidence Saiva practices surrounding lingas likely

first emerged here (Kreisel 1986)8 Among numerous examples of early lin

gas are stone shards of relief-carvings

depicting scenes of linga worship with iconographical

parallels to the fragments of stupa railings at Mathura and other early Buddhist funerary sites (eg winged divinities and worshippers) (Figures 2 3 and 4) Thus in Mathura we find some evidence for the association of lin

gas with

veneration of the special dead as well as for iconographical parallels in Buddhist and Saiva art associated with stupas and lin

gas

While the evidence from Mathura is limited on its own we also see the convergence of Saiva and Buddhist art and architecture in Nagarjunakonda Andhra Pradesh There additions to earlier Buddhist stupas were made

FIG 1 Modern lin

ga and base near

Ghrsnesvara Maharashtra Photograph by Benjamin Fleming

459

FIG 2 Relief-fragment depicting lin

ga worship from

Mathura (firstndashsecond century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

FIG 4 Relief fragment of winged figures worshiping stupa Vrindivan Mathura district (ca first century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive The Ohio State University

FIG 3 Relief fragment of a lin

ga worshiped by winged figures Bhuteshwar (ca first century) Photograph by

John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

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eria

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460

by the wives of Saiva kings These include ayaka pillars (ie pillars with emerging figures)9 as well as memorial pillars dedicated to members of the ruling families One such pillar is dedicated to the third-century Iksvaku king Cam tamula I (Dutt 1931 633ndash4 Stone 1994 33) On the pillar is an inscription and relief-carving bearing a lin

ga

and Cam tamula I is said to have been favored by the warrior deity Mahasena (form of Skanda) whose Lord was Siva10 Its location is noteworthy the inscriptions make explicit their association with Saivism even as these rulers integrated their memorials into the structure and architecture of stupas housing remains of Buddhist figures Saiva kings perpetuated their presence beyond death at the same site in part through the image of the lin

ga

evoking its power to mediate spiritual power and worldly benefitsmdashmuch like the stupas to which these additions were attached There is a confluence of symbolism that draws meaning from a shared set of sites practices and beliefs among religious communities in Nagarjunakonda

If we see an overlap of linga and stupa it may be

because both form part of a broader continuum of related objectsmdashall resisting scholarly categorization as either ldquoBuddhistrdquo or ldquoHindurdquo For instance fourth- to sixth-century petroglyphs from northern Pakistan delineate stupas that are phallic and resemble lin

gas (Neelis 2006)

in one instance a stupa is drawn ejaculating (Figures 5

FIG 5 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) ejaculating stupa Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis

461

and 6)11 The blurring of Buddhist and Hindu funerary or memorial structures is also seen at Saiva centers in Ahicchatra and Mansar featuring pyramidal brick constructions (Agrawala 1947ndash8 167 Allchin 1957 1ndash4 Bakker 2007 25ndash30) There is limited evidence of human remains associated with them The Saiva pyramid builders employed techniques similar to those used for the construction of layered stupas (ie layers built up with boxes of earth stones rubble etc Bakker 2007 27) Especially on the basis of the surviving parts of one such structure found at Ahicchatra V S Agrawala (1947ndash8 167) likened them to the aid uka (relic repository) named in the Visnodharmottarapuran a [VDhP]12 Bakker (2007 26) questions their categorization as either aid uka or lin

ga but he does note some visual parallels ldquothe mass

of bricks ordered in a pyramidal ie tapering framework ending in a column or lin

ga has an outward similarity with

the structure described in the VDhPrdquo Ultimately Bakker (2007 27ndash9) prefers the hypothesis that it served as a kind of sacrificial post (yasti ) used in funerary rites related to human sacrifice Whatever its precise identification it is worth noting the challenge of categorization such objects resist binary approaches that associate ldquorelicsrdquo with Buddhism together with the sites and practices of the veneration of the bodies of the dead while characterizing the lin

ga as a Saiva object completely unrelated to human

burial bones tombs or remainsSomething similar occurs at other Buddhist and

Saiva sites bearing pillars or fragments of pillars In Bihar

FIG 6 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) stupa with Brahmı inscription of ldquoHarisenardquo (suggesting Hindu background of Buddhist devotee) overlaps Chinese inscription Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis (2006 163)

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462

and Orissa a number of ancient Mauryan pillars were originally connected to stupas and attributed to Asokan times (Figure 7) Some of these pillars such as at Vaisal ı Lauriya-Nandangarh and Bhubanesvara were later repurposed and venerated as Saiva lin

gas (Irwin 1973

716ndash17 Panigrahi 1961 Parmeshwaranand 2004 95 Kuraishi 1931 10 Tripathy 2004 9ndash14) For instance the Bhaskaresvara temple in Bhubanesvara Orrisa houses a nine-foot pillar-fragment A temple was built around it in about the seventh century when much of the Hindu architecture in the region took shape (Panigrahi 1961 171) As much as scholars have been interested in the origins of this temple there has been little attention to the Saiva reconfiguration of Buddhist sites of this sort (Panigrahi 1961 226) If there were an abhorrence of human remains in Hinduism why would Saivas establish pilgrimage sites in places housing Buddhist relics We may find a clue in the lin

gas erected on graves of Pasupata

teachers also found at Bhubanesvara which parallel those that served as a ldquodwelling place of the gurusrdquo where dead leaders were memorialized in Mathura13 In both cases the material culture of commemoration within Saivism remains more complex than any generalization about an essential Hindu aversion to human remains and the sanctity of the tombs of human teachers stands in continuum with the veneration of the physical remains of Siva himself

Evidence from Nepal is also suggestive Bronkhorst (2011) employs examples from Nepal to counter Bakkerrsquos suggestion that entombment or samadhi practices in northern India resulted from Muslim influence These examples could also be interpreted however as evidence for the interaction of Buddhist and Saiva traditions about the dead Veacuteronique Bouillier for instance has noted that many Saiva monasteries in Nepal are centered around the tombs of founders of a particular matha (cloister) which may take the form of lin

gas (Bronkhorst 2011

209) Similarly Bronkhorst (2011 211ndash12) points to an

FIG 7 Stupa and Mauryan-era pillar Bihar India Showing proximity of pillars and stupas from that era possibly derived from pre-Buddhist models Photograph by Hideyuko Kamon

463

eighteenth-century Jesuit eyewitness account of burials in Nepal where an earthen (parthiva) lin

ga was placed

over the interred ritually prepared body of an ascetic (samnyasin) and rites were performed over the lin

ga to

be repeated every ten days and on the anniversary of his death14

To these Nepalese examples we might add others where lin

gas are erected for the dead Twelfth- and

fourteenth-century inscriptions dedicate lingas to

deceased ancestors in one case a linga is erected

for attaining immortality (Inscriptions II XIII and XVIII in Regmi 1983) Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 23ndash35) has demonstrated the fluidity between lin

ga and stupa

iconography in depictions of burning grounds in sixteenth-century Nepali art (Figures 8 and 9) Likewise in his study on stupas Giuseppe de Marco (1987 222ndash5) gives examples of lin

gas in Nepal serving as grave markers

Above I noted Bronkhorstrsquos suggestion that examples of this sort all have their ultimate origins in pre-Buddhist traditions distinctive to Greater Magadha Even if this were the case it remains to be explained why such traditions came to be integrated into a broad range of Saiva sites and practices Taken together the above examples

FIG 8 Eighteenth-century painting of Guhyakal ı from National Art Gallery Bhaktapur Cremation grounds are featured in the background with caitya-reliquaries and lin

gas Photograph by Rajan Shrestha

courtesy of Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 29)

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464

from Orissa Bihar Ujjain Nagarjunakonda Ahicchatra Pakistan and Nepal point to a set of practices and objects that cross and connect Buddhist veneration of the dead with Saiva lin

ga worship These examples attest

interreligious discourses marked by both contestation and ambiguity Although not universal within ldquoHinduismrdquo the evidence spans the subcontinent and beyond for more than a millennium It cannot be reduced to any one theory about origins or influence

One possibility is that practices of this sort featured in regional Brahmanical and other non-Buddhist traditions in South Asia15 developing alongside Buddhist practices and in continued interaction with them perhaps drawing from pre-Buddhist practices (Irwin 1973 215ndash17) We already see early instances of Buddhist integration of Brahmanical rites the Asvamedha Agnistoma and other Vedic rituals are attested in the inscriptions of early stupas at Nagarjunakonda and other centers in the Krsna River Valley (Andhra Pradesh) These practices were maintained into the medieval period as seen for instance in land-grant inscriptions of Buddhist kings (Vogel 1929ndash30 17ndash21 Fleming 2013) That there were shared practices and discourses about bodily remains among communities that lived side by side seems plausible even if those connections are difficult to reconstruct with precision If so the later engagement with Islam can be viewed as a continuing dialogue among South Asian religionsmdashsimultaneously from within each tradition and dynamically incorporating or answering others16

Linga as Skull and Relic

I have focused so far on archaeological and inscriptional evidence and have uncovered practices that have been

FIG 9 Detail of lin

ga and chaitya next to

cremation-pyre and jackal from wooden door-relief bearing six visible cremation grounds 1757 Kumar ı House Basantapur Tole Kathmandu Photograph by Gudrun Buumlhnemann

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

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g

466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

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So

uth

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g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

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456

Brahmanical communities relic veneration predates Buddhism but as part of practices he assigns as unique to that region it is still ultimately distinct from ldquoHinduismrdquo Nevertheless since much evidence he presents is drawn from materials far from that region particularly Nepal (Bronkhorst 2011 168ndash70 213) it could be used to argue the opposite as well the same evidence can speak to relic veneration as part of a more diverse and dynamic range of attitudes towards the dead within Brahmanical and related traditions

Bakker and Bronkhorst are not alone in their basic assumption that Brahmans have an aversion to the remains of the dead in contrast to Buddhists (cf Strong 2004 172) Both however offer examples that potentially subvert this assumption by pointing to variance in different regions at different periods of time Buddhismrsquos distinctiveness is taken for granted Consequently material evidence for continuity is interpreted as representing exceptions to the difference asserted in theological literature Following Granoff (2008) however we might ask how might our understanding of South Asian religions differ if we take these supposed exceptions as our starting-point

For this Saiva traditions surrounding lingas may

be especially useful In what follows I begin with an investigation of material evidence for stupas and lin

gas not

compatible with rigid distinctions between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo I then turn to literary evidence for tensions surrounding the dead within Hinduism surveying myths about lin

gas that explore the power and danger of bodily

remains In focusing on such examples I do not mean to suggest that Saivism can or should stand for the whole of ldquoHinduismrdquo or that conclusions from Saiva materials can be mapped simply onto Vaisnava Sakta or other traditions2 Nevertheless Saivism offers some striking examples that counter the above-noted generalizations about relics thus challenging us to rethink the place of the special dead across South Asian religions

Human and Divine Material RemainsThe category of ldquorelicrdquo (cf Latin reliquiae) as taken from the study of Christianity and applied to Buddhism (cf Pali dhatu) emphasizes the human elementmdashthat is the harvesting of the residual presence of extraordinary people3 Their remains allow something of their physical presence and spiritual aura to reside on earth bestowing favor health wealth and miracles to communities shaped by their memory Scholarship in Buddhist Studies has recognized the importance of studying the social political and archaeological contexts in which such

457

relics functioned (eg Eckel 1990 Strong 1987b 2012 Sharf 1992 1999mdashinspired by Brown 1982 86ndash105) including Buddhist examples connecting human remains to sacred places regularly visited by devotees undertaking a pilgrimage

When we look to similar structures sites and practices related to physical remains of gods demons and animals as well as people we can recover part of the ritual world that Buddhists shared with other South Asian religions Early and medieval Hindu literary tradition is full of references to remains of gods and demons (Granoff 20081ndash9) These remains are described as deposited or purified at specific locales transforming the land into something sacred and defining special spaces where devotees wish to die leaving their corpses in the sacred center and thus purifying their souls (that is gaining ldquoreleaserdquo or ldquomoksardquo)4 What is suggested in literary evidence is even clearer in material evidence In both Hindu and Buddhist examples it is the power of objectsmdashincluding but not limited to bonesmdashthat enlivens a place making it sacred Such remains can transform a site or structure into a living conduit for the presence of a deity saint or teacher This dynamic has been richly studied in relation to stupas a Buddhist structure that houses relics and generates pilgrimage to them I suggest that something similar can be seen in Saiva ideas sites and rites surrounding lin

gas

As the liturgical object that hosts the worldly presence of Siva the lin

ga is primarily understood as his ldquomarkrdquo

or ldquosignrdquo (Figure 1) Yet it is also a mythic depiction of a divine bodily relicmdashthe godrsquos phallus Myths about its removal and the origins of lin

ga-worship abound in

Sanskrit and vernacular literature (Fleming 2009 Granoff 2008 61ndash9) To be sure such traditions regarding lin

gas

do not refer to human remains in the same sense seen in Buddhist examples Nevertheless we do find a number of early traditions related to Saiva lin

gas that hint at some

intersections with Buddhism in general and stupas in particular Stupas and lin

gas have similar functions

in relation to sacred landscapemdasha locus of pilgrimage worldly power and spiritual transformation The sites they sanctify are often nearby or identical The two categories may be distinguished in modern scholarship and in some premodern literary evidence but archaeological evidence points to significant overlaps stupas were sometimes worshipped at the same sites as lin

gas and some of their

elements were worshipped as lingas

Archaeological evidence from ancient and medieval sites across South Asia speaks to the confluence and contestation of Saiva and Buddhist spaces designated for

Mat

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458

the dead and for their ritual and liturgical remembrance by devotees These can be found in Mathura Ahicchatra Ujjain Nagarjunakon da Orissa Bihar Nepal and Pakistan The ancient city of Mathura in north India for instance features fragments of Buddhist and Hindu relief-carvings from abandoned stupas and from religious architecture connected to Saivism5 Interesting for our purposes is a fourth-century pillar inscription that mentions two lin

gas The lin

gas are described as the

gurvvayatana or ldquodwelling place of the gurus (teachers)rdquo and appear to have been erected as memorials to Kapilesvara and Upamitesvara6 D R Bhandarkar (1931) suggests these teachers were connected to branches of Pasupata Saivism one of the earliest forms of Saivism prominent in that region since antiquity7 In addition to its connection with Pasupatas Mathura is the earliest known source for sculptural production iconography and liturgical employment of lin

gas Given the concentration

of early evidence Saiva practices surrounding lingas likely

first emerged here (Kreisel 1986)8 Among numerous examples of early lin

gas are stone shards of relief-carvings

depicting scenes of linga worship with iconographical

parallels to the fragments of stupa railings at Mathura and other early Buddhist funerary sites (eg winged divinities and worshippers) (Figures 2 3 and 4) Thus in Mathura we find some evidence for the association of lin

gas with

veneration of the special dead as well as for iconographical parallels in Buddhist and Saiva art associated with stupas and lin

gas

While the evidence from Mathura is limited on its own we also see the convergence of Saiva and Buddhist art and architecture in Nagarjunakonda Andhra Pradesh There additions to earlier Buddhist stupas were made

FIG 1 Modern lin

ga and base near

Ghrsnesvara Maharashtra Photograph by Benjamin Fleming

459

FIG 2 Relief-fragment depicting lin

ga worship from

Mathura (firstndashsecond century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

FIG 4 Relief fragment of winged figures worshiping stupa Vrindivan Mathura district (ca first century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive The Ohio State University

FIG 3 Relief fragment of a lin

ga worshiped by winged figures Bhuteshwar (ca first century) Photograph by

John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

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eria

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460

by the wives of Saiva kings These include ayaka pillars (ie pillars with emerging figures)9 as well as memorial pillars dedicated to members of the ruling families One such pillar is dedicated to the third-century Iksvaku king Cam tamula I (Dutt 1931 633ndash4 Stone 1994 33) On the pillar is an inscription and relief-carving bearing a lin

ga

and Cam tamula I is said to have been favored by the warrior deity Mahasena (form of Skanda) whose Lord was Siva10 Its location is noteworthy the inscriptions make explicit their association with Saivism even as these rulers integrated their memorials into the structure and architecture of stupas housing remains of Buddhist figures Saiva kings perpetuated their presence beyond death at the same site in part through the image of the lin

ga

evoking its power to mediate spiritual power and worldly benefitsmdashmuch like the stupas to which these additions were attached There is a confluence of symbolism that draws meaning from a shared set of sites practices and beliefs among religious communities in Nagarjunakonda

If we see an overlap of linga and stupa it may be

because both form part of a broader continuum of related objectsmdashall resisting scholarly categorization as either ldquoBuddhistrdquo or ldquoHindurdquo For instance fourth- to sixth-century petroglyphs from northern Pakistan delineate stupas that are phallic and resemble lin

gas (Neelis 2006)

in one instance a stupa is drawn ejaculating (Figures 5

FIG 5 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) ejaculating stupa Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis

461

and 6)11 The blurring of Buddhist and Hindu funerary or memorial structures is also seen at Saiva centers in Ahicchatra and Mansar featuring pyramidal brick constructions (Agrawala 1947ndash8 167 Allchin 1957 1ndash4 Bakker 2007 25ndash30) There is limited evidence of human remains associated with them The Saiva pyramid builders employed techniques similar to those used for the construction of layered stupas (ie layers built up with boxes of earth stones rubble etc Bakker 2007 27) Especially on the basis of the surviving parts of one such structure found at Ahicchatra V S Agrawala (1947ndash8 167) likened them to the aid uka (relic repository) named in the Visnodharmottarapuran a [VDhP]12 Bakker (2007 26) questions their categorization as either aid uka or lin

ga but he does note some visual parallels ldquothe mass

of bricks ordered in a pyramidal ie tapering framework ending in a column or lin

ga has an outward similarity with

the structure described in the VDhPrdquo Ultimately Bakker (2007 27ndash9) prefers the hypothesis that it served as a kind of sacrificial post (yasti ) used in funerary rites related to human sacrifice Whatever its precise identification it is worth noting the challenge of categorization such objects resist binary approaches that associate ldquorelicsrdquo with Buddhism together with the sites and practices of the veneration of the bodies of the dead while characterizing the lin

ga as a Saiva object completely unrelated to human

burial bones tombs or remainsSomething similar occurs at other Buddhist and

Saiva sites bearing pillars or fragments of pillars In Bihar

FIG 6 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) stupa with Brahmı inscription of ldquoHarisenardquo (suggesting Hindu background of Buddhist devotee) overlaps Chinese inscription Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis (2006 163)

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462

and Orissa a number of ancient Mauryan pillars were originally connected to stupas and attributed to Asokan times (Figure 7) Some of these pillars such as at Vaisal ı Lauriya-Nandangarh and Bhubanesvara were later repurposed and venerated as Saiva lin

gas (Irwin 1973

716ndash17 Panigrahi 1961 Parmeshwaranand 2004 95 Kuraishi 1931 10 Tripathy 2004 9ndash14) For instance the Bhaskaresvara temple in Bhubanesvara Orrisa houses a nine-foot pillar-fragment A temple was built around it in about the seventh century when much of the Hindu architecture in the region took shape (Panigrahi 1961 171) As much as scholars have been interested in the origins of this temple there has been little attention to the Saiva reconfiguration of Buddhist sites of this sort (Panigrahi 1961 226) If there were an abhorrence of human remains in Hinduism why would Saivas establish pilgrimage sites in places housing Buddhist relics We may find a clue in the lin

gas erected on graves of Pasupata

teachers also found at Bhubanesvara which parallel those that served as a ldquodwelling place of the gurusrdquo where dead leaders were memorialized in Mathura13 In both cases the material culture of commemoration within Saivism remains more complex than any generalization about an essential Hindu aversion to human remains and the sanctity of the tombs of human teachers stands in continuum with the veneration of the physical remains of Siva himself

Evidence from Nepal is also suggestive Bronkhorst (2011) employs examples from Nepal to counter Bakkerrsquos suggestion that entombment or samadhi practices in northern India resulted from Muslim influence These examples could also be interpreted however as evidence for the interaction of Buddhist and Saiva traditions about the dead Veacuteronique Bouillier for instance has noted that many Saiva monasteries in Nepal are centered around the tombs of founders of a particular matha (cloister) which may take the form of lin

gas (Bronkhorst 2011

209) Similarly Bronkhorst (2011 211ndash12) points to an

FIG 7 Stupa and Mauryan-era pillar Bihar India Showing proximity of pillars and stupas from that era possibly derived from pre-Buddhist models Photograph by Hideyuko Kamon

463

eighteenth-century Jesuit eyewitness account of burials in Nepal where an earthen (parthiva) lin

ga was placed

over the interred ritually prepared body of an ascetic (samnyasin) and rites were performed over the lin

ga to

be repeated every ten days and on the anniversary of his death14

To these Nepalese examples we might add others where lin

gas are erected for the dead Twelfth- and

fourteenth-century inscriptions dedicate lingas to

deceased ancestors in one case a linga is erected

for attaining immortality (Inscriptions II XIII and XVIII in Regmi 1983) Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 23ndash35) has demonstrated the fluidity between lin

ga and stupa

iconography in depictions of burning grounds in sixteenth-century Nepali art (Figures 8 and 9) Likewise in his study on stupas Giuseppe de Marco (1987 222ndash5) gives examples of lin

gas in Nepal serving as grave markers

Above I noted Bronkhorstrsquos suggestion that examples of this sort all have their ultimate origins in pre-Buddhist traditions distinctive to Greater Magadha Even if this were the case it remains to be explained why such traditions came to be integrated into a broad range of Saiva sites and practices Taken together the above examples

FIG 8 Eighteenth-century painting of Guhyakal ı from National Art Gallery Bhaktapur Cremation grounds are featured in the background with caitya-reliquaries and lin

gas Photograph by Rajan Shrestha

courtesy of Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 29)

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464

from Orissa Bihar Ujjain Nagarjunakonda Ahicchatra Pakistan and Nepal point to a set of practices and objects that cross and connect Buddhist veneration of the dead with Saiva lin

ga worship These examples attest

interreligious discourses marked by both contestation and ambiguity Although not universal within ldquoHinduismrdquo the evidence spans the subcontinent and beyond for more than a millennium It cannot be reduced to any one theory about origins or influence

One possibility is that practices of this sort featured in regional Brahmanical and other non-Buddhist traditions in South Asia15 developing alongside Buddhist practices and in continued interaction with them perhaps drawing from pre-Buddhist practices (Irwin 1973 215ndash17) We already see early instances of Buddhist integration of Brahmanical rites the Asvamedha Agnistoma and other Vedic rituals are attested in the inscriptions of early stupas at Nagarjunakonda and other centers in the Krsna River Valley (Andhra Pradesh) These practices were maintained into the medieval period as seen for instance in land-grant inscriptions of Buddhist kings (Vogel 1929ndash30 17ndash21 Fleming 2013) That there were shared practices and discourses about bodily remains among communities that lived side by side seems plausible even if those connections are difficult to reconstruct with precision If so the later engagement with Islam can be viewed as a continuing dialogue among South Asian religionsmdashsimultaneously from within each tradition and dynamically incorporating or answering others16

Linga as Skull and Relic

I have focused so far on archaeological and inscriptional evidence and have uncovered practices that have been

FIG 9 Detail of lin

ga and chaitya next to

cremation-pyre and jackal from wooden door-relief bearing six visible cremation grounds 1757 Kumar ı House Basantapur Tole Kathmandu Photograph by Gudrun Buumlhnemann

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

Mat

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466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

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468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

457

relics functioned (eg Eckel 1990 Strong 1987b 2012 Sharf 1992 1999mdashinspired by Brown 1982 86ndash105) including Buddhist examples connecting human remains to sacred places regularly visited by devotees undertaking a pilgrimage

When we look to similar structures sites and practices related to physical remains of gods demons and animals as well as people we can recover part of the ritual world that Buddhists shared with other South Asian religions Early and medieval Hindu literary tradition is full of references to remains of gods and demons (Granoff 20081ndash9) These remains are described as deposited or purified at specific locales transforming the land into something sacred and defining special spaces where devotees wish to die leaving their corpses in the sacred center and thus purifying their souls (that is gaining ldquoreleaserdquo or ldquomoksardquo)4 What is suggested in literary evidence is even clearer in material evidence In both Hindu and Buddhist examples it is the power of objectsmdashincluding but not limited to bonesmdashthat enlivens a place making it sacred Such remains can transform a site or structure into a living conduit for the presence of a deity saint or teacher This dynamic has been richly studied in relation to stupas a Buddhist structure that houses relics and generates pilgrimage to them I suggest that something similar can be seen in Saiva ideas sites and rites surrounding lin

gas

As the liturgical object that hosts the worldly presence of Siva the lin

ga is primarily understood as his ldquomarkrdquo

or ldquosignrdquo (Figure 1) Yet it is also a mythic depiction of a divine bodily relicmdashthe godrsquos phallus Myths about its removal and the origins of lin

ga-worship abound in

Sanskrit and vernacular literature (Fleming 2009 Granoff 2008 61ndash9) To be sure such traditions regarding lin

gas

do not refer to human remains in the same sense seen in Buddhist examples Nevertheless we do find a number of early traditions related to Saiva lin

gas that hint at some

intersections with Buddhism in general and stupas in particular Stupas and lin

gas have similar functions

in relation to sacred landscapemdasha locus of pilgrimage worldly power and spiritual transformation The sites they sanctify are often nearby or identical The two categories may be distinguished in modern scholarship and in some premodern literary evidence but archaeological evidence points to significant overlaps stupas were sometimes worshipped at the same sites as lin

gas and some of their

elements were worshipped as lingas

Archaeological evidence from ancient and medieval sites across South Asia speaks to the confluence and contestation of Saiva and Buddhist spaces designated for

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458

the dead and for their ritual and liturgical remembrance by devotees These can be found in Mathura Ahicchatra Ujjain Nagarjunakon da Orissa Bihar Nepal and Pakistan The ancient city of Mathura in north India for instance features fragments of Buddhist and Hindu relief-carvings from abandoned stupas and from religious architecture connected to Saivism5 Interesting for our purposes is a fourth-century pillar inscription that mentions two lin

gas The lin

gas are described as the

gurvvayatana or ldquodwelling place of the gurus (teachers)rdquo and appear to have been erected as memorials to Kapilesvara and Upamitesvara6 D R Bhandarkar (1931) suggests these teachers were connected to branches of Pasupata Saivism one of the earliest forms of Saivism prominent in that region since antiquity7 In addition to its connection with Pasupatas Mathura is the earliest known source for sculptural production iconography and liturgical employment of lin

gas Given the concentration

of early evidence Saiva practices surrounding lingas likely

first emerged here (Kreisel 1986)8 Among numerous examples of early lin

gas are stone shards of relief-carvings

depicting scenes of linga worship with iconographical

parallels to the fragments of stupa railings at Mathura and other early Buddhist funerary sites (eg winged divinities and worshippers) (Figures 2 3 and 4) Thus in Mathura we find some evidence for the association of lin

gas with

veneration of the special dead as well as for iconographical parallels in Buddhist and Saiva art associated with stupas and lin

gas

While the evidence from Mathura is limited on its own we also see the convergence of Saiva and Buddhist art and architecture in Nagarjunakonda Andhra Pradesh There additions to earlier Buddhist stupas were made

FIG 1 Modern lin

ga and base near

Ghrsnesvara Maharashtra Photograph by Benjamin Fleming

459

FIG 2 Relief-fragment depicting lin

ga worship from

Mathura (firstndashsecond century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

FIG 4 Relief fragment of winged figures worshiping stupa Vrindivan Mathura district (ca first century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive The Ohio State University

FIG 3 Relief fragment of a lin

ga worshiped by winged figures Bhuteshwar (ca first century) Photograph by

John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

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460

by the wives of Saiva kings These include ayaka pillars (ie pillars with emerging figures)9 as well as memorial pillars dedicated to members of the ruling families One such pillar is dedicated to the third-century Iksvaku king Cam tamula I (Dutt 1931 633ndash4 Stone 1994 33) On the pillar is an inscription and relief-carving bearing a lin

ga

and Cam tamula I is said to have been favored by the warrior deity Mahasena (form of Skanda) whose Lord was Siva10 Its location is noteworthy the inscriptions make explicit their association with Saivism even as these rulers integrated their memorials into the structure and architecture of stupas housing remains of Buddhist figures Saiva kings perpetuated their presence beyond death at the same site in part through the image of the lin

ga

evoking its power to mediate spiritual power and worldly benefitsmdashmuch like the stupas to which these additions were attached There is a confluence of symbolism that draws meaning from a shared set of sites practices and beliefs among religious communities in Nagarjunakonda

If we see an overlap of linga and stupa it may be

because both form part of a broader continuum of related objectsmdashall resisting scholarly categorization as either ldquoBuddhistrdquo or ldquoHindurdquo For instance fourth- to sixth-century petroglyphs from northern Pakistan delineate stupas that are phallic and resemble lin

gas (Neelis 2006)

in one instance a stupa is drawn ejaculating (Figures 5

FIG 5 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) ejaculating stupa Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis

461

and 6)11 The blurring of Buddhist and Hindu funerary or memorial structures is also seen at Saiva centers in Ahicchatra and Mansar featuring pyramidal brick constructions (Agrawala 1947ndash8 167 Allchin 1957 1ndash4 Bakker 2007 25ndash30) There is limited evidence of human remains associated with them The Saiva pyramid builders employed techniques similar to those used for the construction of layered stupas (ie layers built up with boxes of earth stones rubble etc Bakker 2007 27) Especially on the basis of the surviving parts of one such structure found at Ahicchatra V S Agrawala (1947ndash8 167) likened them to the aid uka (relic repository) named in the Visnodharmottarapuran a [VDhP]12 Bakker (2007 26) questions their categorization as either aid uka or lin

ga but he does note some visual parallels ldquothe mass

of bricks ordered in a pyramidal ie tapering framework ending in a column or lin

ga has an outward similarity with

the structure described in the VDhPrdquo Ultimately Bakker (2007 27ndash9) prefers the hypothesis that it served as a kind of sacrificial post (yasti ) used in funerary rites related to human sacrifice Whatever its precise identification it is worth noting the challenge of categorization such objects resist binary approaches that associate ldquorelicsrdquo with Buddhism together with the sites and practices of the veneration of the bodies of the dead while characterizing the lin

ga as a Saiva object completely unrelated to human

burial bones tombs or remainsSomething similar occurs at other Buddhist and

Saiva sites bearing pillars or fragments of pillars In Bihar

FIG 6 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) stupa with Brahmı inscription of ldquoHarisenardquo (suggesting Hindu background of Buddhist devotee) overlaps Chinese inscription Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis (2006 163)

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462

and Orissa a number of ancient Mauryan pillars were originally connected to stupas and attributed to Asokan times (Figure 7) Some of these pillars such as at Vaisal ı Lauriya-Nandangarh and Bhubanesvara were later repurposed and venerated as Saiva lin

gas (Irwin 1973

716ndash17 Panigrahi 1961 Parmeshwaranand 2004 95 Kuraishi 1931 10 Tripathy 2004 9ndash14) For instance the Bhaskaresvara temple in Bhubanesvara Orrisa houses a nine-foot pillar-fragment A temple was built around it in about the seventh century when much of the Hindu architecture in the region took shape (Panigrahi 1961 171) As much as scholars have been interested in the origins of this temple there has been little attention to the Saiva reconfiguration of Buddhist sites of this sort (Panigrahi 1961 226) If there were an abhorrence of human remains in Hinduism why would Saivas establish pilgrimage sites in places housing Buddhist relics We may find a clue in the lin

gas erected on graves of Pasupata

teachers also found at Bhubanesvara which parallel those that served as a ldquodwelling place of the gurusrdquo where dead leaders were memorialized in Mathura13 In both cases the material culture of commemoration within Saivism remains more complex than any generalization about an essential Hindu aversion to human remains and the sanctity of the tombs of human teachers stands in continuum with the veneration of the physical remains of Siva himself

Evidence from Nepal is also suggestive Bronkhorst (2011) employs examples from Nepal to counter Bakkerrsquos suggestion that entombment or samadhi practices in northern India resulted from Muslim influence These examples could also be interpreted however as evidence for the interaction of Buddhist and Saiva traditions about the dead Veacuteronique Bouillier for instance has noted that many Saiva monasteries in Nepal are centered around the tombs of founders of a particular matha (cloister) which may take the form of lin

gas (Bronkhorst 2011

209) Similarly Bronkhorst (2011 211ndash12) points to an

FIG 7 Stupa and Mauryan-era pillar Bihar India Showing proximity of pillars and stupas from that era possibly derived from pre-Buddhist models Photograph by Hideyuko Kamon

463

eighteenth-century Jesuit eyewitness account of burials in Nepal where an earthen (parthiva) lin

ga was placed

over the interred ritually prepared body of an ascetic (samnyasin) and rites were performed over the lin

ga to

be repeated every ten days and on the anniversary of his death14

To these Nepalese examples we might add others where lin

gas are erected for the dead Twelfth- and

fourteenth-century inscriptions dedicate lingas to

deceased ancestors in one case a linga is erected

for attaining immortality (Inscriptions II XIII and XVIII in Regmi 1983) Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 23ndash35) has demonstrated the fluidity between lin

ga and stupa

iconography in depictions of burning grounds in sixteenth-century Nepali art (Figures 8 and 9) Likewise in his study on stupas Giuseppe de Marco (1987 222ndash5) gives examples of lin

gas in Nepal serving as grave markers

Above I noted Bronkhorstrsquos suggestion that examples of this sort all have their ultimate origins in pre-Buddhist traditions distinctive to Greater Magadha Even if this were the case it remains to be explained why such traditions came to be integrated into a broad range of Saiva sites and practices Taken together the above examples

FIG 8 Eighteenth-century painting of Guhyakal ı from National Art Gallery Bhaktapur Cremation grounds are featured in the background with caitya-reliquaries and lin

gas Photograph by Rajan Shrestha

courtesy of Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 29)

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464

from Orissa Bihar Ujjain Nagarjunakonda Ahicchatra Pakistan and Nepal point to a set of practices and objects that cross and connect Buddhist veneration of the dead with Saiva lin

ga worship These examples attest

interreligious discourses marked by both contestation and ambiguity Although not universal within ldquoHinduismrdquo the evidence spans the subcontinent and beyond for more than a millennium It cannot be reduced to any one theory about origins or influence

One possibility is that practices of this sort featured in regional Brahmanical and other non-Buddhist traditions in South Asia15 developing alongside Buddhist practices and in continued interaction with them perhaps drawing from pre-Buddhist practices (Irwin 1973 215ndash17) We already see early instances of Buddhist integration of Brahmanical rites the Asvamedha Agnistoma and other Vedic rituals are attested in the inscriptions of early stupas at Nagarjunakonda and other centers in the Krsna River Valley (Andhra Pradesh) These practices were maintained into the medieval period as seen for instance in land-grant inscriptions of Buddhist kings (Vogel 1929ndash30 17ndash21 Fleming 2013) That there were shared practices and discourses about bodily remains among communities that lived side by side seems plausible even if those connections are difficult to reconstruct with precision If so the later engagement with Islam can be viewed as a continuing dialogue among South Asian religionsmdashsimultaneously from within each tradition and dynamically incorporating or answering others16

Linga as Skull and Relic

I have focused so far on archaeological and inscriptional evidence and have uncovered practices that have been

FIG 9 Detail of lin

ga and chaitya next to

cremation-pyre and jackal from wooden door-relief bearing six visible cremation grounds 1757 Kumar ı House Basantapur Tole Kathmandu Photograph by Gudrun Buumlhnemann

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

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466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

l Rel

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n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

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icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

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eria

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elic

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in gas

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Oth

er A

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icio

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J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

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ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

458

the dead and for their ritual and liturgical remembrance by devotees These can be found in Mathura Ahicchatra Ujjain Nagarjunakon da Orissa Bihar Nepal and Pakistan The ancient city of Mathura in north India for instance features fragments of Buddhist and Hindu relief-carvings from abandoned stupas and from religious architecture connected to Saivism5 Interesting for our purposes is a fourth-century pillar inscription that mentions two lin

gas The lin

gas are described as the

gurvvayatana or ldquodwelling place of the gurus (teachers)rdquo and appear to have been erected as memorials to Kapilesvara and Upamitesvara6 D R Bhandarkar (1931) suggests these teachers were connected to branches of Pasupata Saivism one of the earliest forms of Saivism prominent in that region since antiquity7 In addition to its connection with Pasupatas Mathura is the earliest known source for sculptural production iconography and liturgical employment of lin

gas Given the concentration

of early evidence Saiva practices surrounding lingas likely

first emerged here (Kreisel 1986)8 Among numerous examples of early lin

gas are stone shards of relief-carvings

depicting scenes of linga worship with iconographical

parallels to the fragments of stupa railings at Mathura and other early Buddhist funerary sites (eg winged divinities and worshippers) (Figures 2 3 and 4) Thus in Mathura we find some evidence for the association of lin

gas with

veneration of the special dead as well as for iconographical parallels in Buddhist and Saiva art associated with stupas and lin

gas

While the evidence from Mathura is limited on its own we also see the convergence of Saiva and Buddhist art and architecture in Nagarjunakonda Andhra Pradesh There additions to earlier Buddhist stupas were made

FIG 1 Modern lin

ga and base near

Ghrsnesvara Maharashtra Photograph by Benjamin Fleming

459

FIG 2 Relief-fragment depicting lin

ga worship from

Mathura (firstndashsecond century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

FIG 4 Relief fragment of winged figures worshiping stupa Vrindivan Mathura district (ca first century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive The Ohio State University

FIG 3 Relief fragment of a lin

ga worshiped by winged figures Bhuteshwar (ca first century) Photograph by

John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

Mat

eria

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elic

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in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

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min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

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ions

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jam

in J

Fle

min

g

460

by the wives of Saiva kings These include ayaka pillars (ie pillars with emerging figures)9 as well as memorial pillars dedicated to members of the ruling families One such pillar is dedicated to the third-century Iksvaku king Cam tamula I (Dutt 1931 633ndash4 Stone 1994 33) On the pillar is an inscription and relief-carving bearing a lin

ga

and Cam tamula I is said to have been favored by the warrior deity Mahasena (form of Skanda) whose Lord was Siva10 Its location is noteworthy the inscriptions make explicit their association with Saivism even as these rulers integrated their memorials into the structure and architecture of stupas housing remains of Buddhist figures Saiva kings perpetuated their presence beyond death at the same site in part through the image of the lin

ga

evoking its power to mediate spiritual power and worldly benefitsmdashmuch like the stupas to which these additions were attached There is a confluence of symbolism that draws meaning from a shared set of sites practices and beliefs among religious communities in Nagarjunakonda

If we see an overlap of linga and stupa it may be

because both form part of a broader continuum of related objectsmdashall resisting scholarly categorization as either ldquoBuddhistrdquo or ldquoHindurdquo For instance fourth- to sixth-century petroglyphs from northern Pakistan delineate stupas that are phallic and resemble lin

gas (Neelis 2006)

in one instance a stupa is drawn ejaculating (Figures 5

FIG 5 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) ejaculating stupa Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis

461

and 6)11 The blurring of Buddhist and Hindu funerary or memorial structures is also seen at Saiva centers in Ahicchatra and Mansar featuring pyramidal brick constructions (Agrawala 1947ndash8 167 Allchin 1957 1ndash4 Bakker 2007 25ndash30) There is limited evidence of human remains associated with them The Saiva pyramid builders employed techniques similar to those used for the construction of layered stupas (ie layers built up with boxes of earth stones rubble etc Bakker 2007 27) Especially on the basis of the surviving parts of one such structure found at Ahicchatra V S Agrawala (1947ndash8 167) likened them to the aid uka (relic repository) named in the Visnodharmottarapuran a [VDhP]12 Bakker (2007 26) questions their categorization as either aid uka or lin

ga but he does note some visual parallels ldquothe mass

of bricks ordered in a pyramidal ie tapering framework ending in a column or lin

ga has an outward similarity with

the structure described in the VDhPrdquo Ultimately Bakker (2007 27ndash9) prefers the hypothesis that it served as a kind of sacrificial post (yasti ) used in funerary rites related to human sacrifice Whatever its precise identification it is worth noting the challenge of categorization such objects resist binary approaches that associate ldquorelicsrdquo with Buddhism together with the sites and practices of the veneration of the bodies of the dead while characterizing the lin

ga as a Saiva object completely unrelated to human

burial bones tombs or remainsSomething similar occurs at other Buddhist and

Saiva sites bearing pillars or fragments of pillars In Bihar

FIG 6 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) stupa with Brahmı inscription of ldquoHarisenardquo (suggesting Hindu background of Buddhist devotee) overlaps Chinese inscription Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis (2006 163)

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

462

and Orissa a number of ancient Mauryan pillars were originally connected to stupas and attributed to Asokan times (Figure 7) Some of these pillars such as at Vaisal ı Lauriya-Nandangarh and Bhubanesvara were later repurposed and venerated as Saiva lin

gas (Irwin 1973

716ndash17 Panigrahi 1961 Parmeshwaranand 2004 95 Kuraishi 1931 10 Tripathy 2004 9ndash14) For instance the Bhaskaresvara temple in Bhubanesvara Orrisa houses a nine-foot pillar-fragment A temple was built around it in about the seventh century when much of the Hindu architecture in the region took shape (Panigrahi 1961 171) As much as scholars have been interested in the origins of this temple there has been little attention to the Saiva reconfiguration of Buddhist sites of this sort (Panigrahi 1961 226) If there were an abhorrence of human remains in Hinduism why would Saivas establish pilgrimage sites in places housing Buddhist relics We may find a clue in the lin

gas erected on graves of Pasupata

teachers also found at Bhubanesvara which parallel those that served as a ldquodwelling place of the gurusrdquo where dead leaders were memorialized in Mathura13 In both cases the material culture of commemoration within Saivism remains more complex than any generalization about an essential Hindu aversion to human remains and the sanctity of the tombs of human teachers stands in continuum with the veneration of the physical remains of Siva himself

Evidence from Nepal is also suggestive Bronkhorst (2011) employs examples from Nepal to counter Bakkerrsquos suggestion that entombment or samadhi practices in northern India resulted from Muslim influence These examples could also be interpreted however as evidence for the interaction of Buddhist and Saiva traditions about the dead Veacuteronique Bouillier for instance has noted that many Saiva monasteries in Nepal are centered around the tombs of founders of a particular matha (cloister) which may take the form of lin

gas (Bronkhorst 2011

209) Similarly Bronkhorst (2011 211ndash12) points to an

FIG 7 Stupa and Mauryan-era pillar Bihar India Showing proximity of pillars and stupas from that era possibly derived from pre-Buddhist models Photograph by Hideyuko Kamon

463

eighteenth-century Jesuit eyewitness account of burials in Nepal where an earthen (parthiva) lin

ga was placed

over the interred ritually prepared body of an ascetic (samnyasin) and rites were performed over the lin

ga to

be repeated every ten days and on the anniversary of his death14

To these Nepalese examples we might add others where lin

gas are erected for the dead Twelfth- and

fourteenth-century inscriptions dedicate lingas to

deceased ancestors in one case a linga is erected

for attaining immortality (Inscriptions II XIII and XVIII in Regmi 1983) Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 23ndash35) has demonstrated the fluidity between lin

ga and stupa

iconography in depictions of burning grounds in sixteenth-century Nepali art (Figures 8 and 9) Likewise in his study on stupas Giuseppe de Marco (1987 222ndash5) gives examples of lin

gas in Nepal serving as grave markers

Above I noted Bronkhorstrsquos suggestion that examples of this sort all have their ultimate origins in pre-Buddhist traditions distinctive to Greater Magadha Even if this were the case it remains to be explained why such traditions came to be integrated into a broad range of Saiva sites and practices Taken together the above examples

FIG 8 Eighteenth-century painting of Guhyakal ı from National Art Gallery Bhaktapur Cremation grounds are featured in the background with caitya-reliquaries and lin

gas Photograph by Rajan Shrestha

courtesy of Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 29)

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

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elic

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in gas

and

Oth

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usp

icio

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min

J F

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ing

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sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

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uth

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jam

in J

Fle

min

g

464

from Orissa Bihar Ujjain Nagarjunakonda Ahicchatra Pakistan and Nepal point to a set of practices and objects that cross and connect Buddhist veneration of the dead with Saiva lin

ga worship These examples attest

interreligious discourses marked by both contestation and ambiguity Although not universal within ldquoHinduismrdquo the evidence spans the subcontinent and beyond for more than a millennium It cannot be reduced to any one theory about origins or influence

One possibility is that practices of this sort featured in regional Brahmanical and other non-Buddhist traditions in South Asia15 developing alongside Buddhist practices and in continued interaction with them perhaps drawing from pre-Buddhist practices (Irwin 1973 215ndash17) We already see early instances of Buddhist integration of Brahmanical rites the Asvamedha Agnistoma and other Vedic rituals are attested in the inscriptions of early stupas at Nagarjunakonda and other centers in the Krsna River Valley (Andhra Pradesh) These practices were maintained into the medieval period as seen for instance in land-grant inscriptions of Buddhist kings (Vogel 1929ndash30 17ndash21 Fleming 2013) That there were shared practices and discourses about bodily remains among communities that lived side by side seems plausible even if those connections are difficult to reconstruct with precision If so the later engagement with Islam can be viewed as a continuing dialogue among South Asian religionsmdashsimultaneously from within each tradition and dynamically incorporating or answering others16

Linga as Skull and Relic

I have focused so far on archaeological and inscriptional evidence and have uncovered practices that have been

FIG 9 Detail of lin

ga and chaitya next to

cremation-pyre and jackal from wooden door-relief bearing six visible cremation grounds 1757 Kumar ı House Basantapur Tole Kathmandu Photograph by Gudrun Buumlhnemann

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

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elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

459

FIG 2 Relief-fragment depicting lin

ga worship from

Mathura (firstndashsecond century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

FIG 4 Relief fragment of winged figures worshiping stupa Vrindivan Mathura district (ca first century) Photograph by John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive The Ohio State University

FIG 3 Relief fragment of a lin

ga worshiped by winged figures Bhuteshwar (ca first century) Photograph by

John Huntington The Huntington Photographic Archive Ohio State University

Mat

eria

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elic

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in gas

and

Oth

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icio

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lem

ing

Is

sue

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ater

ial R

emai

ns in

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460

by the wives of Saiva kings These include ayaka pillars (ie pillars with emerging figures)9 as well as memorial pillars dedicated to members of the ruling families One such pillar is dedicated to the third-century Iksvaku king Cam tamula I (Dutt 1931 633ndash4 Stone 1994 33) On the pillar is an inscription and relief-carving bearing a lin

ga

and Cam tamula I is said to have been favored by the warrior deity Mahasena (form of Skanda) whose Lord was Siva10 Its location is noteworthy the inscriptions make explicit their association with Saivism even as these rulers integrated their memorials into the structure and architecture of stupas housing remains of Buddhist figures Saiva kings perpetuated their presence beyond death at the same site in part through the image of the lin

ga

evoking its power to mediate spiritual power and worldly benefitsmdashmuch like the stupas to which these additions were attached There is a confluence of symbolism that draws meaning from a shared set of sites practices and beliefs among religious communities in Nagarjunakonda

If we see an overlap of linga and stupa it may be

because both form part of a broader continuum of related objectsmdashall resisting scholarly categorization as either ldquoBuddhistrdquo or ldquoHindurdquo For instance fourth- to sixth-century petroglyphs from northern Pakistan delineate stupas that are phallic and resemble lin

gas (Neelis 2006)

in one instance a stupa is drawn ejaculating (Figures 5

FIG 5 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) ejaculating stupa Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis

461

and 6)11 The blurring of Buddhist and Hindu funerary or memorial structures is also seen at Saiva centers in Ahicchatra and Mansar featuring pyramidal brick constructions (Agrawala 1947ndash8 167 Allchin 1957 1ndash4 Bakker 2007 25ndash30) There is limited evidence of human remains associated with them The Saiva pyramid builders employed techniques similar to those used for the construction of layered stupas (ie layers built up with boxes of earth stones rubble etc Bakker 2007 27) Especially on the basis of the surviving parts of one such structure found at Ahicchatra V S Agrawala (1947ndash8 167) likened them to the aid uka (relic repository) named in the Visnodharmottarapuran a [VDhP]12 Bakker (2007 26) questions their categorization as either aid uka or lin

ga but he does note some visual parallels ldquothe mass

of bricks ordered in a pyramidal ie tapering framework ending in a column or lin

ga has an outward similarity with

the structure described in the VDhPrdquo Ultimately Bakker (2007 27ndash9) prefers the hypothesis that it served as a kind of sacrificial post (yasti ) used in funerary rites related to human sacrifice Whatever its precise identification it is worth noting the challenge of categorization such objects resist binary approaches that associate ldquorelicsrdquo with Buddhism together with the sites and practices of the veneration of the bodies of the dead while characterizing the lin

ga as a Saiva object completely unrelated to human

burial bones tombs or remainsSomething similar occurs at other Buddhist and

Saiva sites bearing pillars or fragments of pillars In Bihar

FIG 6 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) stupa with Brahmı inscription of ldquoHarisenardquo (suggesting Hindu background of Buddhist devotee) overlaps Chinese inscription Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis (2006 163)

Mat

eria

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elic

s L

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Oth

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J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

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jam

in J

Fle

min

g

462

and Orissa a number of ancient Mauryan pillars were originally connected to stupas and attributed to Asokan times (Figure 7) Some of these pillars such as at Vaisal ı Lauriya-Nandangarh and Bhubanesvara were later repurposed and venerated as Saiva lin

gas (Irwin 1973

716ndash17 Panigrahi 1961 Parmeshwaranand 2004 95 Kuraishi 1931 10 Tripathy 2004 9ndash14) For instance the Bhaskaresvara temple in Bhubanesvara Orrisa houses a nine-foot pillar-fragment A temple was built around it in about the seventh century when much of the Hindu architecture in the region took shape (Panigrahi 1961 171) As much as scholars have been interested in the origins of this temple there has been little attention to the Saiva reconfiguration of Buddhist sites of this sort (Panigrahi 1961 226) If there were an abhorrence of human remains in Hinduism why would Saivas establish pilgrimage sites in places housing Buddhist relics We may find a clue in the lin

gas erected on graves of Pasupata

teachers also found at Bhubanesvara which parallel those that served as a ldquodwelling place of the gurusrdquo where dead leaders were memorialized in Mathura13 In both cases the material culture of commemoration within Saivism remains more complex than any generalization about an essential Hindu aversion to human remains and the sanctity of the tombs of human teachers stands in continuum with the veneration of the physical remains of Siva himself

Evidence from Nepal is also suggestive Bronkhorst (2011) employs examples from Nepal to counter Bakkerrsquos suggestion that entombment or samadhi practices in northern India resulted from Muslim influence These examples could also be interpreted however as evidence for the interaction of Buddhist and Saiva traditions about the dead Veacuteronique Bouillier for instance has noted that many Saiva monasteries in Nepal are centered around the tombs of founders of a particular matha (cloister) which may take the form of lin

gas (Bronkhorst 2011

209) Similarly Bronkhorst (2011 211ndash12) points to an

FIG 7 Stupa and Mauryan-era pillar Bihar India Showing proximity of pillars and stupas from that era possibly derived from pre-Buddhist models Photograph by Hideyuko Kamon

463

eighteenth-century Jesuit eyewitness account of burials in Nepal where an earthen (parthiva) lin

ga was placed

over the interred ritually prepared body of an ascetic (samnyasin) and rites were performed over the lin

ga to

be repeated every ten days and on the anniversary of his death14

To these Nepalese examples we might add others where lin

gas are erected for the dead Twelfth- and

fourteenth-century inscriptions dedicate lingas to

deceased ancestors in one case a linga is erected

for attaining immortality (Inscriptions II XIII and XVIII in Regmi 1983) Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 23ndash35) has demonstrated the fluidity between lin

ga and stupa

iconography in depictions of burning grounds in sixteenth-century Nepali art (Figures 8 and 9) Likewise in his study on stupas Giuseppe de Marco (1987 222ndash5) gives examples of lin

gas in Nepal serving as grave markers

Above I noted Bronkhorstrsquos suggestion that examples of this sort all have their ultimate origins in pre-Buddhist traditions distinctive to Greater Magadha Even if this were the case it remains to be explained why such traditions came to be integrated into a broad range of Saiva sites and practices Taken together the above examples

FIG 8 Eighteenth-century painting of Guhyakal ı from National Art Gallery Bhaktapur Cremation grounds are featured in the background with caitya-reliquaries and lin

gas Photograph by Rajan Shrestha

courtesy of Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 29)

Mat

eria

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in gas

and

Oth

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J F

lem

ing

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sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

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elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

464

from Orissa Bihar Ujjain Nagarjunakonda Ahicchatra Pakistan and Nepal point to a set of practices and objects that cross and connect Buddhist veneration of the dead with Saiva lin

ga worship These examples attest

interreligious discourses marked by both contestation and ambiguity Although not universal within ldquoHinduismrdquo the evidence spans the subcontinent and beyond for more than a millennium It cannot be reduced to any one theory about origins or influence

One possibility is that practices of this sort featured in regional Brahmanical and other non-Buddhist traditions in South Asia15 developing alongside Buddhist practices and in continued interaction with them perhaps drawing from pre-Buddhist practices (Irwin 1973 215ndash17) We already see early instances of Buddhist integration of Brahmanical rites the Asvamedha Agnistoma and other Vedic rituals are attested in the inscriptions of early stupas at Nagarjunakonda and other centers in the Krsna River Valley (Andhra Pradesh) These practices were maintained into the medieval period as seen for instance in land-grant inscriptions of Buddhist kings (Vogel 1929ndash30 17ndash21 Fleming 2013) That there were shared practices and discourses about bodily remains among communities that lived side by side seems plausible even if those connections are difficult to reconstruct with precision If so the later engagement with Islam can be viewed as a continuing dialogue among South Asian religionsmdashsimultaneously from within each tradition and dynamically incorporating or answering others16

Linga as Skull and Relic

I have focused so far on archaeological and inscriptional evidence and have uncovered practices that have been

FIG 9 Detail of lin

ga and chaitya next to

cremation-pyre and jackal from wooden door-relief bearing six visible cremation grounds 1757 Kumar ı House Basantapur Tole Kathmandu Photograph by Gudrun Buumlhnemann

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

Mat

eria

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ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

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ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

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elic

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4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

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an R

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ions

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jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

460

by the wives of Saiva kings These include ayaka pillars (ie pillars with emerging figures)9 as well as memorial pillars dedicated to members of the ruling families One such pillar is dedicated to the third-century Iksvaku king Cam tamula I (Dutt 1931 633ndash4 Stone 1994 33) On the pillar is an inscription and relief-carving bearing a lin

ga

and Cam tamula I is said to have been favored by the warrior deity Mahasena (form of Skanda) whose Lord was Siva10 Its location is noteworthy the inscriptions make explicit their association with Saivism even as these rulers integrated their memorials into the structure and architecture of stupas housing remains of Buddhist figures Saiva kings perpetuated their presence beyond death at the same site in part through the image of the lin

ga

evoking its power to mediate spiritual power and worldly benefitsmdashmuch like the stupas to which these additions were attached There is a confluence of symbolism that draws meaning from a shared set of sites practices and beliefs among religious communities in Nagarjunakonda

If we see an overlap of linga and stupa it may be

because both form part of a broader continuum of related objectsmdashall resisting scholarly categorization as either ldquoBuddhistrdquo or ldquoHindurdquo For instance fourth- to sixth-century petroglyphs from northern Pakistan delineate stupas that are phallic and resemble lin

gas (Neelis 2006)

in one instance a stupa is drawn ejaculating (Figures 5

FIG 5 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) ejaculating stupa Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis

461

and 6)11 The blurring of Buddhist and Hindu funerary or memorial structures is also seen at Saiva centers in Ahicchatra and Mansar featuring pyramidal brick constructions (Agrawala 1947ndash8 167 Allchin 1957 1ndash4 Bakker 2007 25ndash30) There is limited evidence of human remains associated with them The Saiva pyramid builders employed techniques similar to those used for the construction of layered stupas (ie layers built up with boxes of earth stones rubble etc Bakker 2007 27) Especially on the basis of the surviving parts of one such structure found at Ahicchatra V S Agrawala (1947ndash8 167) likened them to the aid uka (relic repository) named in the Visnodharmottarapuran a [VDhP]12 Bakker (2007 26) questions their categorization as either aid uka or lin

ga but he does note some visual parallels ldquothe mass

of bricks ordered in a pyramidal ie tapering framework ending in a column or lin

ga has an outward similarity with

the structure described in the VDhPrdquo Ultimately Bakker (2007 27ndash9) prefers the hypothesis that it served as a kind of sacrificial post (yasti ) used in funerary rites related to human sacrifice Whatever its precise identification it is worth noting the challenge of categorization such objects resist binary approaches that associate ldquorelicsrdquo with Buddhism together with the sites and practices of the veneration of the bodies of the dead while characterizing the lin

ga as a Saiva object completely unrelated to human

burial bones tombs or remainsSomething similar occurs at other Buddhist and

Saiva sites bearing pillars or fragments of pillars In Bihar

FIG 6 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) stupa with Brahmı inscription of ldquoHarisenardquo (suggesting Hindu background of Buddhist devotee) overlaps Chinese inscription Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis (2006 163)

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

462

and Orissa a number of ancient Mauryan pillars were originally connected to stupas and attributed to Asokan times (Figure 7) Some of these pillars such as at Vaisal ı Lauriya-Nandangarh and Bhubanesvara were later repurposed and venerated as Saiva lin

gas (Irwin 1973

716ndash17 Panigrahi 1961 Parmeshwaranand 2004 95 Kuraishi 1931 10 Tripathy 2004 9ndash14) For instance the Bhaskaresvara temple in Bhubanesvara Orrisa houses a nine-foot pillar-fragment A temple was built around it in about the seventh century when much of the Hindu architecture in the region took shape (Panigrahi 1961 171) As much as scholars have been interested in the origins of this temple there has been little attention to the Saiva reconfiguration of Buddhist sites of this sort (Panigrahi 1961 226) If there were an abhorrence of human remains in Hinduism why would Saivas establish pilgrimage sites in places housing Buddhist relics We may find a clue in the lin

gas erected on graves of Pasupata

teachers also found at Bhubanesvara which parallel those that served as a ldquodwelling place of the gurusrdquo where dead leaders were memorialized in Mathura13 In both cases the material culture of commemoration within Saivism remains more complex than any generalization about an essential Hindu aversion to human remains and the sanctity of the tombs of human teachers stands in continuum with the veneration of the physical remains of Siva himself

Evidence from Nepal is also suggestive Bronkhorst (2011) employs examples from Nepal to counter Bakkerrsquos suggestion that entombment or samadhi practices in northern India resulted from Muslim influence These examples could also be interpreted however as evidence for the interaction of Buddhist and Saiva traditions about the dead Veacuteronique Bouillier for instance has noted that many Saiva monasteries in Nepal are centered around the tombs of founders of a particular matha (cloister) which may take the form of lin

gas (Bronkhorst 2011

209) Similarly Bronkhorst (2011 211ndash12) points to an

FIG 7 Stupa and Mauryan-era pillar Bihar India Showing proximity of pillars and stupas from that era possibly derived from pre-Buddhist models Photograph by Hideyuko Kamon

463

eighteenth-century Jesuit eyewitness account of burials in Nepal where an earthen (parthiva) lin

ga was placed

over the interred ritually prepared body of an ascetic (samnyasin) and rites were performed over the lin

ga to

be repeated every ten days and on the anniversary of his death14

To these Nepalese examples we might add others where lin

gas are erected for the dead Twelfth- and

fourteenth-century inscriptions dedicate lingas to

deceased ancestors in one case a linga is erected

for attaining immortality (Inscriptions II XIII and XVIII in Regmi 1983) Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 23ndash35) has demonstrated the fluidity between lin

ga and stupa

iconography in depictions of burning grounds in sixteenth-century Nepali art (Figures 8 and 9) Likewise in his study on stupas Giuseppe de Marco (1987 222ndash5) gives examples of lin

gas in Nepal serving as grave markers

Above I noted Bronkhorstrsquos suggestion that examples of this sort all have their ultimate origins in pre-Buddhist traditions distinctive to Greater Magadha Even if this were the case it remains to be explained why such traditions came to be integrated into a broad range of Saiva sites and practices Taken together the above examples

FIG 8 Eighteenth-century painting of Guhyakal ı from National Art Gallery Bhaktapur Cremation grounds are featured in the background with caitya-reliquaries and lin

gas Photograph by Rajan Shrestha

courtesy of Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 29)

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

464

from Orissa Bihar Ujjain Nagarjunakonda Ahicchatra Pakistan and Nepal point to a set of practices and objects that cross and connect Buddhist veneration of the dead with Saiva lin

ga worship These examples attest

interreligious discourses marked by both contestation and ambiguity Although not universal within ldquoHinduismrdquo the evidence spans the subcontinent and beyond for more than a millennium It cannot be reduced to any one theory about origins or influence

One possibility is that practices of this sort featured in regional Brahmanical and other non-Buddhist traditions in South Asia15 developing alongside Buddhist practices and in continued interaction with them perhaps drawing from pre-Buddhist practices (Irwin 1973 215ndash17) We already see early instances of Buddhist integration of Brahmanical rites the Asvamedha Agnistoma and other Vedic rituals are attested in the inscriptions of early stupas at Nagarjunakonda and other centers in the Krsna River Valley (Andhra Pradesh) These practices were maintained into the medieval period as seen for instance in land-grant inscriptions of Buddhist kings (Vogel 1929ndash30 17ndash21 Fleming 2013) That there were shared practices and discourses about bodily remains among communities that lived side by side seems plausible even if those connections are difficult to reconstruct with precision If so the later engagement with Islam can be viewed as a continuing dialogue among South Asian religionsmdashsimultaneously from within each tradition and dynamically incorporating or answering others16

Linga as Skull and Relic

I have focused so far on archaeological and inscriptional evidence and have uncovered practices that have been

FIG 9 Detail of lin

ga and chaitya next to

cremation-pyre and jackal from wooden door-relief bearing six visible cremation grounds 1757 Kumar ı House Basantapur Tole Kathmandu Photograph by Gudrun Buumlhnemann

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

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J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

461

and 6)11 The blurring of Buddhist and Hindu funerary or memorial structures is also seen at Saiva centers in Ahicchatra and Mansar featuring pyramidal brick constructions (Agrawala 1947ndash8 167 Allchin 1957 1ndash4 Bakker 2007 25ndash30) There is limited evidence of human remains associated with them The Saiva pyramid builders employed techniques similar to those used for the construction of layered stupas (ie layers built up with boxes of earth stones rubble etc Bakker 2007 27) Especially on the basis of the surviving parts of one such structure found at Ahicchatra V S Agrawala (1947ndash8 167) likened them to the aid uka (relic repository) named in the Visnodharmottarapuran a [VDhP]12 Bakker (2007 26) questions their categorization as either aid uka or lin

ga but he does note some visual parallels ldquothe mass

of bricks ordered in a pyramidal ie tapering framework ending in a column or lin

ga has an outward similarity with

the structure described in the VDhPrdquo Ultimately Bakker (2007 27ndash9) prefers the hypothesis that it served as a kind of sacrificial post (yasti ) used in funerary rites related to human sacrifice Whatever its precise identification it is worth noting the challenge of categorization such objects resist binary approaches that associate ldquorelicsrdquo with Buddhism together with the sites and practices of the veneration of the bodies of the dead while characterizing the lin

ga as a Saiva object completely unrelated to human

burial bones tombs or remainsSomething similar occurs at other Buddhist and

Saiva sites bearing pillars or fragments of pillars In Bihar

FIG 6 Petroglyph graffiti (fourthndashsixth century) stupa with Brahmı inscription of ldquoHarisenardquo (suggesting Hindu background of Buddhist devotee) overlaps Chinese inscription Haldeikish Pakistan Photograph by Jason Neelis (2006 163)

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

462

and Orissa a number of ancient Mauryan pillars were originally connected to stupas and attributed to Asokan times (Figure 7) Some of these pillars such as at Vaisal ı Lauriya-Nandangarh and Bhubanesvara were later repurposed and venerated as Saiva lin

gas (Irwin 1973

716ndash17 Panigrahi 1961 Parmeshwaranand 2004 95 Kuraishi 1931 10 Tripathy 2004 9ndash14) For instance the Bhaskaresvara temple in Bhubanesvara Orrisa houses a nine-foot pillar-fragment A temple was built around it in about the seventh century when much of the Hindu architecture in the region took shape (Panigrahi 1961 171) As much as scholars have been interested in the origins of this temple there has been little attention to the Saiva reconfiguration of Buddhist sites of this sort (Panigrahi 1961 226) If there were an abhorrence of human remains in Hinduism why would Saivas establish pilgrimage sites in places housing Buddhist relics We may find a clue in the lin

gas erected on graves of Pasupata

teachers also found at Bhubanesvara which parallel those that served as a ldquodwelling place of the gurusrdquo where dead leaders were memorialized in Mathura13 In both cases the material culture of commemoration within Saivism remains more complex than any generalization about an essential Hindu aversion to human remains and the sanctity of the tombs of human teachers stands in continuum with the veneration of the physical remains of Siva himself

Evidence from Nepal is also suggestive Bronkhorst (2011) employs examples from Nepal to counter Bakkerrsquos suggestion that entombment or samadhi practices in northern India resulted from Muslim influence These examples could also be interpreted however as evidence for the interaction of Buddhist and Saiva traditions about the dead Veacuteronique Bouillier for instance has noted that many Saiva monasteries in Nepal are centered around the tombs of founders of a particular matha (cloister) which may take the form of lin

gas (Bronkhorst 2011

209) Similarly Bronkhorst (2011 211ndash12) points to an

FIG 7 Stupa and Mauryan-era pillar Bihar India Showing proximity of pillars and stupas from that era possibly derived from pre-Buddhist models Photograph by Hideyuko Kamon

463

eighteenth-century Jesuit eyewitness account of burials in Nepal where an earthen (parthiva) lin

ga was placed

over the interred ritually prepared body of an ascetic (samnyasin) and rites were performed over the lin

ga to

be repeated every ten days and on the anniversary of his death14

To these Nepalese examples we might add others where lin

gas are erected for the dead Twelfth- and

fourteenth-century inscriptions dedicate lingas to

deceased ancestors in one case a linga is erected

for attaining immortality (Inscriptions II XIII and XVIII in Regmi 1983) Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 23ndash35) has demonstrated the fluidity between lin

ga and stupa

iconography in depictions of burning grounds in sixteenth-century Nepali art (Figures 8 and 9) Likewise in his study on stupas Giuseppe de Marco (1987 222ndash5) gives examples of lin

gas in Nepal serving as grave markers

Above I noted Bronkhorstrsquos suggestion that examples of this sort all have their ultimate origins in pre-Buddhist traditions distinctive to Greater Magadha Even if this were the case it remains to be explained why such traditions came to be integrated into a broad range of Saiva sites and practices Taken together the above examples

FIG 8 Eighteenth-century painting of Guhyakal ı from National Art Gallery Bhaktapur Cremation grounds are featured in the background with caitya-reliquaries and lin

gas Photograph by Rajan Shrestha

courtesy of Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 29)

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

464

from Orissa Bihar Ujjain Nagarjunakonda Ahicchatra Pakistan and Nepal point to a set of practices and objects that cross and connect Buddhist veneration of the dead with Saiva lin

ga worship These examples attest

interreligious discourses marked by both contestation and ambiguity Although not universal within ldquoHinduismrdquo the evidence spans the subcontinent and beyond for more than a millennium It cannot be reduced to any one theory about origins or influence

One possibility is that practices of this sort featured in regional Brahmanical and other non-Buddhist traditions in South Asia15 developing alongside Buddhist practices and in continued interaction with them perhaps drawing from pre-Buddhist practices (Irwin 1973 215ndash17) We already see early instances of Buddhist integration of Brahmanical rites the Asvamedha Agnistoma and other Vedic rituals are attested in the inscriptions of early stupas at Nagarjunakonda and other centers in the Krsna River Valley (Andhra Pradesh) These practices were maintained into the medieval period as seen for instance in land-grant inscriptions of Buddhist kings (Vogel 1929ndash30 17ndash21 Fleming 2013) That there were shared practices and discourses about bodily remains among communities that lived side by side seems plausible even if those connections are difficult to reconstruct with precision If so the later engagement with Islam can be viewed as a continuing dialogue among South Asian religionsmdashsimultaneously from within each tradition and dynamically incorporating or answering others16

Linga as Skull and Relic

I have focused so far on archaeological and inscriptional evidence and have uncovered practices that have been

FIG 9 Detail of lin

ga and chaitya next to

cremation-pyre and jackal from wooden door-relief bearing six visible cremation grounds 1757 Kumar ı House Basantapur Tole Kathmandu Photograph by Gudrun Buumlhnemann

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

462

and Orissa a number of ancient Mauryan pillars were originally connected to stupas and attributed to Asokan times (Figure 7) Some of these pillars such as at Vaisal ı Lauriya-Nandangarh and Bhubanesvara were later repurposed and venerated as Saiva lin

gas (Irwin 1973

716ndash17 Panigrahi 1961 Parmeshwaranand 2004 95 Kuraishi 1931 10 Tripathy 2004 9ndash14) For instance the Bhaskaresvara temple in Bhubanesvara Orrisa houses a nine-foot pillar-fragment A temple was built around it in about the seventh century when much of the Hindu architecture in the region took shape (Panigrahi 1961 171) As much as scholars have been interested in the origins of this temple there has been little attention to the Saiva reconfiguration of Buddhist sites of this sort (Panigrahi 1961 226) If there were an abhorrence of human remains in Hinduism why would Saivas establish pilgrimage sites in places housing Buddhist relics We may find a clue in the lin

gas erected on graves of Pasupata

teachers also found at Bhubanesvara which parallel those that served as a ldquodwelling place of the gurusrdquo where dead leaders were memorialized in Mathura13 In both cases the material culture of commemoration within Saivism remains more complex than any generalization about an essential Hindu aversion to human remains and the sanctity of the tombs of human teachers stands in continuum with the veneration of the physical remains of Siva himself

Evidence from Nepal is also suggestive Bronkhorst (2011) employs examples from Nepal to counter Bakkerrsquos suggestion that entombment or samadhi practices in northern India resulted from Muslim influence These examples could also be interpreted however as evidence for the interaction of Buddhist and Saiva traditions about the dead Veacuteronique Bouillier for instance has noted that many Saiva monasteries in Nepal are centered around the tombs of founders of a particular matha (cloister) which may take the form of lin

gas (Bronkhorst 2011

209) Similarly Bronkhorst (2011 211ndash12) points to an

FIG 7 Stupa and Mauryan-era pillar Bihar India Showing proximity of pillars and stupas from that era possibly derived from pre-Buddhist models Photograph by Hideyuko Kamon

463

eighteenth-century Jesuit eyewitness account of burials in Nepal where an earthen (parthiva) lin

ga was placed

over the interred ritually prepared body of an ascetic (samnyasin) and rites were performed over the lin

ga to

be repeated every ten days and on the anniversary of his death14

To these Nepalese examples we might add others where lin

gas are erected for the dead Twelfth- and

fourteenth-century inscriptions dedicate lingas to

deceased ancestors in one case a linga is erected

for attaining immortality (Inscriptions II XIII and XVIII in Regmi 1983) Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 23ndash35) has demonstrated the fluidity between lin

ga and stupa

iconography in depictions of burning grounds in sixteenth-century Nepali art (Figures 8 and 9) Likewise in his study on stupas Giuseppe de Marco (1987 222ndash5) gives examples of lin

gas in Nepal serving as grave markers

Above I noted Bronkhorstrsquos suggestion that examples of this sort all have their ultimate origins in pre-Buddhist traditions distinctive to Greater Magadha Even if this were the case it remains to be explained why such traditions came to be integrated into a broad range of Saiva sites and practices Taken together the above examples

FIG 8 Eighteenth-century painting of Guhyakal ı from National Art Gallery Bhaktapur Cremation grounds are featured in the background with caitya-reliquaries and lin

gas Photograph by Rajan Shrestha

courtesy of Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 29)

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

464

from Orissa Bihar Ujjain Nagarjunakonda Ahicchatra Pakistan and Nepal point to a set of practices and objects that cross and connect Buddhist veneration of the dead with Saiva lin

ga worship These examples attest

interreligious discourses marked by both contestation and ambiguity Although not universal within ldquoHinduismrdquo the evidence spans the subcontinent and beyond for more than a millennium It cannot be reduced to any one theory about origins or influence

One possibility is that practices of this sort featured in regional Brahmanical and other non-Buddhist traditions in South Asia15 developing alongside Buddhist practices and in continued interaction with them perhaps drawing from pre-Buddhist practices (Irwin 1973 215ndash17) We already see early instances of Buddhist integration of Brahmanical rites the Asvamedha Agnistoma and other Vedic rituals are attested in the inscriptions of early stupas at Nagarjunakonda and other centers in the Krsna River Valley (Andhra Pradesh) These practices were maintained into the medieval period as seen for instance in land-grant inscriptions of Buddhist kings (Vogel 1929ndash30 17ndash21 Fleming 2013) That there were shared practices and discourses about bodily remains among communities that lived side by side seems plausible even if those connections are difficult to reconstruct with precision If so the later engagement with Islam can be viewed as a continuing dialogue among South Asian religionsmdashsimultaneously from within each tradition and dynamically incorporating or answering others16

Linga as Skull and Relic

I have focused so far on archaeological and inscriptional evidence and have uncovered practices that have been

FIG 9 Detail of lin

ga and chaitya next to

cremation-pyre and jackal from wooden door-relief bearing six visible cremation grounds 1757 Kumar ı House Basantapur Tole Kathmandu Photograph by Gudrun Buumlhnemann

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

463

eighteenth-century Jesuit eyewitness account of burials in Nepal where an earthen (parthiva) lin

ga was placed

over the interred ritually prepared body of an ascetic (samnyasin) and rites were performed over the lin

ga to

be repeated every ten days and on the anniversary of his death14

To these Nepalese examples we might add others where lin

gas are erected for the dead Twelfth- and

fourteenth-century inscriptions dedicate lingas to

deceased ancestors in one case a linga is erected

for attaining immortality (Inscriptions II XIII and XVIII in Regmi 1983) Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 23ndash35) has demonstrated the fluidity between lin

ga and stupa

iconography in depictions of burning grounds in sixteenth-century Nepali art (Figures 8 and 9) Likewise in his study on stupas Giuseppe de Marco (1987 222ndash5) gives examples of lin

gas in Nepal serving as grave markers

Above I noted Bronkhorstrsquos suggestion that examples of this sort all have their ultimate origins in pre-Buddhist traditions distinctive to Greater Magadha Even if this were the case it remains to be explained why such traditions came to be integrated into a broad range of Saiva sites and practices Taken together the above examples

FIG 8 Eighteenth-century painting of Guhyakal ı from National Art Gallery Bhaktapur Cremation grounds are featured in the background with caitya-reliquaries and lin

gas Photograph by Rajan Shrestha

courtesy of Gudrun Buumlhnemann (2007 29)

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

464

from Orissa Bihar Ujjain Nagarjunakonda Ahicchatra Pakistan and Nepal point to a set of practices and objects that cross and connect Buddhist veneration of the dead with Saiva lin

ga worship These examples attest

interreligious discourses marked by both contestation and ambiguity Although not universal within ldquoHinduismrdquo the evidence spans the subcontinent and beyond for more than a millennium It cannot be reduced to any one theory about origins or influence

One possibility is that practices of this sort featured in regional Brahmanical and other non-Buddhist traditions in South Asia15 developing alongside Buddhist practices and in continued interaction with them perhaps drawing from pre-Buddhist practices (Irwin 1973 215ndash17) We already see early instances of Buddhist integration of Brahmanical rites the Asvamedha Agnistoma and other Vedic rituals are attested in the inscriptions of early stupas at Nagarjunakonda and other centers in the Krsna River Valley (Andhra Pradesh) These practices were maintained into the medieval period as seen for instance in land-grant inscriptions of Buddhist kings (Vogel 1929ndash30 17ndash21 Fleming 2013) That there were shared practices and discourses about bodily remains among communities that lived side by side seems plausible even if those connections are difficult to reconstruct with precision If so the later engagement with Islam can be viewed as a continuing dialogue among South Asian religionsmdashsimultaneously from within each tradition and dynamically incorporating or answering others16

Linga as Skull and Relic

I have focused so far on archaeological and inscriptional evidence and have uncovered practices that have been

FIG 9 Detail of lin

ga and chaitya next to

cremation-pyre and jackal from wooden door-relief bearing six visible cremation grounds 1757 Kumar ı House Basantapur Tole Kathmandu Photograph by Gudrun Buumlhnemann

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

464

from Orissa Bihar Ujjain Nagarjunakonda Ahicchatra Pakistan and Nepal point to a set of practices and objects that cross and connect Buddhist veneration of the dead with Saiva lin

ga worship These examples attest

interreligious discourses marked by both contestation and ambiguity Although not universal within ldquoHinduismrdquo the evidence spans the subcontinent and beyond for more than a millennium It cannot be reduced to any one theory about origins or influence

One possibility is that practices of this sort featured in regional Brahmanical and other non-Buddhist traditions in South Asia15 developing alongside Buddhist practices and in continued interaction with them perhaps drawing from pre-Buddhist practices (Irwin 1973 215ndash17) We already see early instances of Buddhist integration of Brahmanical rites the Asvamedha Agnistoma and other Vedic rituals are attested in the inscriptions of early stupas at Nagarjunakonda and other centers in the Krsna River Valley (Andhra Pradesh) These practices were maintained into the medieval period as seen for instance in land-grant inscriptions of Buddhist kings (Vogel 1929ndash30 17ndash21 Fleming 2013) That there were shared practices and discourses about bodily remains among communities that lived side by side seems plausible even if those connections are difficult to reconstruct with precision If so the later engagement with Islam can be viewed as a continuing dialogue among South Asian religionsmdashsimultaneously from within each tradition and dynamically incorporating or answering others16

Linga as Skull and Relic

I have focused so far on archaeological and inscriptional evidence and have uncovered practices that have been

FIG 9 Detail of lin

ga and chaitya next to

cremation-pyre and jackal from wooden door-relief bearing six visible cremation grounds 1757 Kumar ı House Basantapur Tole Kathmandu Photograph by Gudrun Buumlhnemann

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

465

neglected in the study of Hinduism because of the general presupposition of Brahmanical aversion toward the dead and their remains I do not mean to dismiss this aversion altogether In fact when we look to the literary evidence for lin

gas we can see how medieval Saivas themselves

grappled with different ideas about the dead as sources of impurity and power

One poignant set of examples can be found in myths from Ujjain preserved in Sanskrit literary sources from the tenth to fourteenth centuries Ujjain is replete with lin

gas

and several medieval texts map out various routes that connect them17 In the Jntildeana-sam hita of the Sivapuran a tradition for instance we find a myth about a theophany of Siva in his manifestation as Mahakala In this story (Jntildeana-sam hita 46) the demon Dusan a seeks to rid the holy places and forests of Vedic dharma He sends his demon hordes to bind and beat Brahmans who worship at Vedic altars demanding that they leave Ujjain immediately Rather than retreat the Brahmans defiantly continue their worship of Sivamdashhere not distinguished from Vedic rites With a mighty roar Siva rises out of a hole in the ground and burns Dusan a and his hordes into ashes Flowers rain down from the heavens and the godsmdashincluding Brahma and Visnumdashpraise Siva for his greatness

The story ends with an aetiology of linga-worship in

Ujjain The Brahmans whose practice and worship Siva has protected request moksa (release) In response Siva proclaims that everyone seeing his physical form will be liberated As if to prove his point Siva remains on the spot in the form of a jyotirlin

ga (light-lin

ga) and transforms

the Brahmans who practiced Saiva Vedic rites in Ujjain into lin

gas18 This myth thus presents a positive attitude

towards Vedic practices Siva incarnates to protect Brahmans and he transforms them into lin

gasmdashan act

that recalls the entombing of living gurus (Bronkhorst 2011 206ndash15) Their transformation evokes a connection between flesh-and-blood practitioners their physical remains and their veneration beyond death to receive worldly benefit As lin

gas in the sacred geography of

Ujjain these Brahmans function as intermediaries between this world and Sivarsquos world The sanctifying power of the human body thus is one of the key features of the mythrsquos account of the metamorphosis of space power and place

Other myths about Ujjain explore tensions between Saiva and Brahmanical attitudes towards the dead through the idea of the lin

ga as a skull This idea is explored in

connection with the well-developed mythology concerning Sivarsquos beheading of Brahma which develops out of an early Vedic myth about Prajapati and Rudra that is

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

466

reworked extensively in the medieval corpus (Granoff 2003) In both Vedic and Puran ic literature Brahma (or Prajapati) appears as a personified Vedic altar who transforms into a deer when fleeing from Siva (or Rudra Kramrisch 1981) Siva has been assigned by the other gods the task of destroying Brahma for incest and he slays him with an arrow In the process the Vedic altar is transformed its remains become a sacred object over which only Siva has power

Several stories in the Avantikhan d a of the Skandapuran a reflect upon the consequences of this deicide (Granoff 2003)19 The Avantikhand a (Avantiksetra-mahatmya 567) opens with Siva cursed to carry Brahmarsquos skull in his hand as punishment for the beheading The skull is only released to the ground when Siva enters Mahakalavana forest Later in the text (234) a lin

ga appears on the spot where the skull was released

and placed on the ground20 The spot is then eulogized as Kapalamocana (lit releasing the skull) intimately connecting the lin

ga and the skull This passage echoes

to some extent the lingas discussed above erected to

mark the graves of teachers In this sense it signals that the divine bodily remains are symbolized by an object of worship and worshipped along with its sacred geography

The tension between Brahma and Siva is explored more directly elsewhere Thus in the Avantikhan d a Siva appears as a naked mendicant encountering a Vedic sacrifice21 When the attending Brahmans throw dirt at him he befouls their altar with the skull of Brahma he carries The attending priests make it clear the skull is impure Fearing lest it pollute their altar they remove it to the side only to have another skull appear in its place An endless number of skulls are removed and reappear until a mound of skulls forms under which a primordial lin

ga is

revealed The linga emerges from beneath the skulls and

Brahmanical priests proceed to venerate SivaIn contrast to the story from the Jntildeana-sam hita

discussed above these narratives from the Avantikhan d a stress that worship of Siva is distinct from and ultimately supersedes the Vedic cult associated with Brahma and Brahmans Whereas the Jntildeana-sam hita associates the mortal remains of Brahmans with lin

gas the Avantikhan d a

characterizes Brahmans in a manner that echoes the common characterization of the Brahmanical aversion to mortal remainsmdashalthough nonetheless strikingly connecting Brahmarsquos skull to the linga It is possible of course that the Saiva groups responsible for the Jntildeana-sam hita and Avantikhan d a are among those exceptional cases of Hindus who did not share an antipathy toward remains of the dead whether because of their connection

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

467

to ancient traditions from Magadha (following Bronkhorst) or later contacts with Islam (following Bakker) But when we consider this complex of myths about Ujjain together with the archaeological evidence explored above something else also appears to be going on The Saiva integration of older Vedic myths and perspectives points to dynamic engagement with questions about the power and impurity of corpses within Hinduism

ConclusionToday both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners regularly cremate their dead Buddhists tend to localize remains in urns stupas and other closed repositories especially in Southeast Asia one also finds practices of smearing the ashes of a revered teacher onto manuscripts and presenting them as gifts By contrast Hindus have tended to deposit cremated remains in open spacesmdashat pilgrimage sites in cremation grounds and in rivers that flow outward and beyond a place taking the soul of the deceased and giving them release from the cycle of life and death Yet an emphasis on contained ashes does not mean that Buddhists revel in the remains of the dead any more than a preference for open spaces means that Hindus abhor them Hindu pilgrimage sites and rivers where life ideally ends are considered to be great wells of spiritual and worldly power Both Ujjain and Varan ası through which flow the Narmada and Ganges rivers respectively receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims on their way to die even as they also remain vibrant centers of this-worldly pilgrimage That such centers should be characterized as expressions of abhorrence towards the dead seems questionable in the current context The dynamics surrounding death in ancient and medieval South Asia may have been similarly complex

Scholarship on Buddhism and Christianity has focused on exceptional people when deriving a working definition of ldquorelicrdquomdashin each case this is in part due to their emphasis on founding mortal figures and those who emulate them The discourse and practices surrounding the power of material remains in Hinduism as we have seen include some Saiva examples of the veneration of people (especially teachers) Perhaps more prominent however are reflections on the material remains left by gods on earth as exemplified by the linga The differences are in points of emphasis and articulation rather than any overarching ldquoHindurdquo rejection of the veneration of the dead Consequently places that house relics and commemorate the dead were often contact zones for continued interactions between Saivas and Buddhists

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

468

At the very least the desire to differentiate clearly between ldquoBuddhismrdquo and ldquoHinduismrdquo frustrates modern attempts to categorize ancient and medieval archaeological sites and artifacts Hindu examples highlight the limits of the category of ldquorelicrdquo As commonly defined it privileges Buddhist approaches that parallel Christian examples while downplaying continuities with other South Asian religions Considering a broader complex of shared traditions helps recover a richer sense of the material culture of Saivism where lin

gas can serve

simultaneously as a sign or embodiment of Siva as a symbol of human remains and as a marker for the special dead generating and projecting worldly and spiritual benefit to those that visit

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Phyllis Granoff Pia Brancaccio Adam Becker Ralsquoanan Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed for comments on earlier drafts

notes and references

1 Characteristic is John Strongrsquos (1987 275) description ldquoThough Hindus commonly honor the memories of great saints and teachers and visit sites of pilgrimage associated with them they do not generally venerate their bodily remains On the one hand the doctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of things of this world simply do not promote relic worship On the other hand and probably more importantly death and things associated with it are in Hinduism thought to be highly pollutingrdquo Note that the ldquodoctrine of reincarnation and the belief in the ultimately illusory nature of thingsrdquo are shared by Buddhists as well

2 It is not my intention here to bracket off Saivism from some perceived mainstream Hinduism or to argue for treating Saivism as an exception like Buddhism Rather

what we here see of Saivism is consistent with Granoffrsquos broader findings Further work is needed to explore the specific links to discussions of Vaisnava Sakta and other traditions

3 In a Christian context ldquorelicsrdquo are commonly defined as ldquothe material remains of a saint after his death and hellip sacred objects which have been in contact with his bodyrdquo (Livingstone 2006 490) and in a Buddhist context as ldquothe material remains of a holy person or a sacred objectrdquo (Keown 2003 205)

4 The cycle of death and sanctification is similar in practice to what Strong (2004 170ndash5) shows to be characteristic of sacred centers focused on the bodies of Buddhist figures

5 Schopen (1997 172) suggests that despite the plethora of archaeological and iconographic

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

469

evidence in Mathura little is known of its structure context and intent and knowledge of its social setting remains incomplete

6 Bhandarkar (1931) suggests the term ayatana can only mean burial shrine as the teachers were dead at the time of the inscription also Starza 1993 99ndash100 For more recent studies on the inscription see Bakker 2001 401 Willis 2009 135 cf Lefegravevre 2011 48ndash9mdashalthough note that these studies are mostly concerned with the issue of portraiture

7 For an overview of Pasupata Saivism see Bisschop and Griffiths 2003

8 While the Gud imallam linga is

sometimes adduced as an early example the dating is contested its iconographic parallels with northern Indian stupa relief-carvings (such as the headdress) suggest it may well have been transported from the north possibly from Marthura For an assessment of its iconographic features see von Mitterwallner 1984

9 There may be some continuity between the figures on the ayaka pillars and the mythology of the lin

godbhavamurti Fleming 2007

232 249 Gillet 2010 175ndash86

10 Cam tamula I and his descendants were active during early phases of construction and though Saiva supported the Buddhist community Stone 1994 24ndash31 108 n 112

11 On the intersection of Iranian Buddhist and Hindu names in Pakistani inscriptions see Neelis 2006 162ndash4

12 The Visnudharmottarapuran

a

(3841ndash7) refers to Saiva rather than Buddhist structures and refers to a lin

ga rather than a bone

reliquary See also Allchin 1957 1ndash2 Bakker 2007 11ndash3

13 Panigrahi (1961 225ndash7) notes the strong connection between the Pasupata sect in Mathura and Bhubanesvara and the common practice of erecting innumerable lin

gas for each generation of

teachers going back to the

earliest standing temples (ca third century)

14 Parthiva-lingas figure prominently

in the cult of twelve jyotirlingas the

ritual in the Mahakala story involves one

15 Pasupatas do not fit standard notions of ldquoorthodoxrdquo Brahmanism given their penchant for extreme practices but may be loosely characterized with this category Sanderson 1988 664ndash5

16 Bronkhorst (2011) rightly looks to the local background that informs these medieval interment practices but I am less certain about the exclusivity he assigns to Buddhism

17 Eg a pilgrimage route comprised of twenty-six lin

gas

is named in the Avantiksetra-mahatmya 2336 and the Caturası tilinga-mahatmya describes a route of eighty-four lin

gas

18 Another version Kotirudra-sam hita 1649 has Siva himself transform into a lin

ga While

Jntildeana-Sam hita 4639 could be a late insertion manuscript evidence suggests it is original

19 Granoff (2003 112) suggests that the Mahakala myth cycle from the Sivapurana is older than the stories associated with the decapitation of Brahma in the Avanti-khand a which was transported to Ujjain from the Varan ası Kası-khand a tradition

20 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 234

21 Avantiksetra-mahatmya 26

Agrawala V S 1947ndash8 Terracotta figurines of Ahichchhatra Ancient India 4 104ndash79

Allchin F R 1957 Sanskrit lsquoEd ukarsquomdashPali lsquoEluka BSOAS 20(1) 1ndash4

Bakker Hans 2001 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Siva Worship in Les sources et le temps ed Nicolas Grimal Pondicherry

Bakker Hans 2007 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India Indo-Iranian Journal 50 11ndash47

Mat

eria

l Rel

igio

n Vo

lum

e 10

R

elic

s L

in gas

and

Oth

er A

usp

icio

usB

enja

min

J F

lem

ing

Is

sue

4 M

ater

ial R

emai

ns in

So

uth

Asi

an R

elig

ions

Ben

jam

in J

Fle

min

g

470

Bhandarkar D R 1931 Mathura Pillar Inscription of Chandragupta II Epigraphia Indica 21(1) 1ndash9

Bisschop Peter and Arlo Griffiths 2003 The Pasupata Observance (Atharvavedaparisis ta 40) Indo-Iranian Journal 46 315ndash48

Bronkhorst Johannes 2011 Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism Leiden Brill

Brown Peter 1982 The Cult of the Saints Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity Chicago Chicago University Press

Buumlhnemann Gudrun 2007 Sivalin

gas and Caityas in

Representations of the Eight Cremation Grounds from Nepal In Pramanakırih ed Birgit Kellner et al Vienna Arbeitskreis fuumlr Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien 123ndash35

Dutt Nalinaksha 1931 Notes on the Nagarjunikonda Inscriptions Indian Historical Quarterly 7(3) 633ndash53

Eckel David 1990 The Power of the Buddharsquos Absence On the Foundations of Mahayana Buddhist Ritual Journal of Ritual Studies 4(2) 61ndash95

Fleming Benjamin J 2007 The Cult of the Jyotirlin

gas and the

History of Saivite Worship PhD Dissertation McMaster University

Fleming Benjamin J 2009 The Form and Formlessness of Siva The Lin

ga in Indian Art Mythology

and Pilgrimage Religion Compass 3

Fleming Benjamin J 2013 Making Land Sacred Inscriptional Evidence for Buddhist Kings and Brahman Priests in Medieval Bengal Numen 60(5ndash6) 559ndash85

Gillet Valerie 2010 La creation drsquoune iconographie Sivaite narrative Incarnations du dieu dans les temples pallava construits Pondicherry Eacutecole franccedilaise drsquoExtrecircme-Orient

Granoff Phyllis 2003 Mahakalarsquos Journey from Gana to God Revista degli studie orientali 77 95ndash114

Granoff Phyllis 2008 Relics Rubies and Rituals Rivista di studi sudasiatici 5 59ndash72

Irwin John 1973 lsquoAsokanrsquo Pillars Burlington Magazine 115(848) 706ndash20

Keown Damien 2003 Dictionary of Buddhism Oxford Oxford University Press

Kramrisch Stella 1981 The Presence of Siva Princeton NJ Princeton University Press

Kreisel Gerd 1986 Die Siva-Bildwerke der Mathura-Kunst Stuttgart Franz Steiner

Lefegravevre Vincent 2011 Portraiture in Early India Leiden Brill

Livingstone E A 2006 The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2nd edn) Oxford Oxford University Press

Kuraishi Mohammad Hamid 1931 List of Ancient Monuments Protected under Act VII of 1904 in the Province of Bihar and Orissa New Imperial Series 51 Calcutta Archaeological Survey of India

Marco Giuseppe De 1987 The Stupa as a Funerary Monument New Iconographical Evidence East and West 37(1) 4 191ndash246

Neelis Jason 2006 Hunza-Haldeikish Revisited Epigraphical Evidence for Transregional History In Karakoram in Transition ed Hermann Lreutzmann Karachi Oxford University Press 159ndash70

Panigrahi K C 1961 Archaeological Remains at Bhubaneswar Bombay

Parmeshwaranand Swami 2004 Encyclopaedia of the Saivism Bombay

Regmi D R 1983 Inscriptions of Ancient Nepal Vol 1 New Delhi

Sanderson Alexis 1988 Saivism and the Tantric Traditions In The Worldrsquos Religions ed Stewart Sutherland London 660ndash704

Schopen Gregory 1997 Bones Stones and Buddhist Monks Honolulu University of Hawaii Press

Sharf Robert 1992 The Idolization of Enlightenment On the Mummification of Chrsquoan Masters in Medieval China History of Religions 32(1) 26ndash47

471

Sharf Robert 1999 On the Allure of Buddhist Relics Representations 66 75ndash99

Starza O M 1993 The Jagannatha Temple at Puri Leiden Brill

Stone Elizabeth Rosen 1994 The Buddhist Art of Nagarjunakond a Delhi Motilal Banarsidass

Strong John 1987a Images In The Encyclopedia of Religion ed Mircea Eliade 16 vols New York 5 97ndash104

Strong John 1987b Relics In The Encyclopedia of Religion ed Mircea Eliade 16 vols New York 12 275ndash85

Strong John 2004 The Relics of the Buddha Princeton NJ Princeton University Press

Strong John 2012 Buddhist Relics in Comparative Perspective

Beyond the Parallels In Embodying the Dharma Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia ed David Germano and Kevin Trainor Albany NY SUNY Press 27ndash50

Tripathy Ajit Kumar 2004 The Real Birth Place of Buddha Yesterdayrsquos Kapilavastu Todayrsquos Kapilewar Orissa Historical Research Journal 47(1) 7ndash15

Vogel J P H 1929ndash30 Prakrit Inscriptions from a Buddhist Site at Nagarjunikond a Epigraphia Indica 20 17ndash21

von Mitterwallner Gritli 1984 Evolution of the Lin

ga In

Discourses on Siva ed Michael Meister Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press 12ndash31

Willis Michael 2009 The Archaeology of Hindu Ritual Cambridge Cambridge University Press