Linga Worship in the Mahabharata

This article surveys references to liṅga worship in the Mahābhārata and assesses their significance for the development of Śaiva religion. The author collects passages from the Ānuśāsanaparvan, Droṇa Parvan and other books of the epic that describe Rudra (Śiva) being worshipped by Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Indra, sages, gandharvas, apsaras and heroes such as Vāsudeva, Arjuna and Aśvatthāmā. These episodes present the liṅga as the symbol of Rudra‑Śiva and portray Rudra as Mahādeva, the supreme god, revealed through his liṅga. Keśava (Kṛṣṇa) is said to worship the liṅga knowing that Rudra is the origin of all beings, and the worship of Rudra’s liṅga is described as conferring prosperity and spiritual merit. A celebrated myth tells how Rudra plunged into the primeval waters to create the universe; Prajāpati, thinking he had disappeared, created beings himself, but when Rudra returned and found his work appropriated he angrily planted his liṅga in the earth as a sign of his supremacy. Such stories suggest that the cult of the liṅga was already integrated into epic religion. The paper relates these passages to the wider symbolic meanings of the liṅga. Modern scholars note that in the Mahābhārata the liṅga is portrayed as Shiva’s “subtle body” and functions as both a phallic form and an ascetic pillar; it weaves together procreative and renunciatory meanings and highlights Shiva’s fierce cosmic potency. The author argues that the epic evidence indicates a new syncretic cult in which the Vedic deity Rudra is fused with proto‑Śaiva iconography and that this cult anticipated the fully developed Śaivism of the Purāṇas. By charting the textual motifs and comparing them with Vedic hymns and later Purāṇic stories, the study shows that liṅga worship evolved gradually and was already influential by the time the Mahābhārata reached its final form.

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