This marvellous work of excavation by the slow process of the chisel,
was visited by Capt. Seeley, who afterwards published a volume
describing the temple and its vast statues. The beauty of its
architectural ornaments, the innumerable statues or emblems, all hewn
out of solid rock, dispute with the Pyramids for the first place among
the works undertaken to display power and embody feeling. The stupendous
temple is detached from the neighbouring mountain by a spacious area all
round, and is nearly 250 feet deep and 150 feet broad, reaching to the
height of 100 feet and in length about 145 feet. It has well-formed
doorways, windows, staircases, upper floors, containing fine large rooms
of a smooth and polished surface, regularly divided by rows of pillars;
the whole bulk of this immense block of isolated excavation being
upwards of 500 feet in circumference, and having beyond its areas three
handsome figure galleries or verandas supported by regular pillars.
Outside the temple are two large obelisks or phalli standing, “of
quadrangular form, eleven feet square, prettily and variously carved,
and are estimated at forty-one feet high; the shaft above the pedestal
is seven feet two inches, being larger at the base than Cleopatra’s
Needle.”
In one of the smaller temples was an image of Lingam, “covered with oil
and red ochre, and flowers were daily strewed on its circular top. This
Lingam is larger than usual, occupying with the altar, a great part of
the room. In most Ling rooms a sufficient space is left for the votaries
to walk round whilst making the usual invocations to the deity (Maha
Deo). This deity is much frequented by female votaries, who take
especial care to keep it clean, washed, and often perfume it with
oderiferous oils and flowers, whilst the attendant Brahmins sweep the
apartment and attend the five oil lights and bell ringing.” This oil
vessel resembled the Yoni (circular frame), into which the light itself
was placed. No symbol was more venerated or more frequently met with
than the altar and Ling, Siva, or Maha Deo. “Barren women constantly
resort to it to supplicate for children,” says Seeley. The mysteries
attended upon them is not described, but doubtless they were of a very
similar character to those described by the author of the “Worship of
the Generative Powers of the Western Nations,” showing again the
similarity of the custom with those practised by the Catholics in
France. The writer says:—“Women sought a remedy for barrenness by
kissing the end of the Phallus; sometimes they appear to have placed a
part of their body, naked, against the image of the saint, or to have
sat upon it. This latter trait was perhaps too bold an adoption of the
indecencies of Pagan worship to last long, or to be practised openly;
but it appears to have been innocently represented by lying upon the
body of the saint, or sitting upon a stone, understood to represent him
without the presence of the energetic member. In a corner in the church
of the village of St. Fiacre, near Monceaux, in France, there is a stone
called the chair of St. Fiacre, which confers fecundity upon women who
sit upon it; but it is necessary nothing should intervene between their
bare skin and the stone. In the church of Orcival in Auvergne, there was
a pillar which barren women kissed for the same purpose and which had
perhaps replaced some less equivocal object.”
The principal object of worship at Elora is the stone, so frequently
spoken of; “the Lingam,” says Seeley, and he apologises for using the
word so often, but asks to be excused, “is an emblem not generally
known, but as frequently met with as the Cross in Catholic worship.” It
is the god Siva, a symbol of his generative character, the base of which
is usually inserted in the Yoni. The stone is of a conical shape, often
black stone, covered with flowers (the _Belia_ and _Asuca_ shrubs). The
flowers hang pendant from the crown of the Ling stone to the spout of
the _Argha_ or _Yoni_ (mystical matrix); the same as the Phallus of the
Greeks. Five lamps are commonly used in the worship at the symbol, or
one lamp with five wicks. The Lotus is often seen on the top of the
Ling.