Linga Purana

01Narada comes to Naimisha

The Linga Purana opens with a salutation to Rudra, to Hari, to Brahma and to the Paramatma, the Lord of Prakriti and Purusha who brings about creation, preservation and the end. Then Narada, having worshipped Shankara at Shaileshvara, Sangameshvara, Avimukta, Kedara and a string of other shrines, arrives at Naimisharanya. The rishis there welcome him, and Suta, the pupil of Vyasa, is asked to tell the Purana of the Linga. Tradition counts it eleventh of the eighteen, the work of Maharshi Vyasa, with eleven thousand shlokas by the Bhagavata's count.

02What the word Linga means

Before any katha, the third adhyaya defines its terms. The alinga, that which has no mark, is the root of the Linga; the unmanifest Prakriti is called the Linga. The alinga is Shiva, and the Linga is what belongs to Shiva. In other words, the formless Lord gives a sign of himself, and the whole manifest world, from Prakriti downward, is that sign. The installed Linga in a temple is worship of the same truth on a scale the eye can hold. Shaiva teachers return to these verses whenever they are asked what a Shivalinga is.

03The pillar of fire

Brahma and Vishnu disputed who was greater. Between them rose a column of flame with a thousand garlands of fire, like a hundred fires of the end of time, with no beginning, middle or end. Vishnu took the form of a black boar and dug down for a thousand years; Brahma became a white swan and flew up. Neither found an end. Then from the pillar came the sound Om, drawn out long, and Shiva appeared within it, and both bowed. The Lingodbhava murti on the western wall of Shiva temples in the south shows exactly this, and at Tiruvannamalai the Karthigai Deepam lit on the hill each year recalls the same column of light.

04The five marks around the Linga

The Purva Bhaga carries the five marks of a Purana in full. Sarga is told as the unfolding of Prakriti under Shiva's gaze, with Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra as the Lord's three forms for creation, preservation and dissolution. The yugas, kalpas and the life of Brahma are measured, and the pralaya described. The Manvantaras follow with their Manus and rishis. The lineages of the Prajapatis, the Solar line of Ikshvaku and the Lunar line through the Yadavas to Shri Krishna are given in order. Between these the Purana sets its own concerns: Linga puja, yoga, and the glory of Shiva's devotees.

05The yogacharyas and Lakulisha

In the twenty-fourth adhyaya Shiva tells Brahma that in every Dvapara Yuga, when Vyasa divides the Veda, he too will come as a yogacharya with four disciples. He names them, age after age. In the twenty-eighth Dvapara, when Krishna is born as Vasudeva's son, he says he will enter an abandoned body in a cremation ground by his yogamaya and be known as Lakuli, and the place will be called Kayavatara. Pashupata ascetics trace their line to this Lakulisha, and the Purva Bhaga teaches their vow: ash on the body, restraint of the senses, and the mind fixed on Pashupati.

06Shveta and Kala

The rishi Shveta's span of life had run out while he sat worshipping a Linga in a mountain cave. Kala, Death himself, came with his noose. Shveta cried out to Rudra and told Kala that Shankara was present in the Linga before him, and that Kala should go back the way he came. Kala laughed, asked what Rudra had done for him, and bound him. Then Shiva came forth, and Kala fell lifeless at the sight. The katha is the Linga Purana's answer to the fear of death, and it is told beside the better-known rescue of Markandeya wherever Shiva is praised as Mrityunjaya.

07A lotus-eye for the Sudarshana

Vishnu, troubled by the asuras, set out to worship Shiva with a thousand names and a thousand lotuses. When he reached the end, one lotus was missing. Without a pause he plucked out his own eye, which the world calls lotus-like, and offered it. Shiva, moved, gave him the Sudarshana chakra. The thousand names Vishnu recited that day stand in the Purva Bhaga as a Shiva Sahasranama, and the katha is the Linga Purana's picture of Hari as the greatest of Shiva's devotees. Jalandhara's defeat and the birth of the Sudarshana from Shiva's power are told in the same part.

08The Uttara Bhaga

The shorter Uttara Bhaga turns to practice: the eight forms of Shiva as earth, water, fire, wind, space, sun, moon and the yajamana, the rules of dana, the Shiva diksha, and the worship of Shiva with Panchakshara and Rudra mantras. It gives the vratas and the procedures for installing a Linga, and it ends, as a Purana should, with the fruit of hearing it read. Shaiva priests use it alongside the Agamas, and it is read in the month of Shravan with the Shiva Purana.

09Editions and reading today

The Venkateshvara Press of Bombay printed the Linga Purana with the Sanskrit commentary Shivatoshini of Ganesha Natu, and that is the text most pandits still use. Gita Press publishes it in Hindi, and the Motilal Banarsidass series gives it in English in two volumes. In temple life its influence is mostly unseen but everywhere: the Lingodbhava panel behind the sanctum, the meaning given to the Linga in every discourse on Shiva puja, the elements of the Ashtamurti honoured as Shiva at the Pancha Bhuta shrines of the south, and the katha of the lotus-eye told whenever Hari and Hara are praised together.

What it contains

1. 1
   Purva Bhaga पूर्वभागः

   One hundred and eight adhyayas: Narada at Naimisha, the meaning of the Linga, creation, the Lingodbhava, the yugas and Manvantaras, and the yogacharya avatars of Shiva down to Lakulisha. It holds the kathas of Shveta and Kala, of Dadhichi, and of Vishnu's lotus-eye and the Sudarshana, with two thousand-name hymns to Shiva. The Solar and Lunar lineages and the shape of the worlds are given here too.

2. 2
   Uttara Bhaga उत्तरभागः

   The shorter second part, given to practice. It describes the Ashtamurti, the eight forms of Shiva, and sets out dana, Shiva diksha, vratas and the installation of the Linga. Its rites of worship with the Panchakshara and Rudra mantras are used by Shaiva priests with the Agamas.

Famous verses

नमो रुद्राय हरये ब्रह्मणे परमात्मने। प्रधानपुरुषेशाय सर्गस्थित्यन्तकारिणे॥

Salutation to Rudra, to Hari, to Brahma, to the Supreme Self; to the Lord of Prakriti and Purusha, who brings about creation, preservation and the end.Linga Purana 1.1.1 (GRETIL ed.)

अलिङ्गो लिङ्गमूलं तु अव्यक्तं लिङ्गमुच्यते। अलिङ्गः शिव इत्युक्तो लिङ्गं शैवमिति स्मृतम्॥

The markless is the root of the Linga, and the unmanifest is called the Linga. The markless is said to be Shiva, and the Linga is known as that which is Shiva's.Linga Purana 1.3.1 (GRETIL ed.)

एतस्मिन्नन्तरे लिङ्गमभवच्चावयोः पुरः। विवादशमनार्थं हि प्रबोधार्थं च भास्वरम्॥ ज्वालामालासहस्राढ्यं कालानलशतोपमम्। क्षयवृद्धिविनिर्मुक्तमादिमध्यान्तवर्जितम्॥

Brahma recalls: in the midst of this, a shining Linga appeared before the two of us, to end our quarrel and to awaken us. It was crowned with a thousand garlands of flame, like a hundred fires of the end of time, free of decrease and increase, without beginning, middle or end.Linga Purana 1.17.33–34 (GRETIL ed.)