One-Faced Linga (Ekamukhalinga) (600s–700s): Art, History and Details

One-Faced Linga (Ekamukhalinga) (600s–700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The innermost sanctum of a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva is called a womb chamber in which a stylized phallus called a linga is installed. Together, the chamber and linga represent the potentiality of creation. Artists depict the first stage of creation by a face emerging from the phallus, which embodies one aspect of Shiva. This face is of a powerful yogi, with long matted locks adorned with a crescent moon. He has a penetrating gaze with all three of his eyes. This icon would have been accessed primarily by Brahmin priests who would perform rituals honoring Shiva as the ultimate creator of the world.

Object facts

• Title: One-Faced Linga (Ekamukhalinga)
• Date: 600s–700s
• Culture: Eastern India, Bihar, Medieval period, Pala dynasty
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: chloritic schist
• Dimensions: Overall: 83.8 cm (33 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1973.73

A detail from the museum

Some lingas have four faces that indicate a more advanced stage of creation.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Art of Asia Recently Acquired by American Museums, 1973.” Archives of Asian Art, vol. 28, 1974, pp. 113–143.
• "The Year in Review for 1973." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (1974): 31-78.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.