Sunday, November 8, 2020

Hindu Gods in south Mesopotamia of early 2nd Millennium BCE - Part 2 (Shiva Linga)

 Part 1: Lord Venkatesvara and Padmavati 

Part 3: From Eshwari to Eshnunna to Ishtar

Among the many gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon identified in the excavated artefacts, few remain unidentified mainly because they bear no resemblance to any of the god-forms excavated so far or to the scribal description of Gods. One such image of Isin-Larsa period (2000-1600 BCE) found by this writer among the exhibits of the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago is shown in figure 1. This god standing out from others is a bit odd, but tells a different story for one coming from India! 

Figure 1

The board says, “Two nude figures flank a bearded divinity whose face has been severely damaged. He wears a horned crown and seems to be enveloped in a tufted covering. He stands on the back of a reclining bull.”

The figure in the middle of this mold-impression looks like a decorated image of Shiva Linga! A garland – the completely missing decorative accessory in other Mesopotamian God-figures - can be seen hanging in the front of what looks like a Linga. The note says that the figure was a bearded divinity whose face has been damaged. But the location of the garland shows that it cannot be a face. When we enlarge the damaged part (figure 2), it matches perfectly well with a garlanded Shiva Linga mounted on a raised platform and covered with decorative garments.

Figure 2

More importantly the image of a bull in the front strengthens the idea of Shiva linga. The two men on the sides are carrying a vase or water pot - which is once again a feature that goes with Shiva linga. Linga is always bathed by Ganga (water from river Ganga) and it is a common and a continuing practice in India for the devotee to offer libation to Shiva Linga.

The two men are naked; and we cannot ignore a comparison with the naked Naga Sadhus, the devotees of Shiva. They also grow beard and are found not removing the hair on the head. In this particular depiction, the religious concept is evident and cannot be compared with the other nude figures that often appear in Mesopotamia. Though nudity in males and females appear in Mesopotamia right from 6000 BCE, male nudity in religious activities appear only from 3200 BCE.[1] Such figurines were found in Shara temple excavation, dedicated to Shara, the son of Anu in later literacy texts.[2] One of them is found to carry a pot on the head (Figure 3). Nude and bearded men carrying water pots and offering libations are found from this period onwards. Not to be missed is the fact that bathing the deities is a common practice in Hindu culture and continuous libation of water to Shiva linga is all the more common.

Figure 3

Tell Agrab, Shara Temple, Early Dynastic period, 2900-2700 BC, calcite - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07462.JPG

The presence of naked Naga sadhus in India comes from an undated past. Additionally the specific depiction of only two figures in the plaque reminds us of the two sages always associated with the worship of Shiva. They were Patanjali and Vyāghrapada, known for their intense worship of Shiva. Was this memory taken by the devotees of Shiva to Mesopotamia? 

The devotees of Shiva are supposed to sport a Third eye on the face. The selective damages on this plaque to the face and forehead of the two men and to the main deity to give an impression of a beard (a common feature of almost all Mesopotamian gods) cannot go unnoticed.

Another feature mentioned in the note pertains to the “horned crown” on the head of the deity (Shiva Linga). The close-up view shows that it does not cover the head fully, as how it is seen on other deities of Mesopotamia. For comparison, the horned crown of Ninurta is shown in Figure 4.  

Figure 4

The conical feature on top of the linga look-alike resembles the libation vessel fixed above Shiva Linga (in India) from which water drips continuously on the deity.

The horned crown is unique for the deity Anu, also known as An. This deity, regarded as the first and the foremost among the Mesopotamian pantheon, shares many similarities with lord Shiva.


Similarities between Shiva and Anu[3]

Only ‘Anu’ (or An), the supreme God of Mesopotamia under whom all gods are clubbed together as ‘Anunnaki’ has a parallel with the above image – the look-alike of Shiva Linga.

The foremost similarity is the presence of bull, the carrier of Shiva, also found associated with Anu!  The bull never leaves Shiva; in the same way Anu and his bull were inseparable.

There is no clear iconography of Anu, perhaps along the lines that he is formless; the same formlessness is a unique feature of Shiva. The formless Shiva is worshiped as the Linga in the Hindu culture, whereas until now researchers had not located any form for Anu, though Anu seems to be the first one God whom all the other deities had descended.

There is no origin history for Anu in the period of the Shiva linga look-alike; it appears only in the epic Enūma eliš of the 1st millennium BCE giving the names of the parents of Anu, as Anšar and Kišar, who are said to be descendants of Lahmu and Lahamu. However the name Anšar is found interchanged with Ashur of neo-Assyrian period, giving rise to the conjecture that the parents of Anu are an invented mythology.

However further connection of the so-called parents of Anu with Tiamet,[4] (wife of Apsu) a name referring to the primordial sea, gives rise to a speculation that these Gods were primarily brought to Mesopotamia by a people who came by sea, or in other words, the Gods had come from places across the sea. This will be elaborated later in the context of Indic parallels with Marduk.

Anu was credited with creating the Universe, either alone, or along with Enlil and Ea. He was supposed to occupy the Highest level of the ‘three’ levels of Heaven, said to be made of the reddish luludānitu stone! Similar kinds of attributes are there for Shiva also, as the creator. The three world concept is also very much part of the Vedic culture from a long past. The red colour is also amazingly associated with Shiva, as he is known as red-haired (Tamil tradition) and as a personification of fire (reddish).

An or Anu was regarded as the “Father of the Gods”. Along with the Gods, he created the monsters and demons that are part of Mesopotamian mythologies. He ordained some of the demons to protect Gods and others to kill human beings![5] In the epics of Erra and Isum, Anu was supposed to give weapons of massacre. This has parallel to Shiva who is also associated with the act of destruction.

Anu’s importance was such that the Mesopotamian society and mythologies had drawn their genesis from the idea of Anu. The epicentre of Anu’s cult was Uruk – the city ruled by Isin kings![6] The Shiva linga look-alike was found in Isin-Larsa period only (2000-1800 BCE). The surrounding cities of Der, Lagas and Ur also had temples of Anu (Figure 5)

Figure 5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Agrab#/media/File:Hammurabi's_Babylonia_1.svg

Only from the 5th century BCE onwards, Anu came to be depicted with a form - a statue with rituals that very much resemble Hindu temple practices, with the only difference being, the food is always a sacrificed animal.[7] 

No one exactly knows the appearance of the temples of Anu, but can make a fair guess from the engravings available.

Figure 6

The “horned crown” on top of the temple like structures in Figure 6 could perhaps refer to the temples of Anu – the God without form, but who was identified with a form that is a replica of Shiva linga!! With many parallels between Shiva Linga and Anu, and the crown of Anu modelled after the linga, the Shiva linga look-alike plaque seems to endorse the origin of Anu concept from Shiva linga, carried by migrants who happened to be the devotees of Shiva, the God in their former land, i.e. India!

It must be noted that the numerous Mesopotamian deities were not indigenous in origin, as known from the fact that ideas had kept changing from time to time, and within short time.

An or Anu appears in the God list roughly around the mid-third millennium BCE and regularly from the 2nd millennium BCE in literary texts, inscriptions and as personal names – the period in which the Shiva Linga look-alike is found. [8]

This time period is pertinent for a probable migration when we talk later about Kish Dynasty coming up after a flood that coincided with the flood at Dwaraka when Krishna left the world in the year 3101 BCE! I prefer to call this as the cut-off date for the history of both India and Mesopotamia.

It is important to note that the Anu concept came up only after this cut-off date.  By the 2nd millennium BCE (the date attributed to the Shiva Linga look-alike), Anu started appearing in literary works. In the Old Babylonian period (2000 BCE – 1595 BCE) Anu gained more importance as protector of kings.

Anu appears for the first time in Assyrian royal inscriptions around 1700 BCE. After that we start finding direct evidence of Shiva Linga in the Greek pantheon.

The appearance of Omphalos and the apparent etymology of the name seem to be an amalgam of the linga look-alike and the sacred utterance of AUM of the Vedic culture.


Migration of Shiva concept from Mesopotamia to Greece!

The continued presence of Shiva-concept from Mesopotamia to Greek pantheon can be identified by the bull and bathing!

For example quite a few artefacts and paintings recovered from Delphi and housed in the museums of Europe show Artemis and Apollo pouring libation on ‘Omphalos which sounds a compound word of Om and Phallus, a reference to Shiva linga. Figure 7 shows one such depiction where a bull’s head is also featured above, as if to convey that it is the Bull of Heaven of Anu while it original concept can be traced to Shiva and his bull.

Figure 7

Source: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/355221489333431433/

Between these two - the Linga look-alike of Isin-Larsa period (figure 1) and libation to Omphalos (figure 7), the concept of Shiv linga had undergone gradual transformation in Mesopotamia while the concept had retained its purity in India, its original home.

Let’s begin from Anu, the first and supreme god of Mesopotamian pantheon. There is no scribal document on how he looked like, but every other God was connected with him. Many of those gods underwent changes from time to time and there was a time even Anu was abandoned and his bull was killed! All these show a cacophonous development of Thought over time and not an original and well thought-out development of theology evolving from within. In fact the very region or civilization that we call Mesopotamia was not recognised by that name or as a single unit by the inhabitants themselves. It was a conglomeration of many small states peopled by different communities having their own perception of gods for different things. The continuous political instability and the fads of the rulers in patronising the deity they liked resulted in changes and modifications in gods themselves. But most of the Gods were retained in memory or even in worship until the times Hatti and Mitanni became dominant kingdoms.

Tracing the presence of Linga in Mesopotamia, the earliest figures were the ‘Foundation figures’ dated at 2130 BCE each holding a Linga-like stone (figure 8). These figures were kept inside brick boxes and buried in what looks like strategic locations of a temple, such as under the doors, pathways and the periphery. This is similar to what is done in Vaastu rituals for foundation.

Figure 8

The ironical part of it is that the researchers concentrate on the head gear of these images and compare it with the headgears of other figures, but fail to probe what the identical cylindrical objects held by the men are about. The head gear seems to be that of Anu but the cylindrical objects are of linga form. A Linga is an organ of generation, creation and growth. This symbolism and sacredness had perhaps gone into placing it as a foundation upon which temples were raised.

Chronologically the next appearance of Linga in Mesopotamia is what we showed in figure 1. The only explanation for its presence is that some migrant population from India had continued with the worship of Shiva in Linga form. It was around the same time the Sealand’ dynasty made its appearance in Isin.[9] They occupied southernmost part of Mesopotamia in what can be termed as the head of the Persian Gulf. Though the name Sealand is coined by modern researchers, their location makes it possible to deduce that they entered the Persian Gulf from the Arabian Sea and made Mesopotamia their home. This location lends scope to speculate that they were migrants from India. 

The Sealand kings kept records on ‘Kudurru’ stones that look like Linga. The oft repeated expression in the royal inscriptions of the Sealand king Damiq-ilīšu on Kudurru is that he was a “farmer who piles up the produce (of the land) in granaries”![10] In a surprising connection, Kudurru is phonetically closer to the word ‘Kudhir’ in Tamil for granary! Colloquially it is pronounced as ‘kuduru’ in Tamil. The Kudhir is cylindrical in shape or like an inverted jar as shown in figure 9. Even today these granaries can be seen in rural Tamilnadu.

Figure 9

The Kudurru stone is shown in figure 10 for comparison.

Figure 10

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kudurru_of_Gula-Eresh.jpg

Was Kudhir, the granary, the chosen shape for the Sealand king to write his edicts as it was the symbol of his prosperity? The shape is also like that of the Linga. The inscribed features also sync well with Shiva-concept.  One can see the crescent moon on top of many Kudurrus, similar to the crescent on Shiva’s head. The crescent is how it looks for an observer in the tropical region of the world – like a cup. The crescent gets tilted as one goes towards northern latitudes. The cup-like crescent does not look the same in Mesopotamia – in the regions where the Kudurrus are found. Does this mean that the very first king (of Sealand) who conceived the idea of engraving the crescent moon on the Kudurru, got it engraved in the shape and position as how it appeared in his previous location,  that is, in the tropics? The region of Tamils in whose language the word ‘Kudhir’ appears to mean ‘granary’, is in the tropics where the crescent moon appears as how it is engraved on the Kudurru.

Taking up for analysis the Kudurru in figure 11 issued in the name of a governor of Sealand dynasty, there is a snake on the side of the stone reaching up to the top like how snakes coil around Shiva’s body. A close-up of this Kudurru reveals more information of Indian connection.

Figure 11

The snake and the crescent are features associated with Lord Shiva. The tortoise positioned more or less in the middle is an inevitable feature that forms the base of Indian temple architecture like the flag-posts. Known as Kūrma it is considered as divine manifestation of Lord Vishnu that forms the axis of the created world by holding the world on its back. The two buildings on the left (identified within a square) have the ‘horned crown’ of Anu, but one cannot ignore the resemblance with the tower (Gopuram) of the south Indian temples (Dravida style architecture). Researchers have explanation for the stars and other features in this Kudurru, but can a sincere researcher disregard the similarities with Indic features and the concept development traceable only to India?

Most of the Kudurrus were land donation records and as such they were regarded as boundary stones. But the Linga-shape was the preferred one for most of the dynasties whenever they wanted to pass a royal decree. The famous code of Hammurabi was carved on a Linga-shaped stone (figure 12)[11]. It shows him receiving the law from the Sun God which has a parallel with Danda-niti imparted by Lord Shiva.

Figure 12

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammurabi#/media/File:F0182_Louvre_Code_Hammourabi_Bas-relief_Sb8_rwk.jpg

It is wrongly believed that Manu was the author of code of law for people. Originally Lord Shiva was credited with being the first one to have given the laws of chastisement (Danda-niti). Mahabharata describes (Ch 12:58) how Danda-niti was codified by Shiva from the compilation of Brahma and transferred to Indra who in turn taught it to Brihaspati from whom Shukracharya received. Similar type of code of law appearing in the stele of Hammurabi raises a question on why he chose the Linga-shaped stone for inscribing the codes.

He could not have known anything about Shiva, but his choice of the Linga-stone shows that some notion of sacredness and central authority were attached to that shape. Many steles and obelisks carrying the royal decrees of the succeeding periods were also linga-shaped.

From Mesopotamia the Linga concept had spread to Greece and other parts of Europe. The most glaring connection with Lord Shiva is seen in the Omphalos found in many places (figure 13) and even in coinage.

Figure 13

The Omphalos comes with an additional feature called ‘oracles’ which pre-suppose some meditative or thought connection with Omphalos. This is also true for Linga, for, Shiva was the foremost Yogi whom ascetics meditated on for Self-realisation. The ‘Om’ in Omphalos is proof of an original connection with Hindu Thought that however was forgotten in due course. But the development of the idea had gone from Mesopotamia. The presence of the Linga look-alike (figure 1) in Mesopotamia fills the missing link with India.

If Shiva worshippers had gone to Mesopotamia, could they have left out his consort, whom we call variously as Shakti, Devi, Parvati, Eshwari and so on? This writer was stunned to see an image resembling the consort of Shiva in the category of “Ishtar” in the same museum in Chicago. Will write about it in the next part.

 



[1] Zainab Bahrani, “ The iconography of the nude in Mesopotamia” https://www.jstor.org/stable/23202931?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents