καιρός remembered

This priest can boast of looking after the biggest lingam and – matching – yoni in Hampi, once the capital of the old Vijayanagar Empire. It looks as if he is suffering under the heavy responsibility on his shoulders.

At the Kalinjar Fort in Uttar Pradesh (see earlier post) I once let myself be talked into crawling through a narrow hole at the backside of the Neelkanth temple against the rock face, to have a look – with the help of a torch – at a row of enormous lingams. One couldn’t tell me why they were there. Maybe they once had served as objects of some secret cult?

The phalluses were partly buried in a thick layer of sand; only their realistically shaped glandes were sticking out. My awkward position on all fours and the mysterious ambiance made me think of having landed in an Indian version of a Lara Croft film. She surely would have known what to do with them!

Photo of the week: Badavi lingam, Hampi, Karnataka, India 2014