page_title: Gudimallam
section_title: Description and context
hierarchical_section_title: Gudimallam / Description and context
caption_attribution_description: English: Gudimallam statue details
context_page_description: Gudimallam is a small village in the Yerpedu mandal of the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is ten kilometers north-east of Renigunta Railway Junction, not far from Tirupati.
  Gudimallam is a small village, but well-known because it has a Hindu temple dedicated to Siva, which is popularly known as "the Parasurameswara Temple." This contains a very early linga with a full-length figure of Shiva, housed in the garbhagriha of the temple. This is perhaps the second earliest linga associated with Shiva discovered so far, and it has been dated to the 2nd/1st century BC, or the 3rd century BC, or much later, to the 2nd century AD, 3-4th century AD, or even, according to one source, as late as the 7th century AD. This is "the only sculpture of any importance" to survive from ancient South India before sculpture made under the Pallava dynasty from the 7th century AD onwards, and "its mysteriousness lies in the total absence so far of any object in an even remotely similar manner within many hundreds of miles, and indeed anywhere in South India". If assigned an early date, the figure on the linga is ""one of the earliest surviving and unequivocal images of the god Shiva".
context_section_description: The linga was, by his own account, discovered by the ASI archaeologist T. A. Gopinatha Rao, "some years" before he published it in 1916.  The linga is carved out of a hard dark brown local stone. It is over 5 ft high and slightly above a foot in diameter on the main shaft. The glans penis is clearly differentiated from the shaft by being wider, with a deep slanting groove cut about a foot from the top of the Linga.  Unusually, the garbhagriha is semi-circular, curving behind the linga.
  An image of Shiva in sthanaka posture is carved in high relief. On the front portion of the linga the God is standing on the shoulders of the apasmarapurusha or a dwarf. The figure of Shiva resembles a vigorous hunter; He holds a ram or antelope in his right hand and a small water pot in his left hand. There is a battle axe (Parasu) resting on his left shoulder.  He wears a number of heavy earrings in his ears, an elaborate flat necklace, and a girdle with a dangling central portion.  His arms are adorned with five bracelets, with different designs in relief, on each wrist, and a high arm-ring on each side.  He wears a dhoti of very thin material, fastened at his waist with a vastra-mekhala.  This extends round the whole shaft of the linga.  He has no yagnopavita or sacred thread.  Emerging from a complicated turban-like head-covering, his hair is long and plaited (not matted).
  His features are described by Rao as Mongoloid, and Blurton describes the figure as not having "the features associated with gods of orthodox Hinduism" but "squat and broadly-built, and with the thick curly hair and the pronounced lips still seen amongst tribal populations in Central India", suggesting the non-Vedic aspects being absorbed into the emerging figure of Shiva.
  Rao's account emphasizes that the linga here is unmistakably a representation of an erect human penis, as therefore are other Shiva lingas, this point having apparently been disputed, or over-generalized, by some previously.  He describes it as "shaped exactly like the original model, in a state of erection", though one of his illustrations shows the "plan" section of the shaft, with seven straight-line faces, and gives their unequal lengths.  The sharpest angle made by these faces would run through the centre of the Shiva figure, and the front face of the linga is made of the two longest faces (at 6 inches). Two side faces of 4 inches are at right angles to the figure, and the rear of the shaft has one central longer face at right angles to the sides, and two shorter ones joining the back and sides.
  Though the linga has remained in worship in the temple built around it, its relationship to the sanctuary and setting has been altered since Rao's time.  The photograph in Rao's 1916 book, like the one at the top of the article, shows the linga set into the floor, which comes at about the level of the dwarf's midriff.  More recent photos and videos, presumably taken after an ASI exploration in 1973-74, show the lingam in a square stone enclosure on the floor, with the whole length of the dwarf (who is kneeling) visible, as well as a circular pediment.  The stone slabs making the enclosure are plain on the outside, but carved on the inside as stone railings (with three horizontal rails) in a pattern comparable to those of ancient Buddhist stupas such as Sanchi (but much smaller).  Rao was unaware of this structure, then below the floor, saying "the pedestal is cut out in the form of a quadrangular ridge on the ground", this ridge in fact being the top of the uppermost rail of the railings.  Whether the rest of the floor was lowered or the linga and railings raised is unclear; the sanctuary floor is now a few steps below the main floor level of the temple, an unusual feature which Rao's account does not mention.  The linga also has a modern golden metal frame, topped by a naga head, behind it.
  Sources disagree about the expression and connotations of the "dwarf" below Shiva. To Rao he is "jolly and happy, as is evidenced by the broad grin on his face".  He has "pointed animal ears".  For Elgood, he is a
caption: Gudimallam statue details
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