Fig. 156.—Cup sculptures in India.
A large number of stones with typical cup markings have been found in the United States of America. Some of those illustrated in this paper are presented in Pl. [V], and Figs. [19] and [48].
Among the many attempts, all hitherto unsatisfactory, to explain the significance of the cup stones as distributed over nearly all parts of the earth, one statement of Mr. Rivett-Carnac (b) is of value as furnishing the meaning now attached to them in India. He says:
Having seen sketches and notes on rock sculptures in India which closely resemble unexplained rock carvings in Scotland, and having myself found one of the Scotch forms cut on a bowlder in Kángrá, * * * being at Ayodhyá with a Hindu who speaks good English, I got a fakir and drew on the sand of the Gogra the figure
. I asked what that meant. The fakir at once answered, “Mahadeo.” I then drew
and got the same answer. At Delhi my old acquaintance, Mr. Shaw, told me that these two signs are chalked on stones in Kángrá by people marching in marriage processions. The meaning given to these two symbols now in India is familiarly known to the people.
Mahadeo, more accurately Mahadiva, is the god of generation. He is worshiped by the Sawas, one of the numerous Hindu sects, under the form of a phallus, often represented by a simple column, which sometimes is placed on the yoni or female organ. It is suggested that in a common form of the sculptures the inner circle represents the Mahadeo or lingam, and the outer or containing circle the yoni. No idea of obscenity occurs from this representation to the Hindus, who adore under this form the generative power in nature.