Indian Iron Tantric Lingam

An amber ellipse above a wine-dark dome.

This tantric lingam comes from India, and its age is indeterminate. The stone is quartz crystal with iron oxide inclusions. In Hindu homes, a small lingam may sit on the household altar and receive daily offerings of water and flowers as a form of Shiva, the god himself rather than a picture of him. This broad, rounded example is a polished reddish brown. A long amber-orange oval lies across its upper part, with a thread of yellow beneath. Eight inches high and 6.25 in diameter.

The form is simple. What it stands for is not.