Page "Lingam" Paragraph 32

British missionary William Ward criticized the worship of the lingam ( along with virtually all other Indian religious rituals ) in his influential 1815 book A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos, calling it " the last state of degradation to which human nature can be driven ", and stating that its symbolism was " too gross, even when refined as much as possible, to meet the public eye.

" According to Brian Pennington, Ward's book " became a centerpiece in the British construction of Hinduism and in the political and economic domination of the subcontinent.

" In 1825, however, Horace Hayman Wilson's work on the lingayat sect of South India attempted to refute popular British notions that the lingam graphically represented a human organ and that it aroused erotic emotions in its devotees.