Tantric & Phurba

A river drops in the dry season and the stones show themselves. Tantric lingams come from the Narmada River in central India, and phurba ritual daggers from Tibet. The lingams are cryptocrystalline quartz stones gathered from the riverbed, shaped by water into smooth ovoids banded in ochre and gray; the markings are read as Shiva’s tilak, and the stone itself as the god in aniconic form. Gathered when the river runs low, they come from a source long threatened by the dams built along the Narmada. The phurba, or kila, is a three-sided dagger of Tibetan Buddhism, used in tantric rites to pin down and transform obstacles.

Raised on an iron or steel stand, or set into a fountain, a lingam has the weight and calm of polished stone. Beside running water on a terrace, it looks as though it never left the river.