9. Are Foreigners Responsible for the Sexual Meaning behind the Shiva Lingam?
Many Hindus blame Western scholars and Christian missionaries for propagating that it is a sexual organ. Let us see if it is true.
1. Popularization of the word linga as a phallus:
Most of the Hindus do not know Sanskrit, which is the main language of Hindu scriptures. They largely rely on what has been translated into English or other languages. We have seen in Chapter 1.4, how Mr. Richard Burton used the words lingam as phallus while translating the Kamasutra. Since then, most scholars, including Indians, have translated the word linga as a phallus or phallic symbol and "yoni" as a vagina. In Kamasutra, the word "yoni" is never used for a sexual organ. But it should also be noted that he was not the first person to use the word linga as a phallus. It is used both as a “symbol” and “phallus” in the Hindu scriptures.
2. Western view of looking at sexual organs:
According to some scholars, westerners who visited India during the British Empire looked at the Shiva lingam as something obscene. The 19th and early 20th-century colonial and missionary literature described lingam-yoni and related theology as obscene, corrupt, licentious, hyper-sexualized, puerile, impure, demonic, and a culture that had become too feminine and dissolute. This, along with the mistranslation of the words yoni and lingam, stripped the Shiva lingam off of its spiritual meaning.
Therefore, we can say that although foreigners did not originate the sexual meaning behind it, but to some degree were responsible for stripping off the spiritual meaning behind it.