Note 530 — IV. ORIGIN OF THE RITE.

Sir Monier Monier-Williams’s Buddhism, pp. 371–373. This writer, speaking of the prominence in India of the symbolism of the linga and yoni combined, ascribes it to the theory of the two essences, “Spirit regarded as a male principle, and Matter, or the germ of the external world, regarded as a female.” He says: “Without the union of the two no creation takes place. To any one imbued with these dualistic conceptions the linga and the yoni are suggestive of no improper ideas. They are either types of the two mysterious creative forces ... or symbols of one divine power delegating procreative energy to male and female organisms. They are mystical representatives, and perhaps the best impersonal representatives, of the abstract expressions ‘paternity’ and ‘maternity,’” [and their conjunction in marital union]. (Brahmanism and Hinduism, p. 224 f.)