Vishnu and Shiva, so dominant in later centuries, are all but insignificant to the early Arya. Vishnu merits six hymns in the R-V while Shiva is entirely absent under that name, although part of his multifarious character lurks there as Rudra, ‘the howler’, god of wind. What is also apparent is that the composers of the R-V had no time for the worship of Shiva in his prime form, the linga, since linga-worship is unequivocally condemned in the R-V.16 This injunction points to linga-worship already being an established local practice, seemingly as shocking to the Arya as it appeared to the
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