GUPTASWAMI, Sandur (Cave of)
15.000000,76.500000
Description
»There are several other caves in this division of the Sandur hills. In two of them, known respectively as the Kupatasvami and Guptasvami caves, are said to be images of black stone« (FRANCIS, W 1904: 321 footnote 2). IDENTITY: Unknown. Compare the caves of –>Kumarswami and –>Kupataswami (Kuptasvami, Kuptaswami). ETYMOLOGY: Guptaswami (note 1) or »Guptasvami« (FRANCIS, W 1904: 321 footnote) translates as »Hidden Lord« (note 2) and seems to signify a cave that "conceals" or contains and houses an idol (an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship) or, perhaps, a lingam (note 3). SITUATION: Unidentified. FRANCIS, W (1904: 321 footnote 2) places the »Kupatasvami cave« at an unspecified location somewhere »in this division of the Sandur hills« and thus, apparently, somewhere in the vicinity of the temple to –>Kumaraswami situated »near the top of the hills almost due south of Sandur« (FRANCIS, W 1904: 320) and thus on the south-western of the two parallel ridges forming the Sandur Hills. CRAVEN, S A (1969: 25) refers to an unspecified »Francis (1894)« and places the »cave called Kuptaswami« at an unspecified location somewhere »in the area« of »Sondur« or Sandur (note 4).
NOTE 1: "Swami" is not only a word used as »a respectfull address« but also signifies, especially in southern India, »a Hindu idol, especially applied to to those of Shiva and Subrahmaniyam« (YULE & BURNELL 1886 ed. 1903: 883) or »Subrahmanya, another name for Kartikiya« (LONELY PLANET, India 2005: 1112) and the same as »Comara or Kartica Swami, the Hindu Mars« (NEWBOLD, T J 1838: 144). NOTE 2: gupta (Sanskrit, past participle of gupd) »concealed, hidden; preserved« (WILSON, H H 1855: 39, 190); »concealed; guarded, protected« (KALYANARAM, S 1998: 1911, 2086); secret, unseen; »rectum« (WILFORD, F 1801: 502). NOTE 3: Lingam (also Ling, Shiv ling), plural: linga; literally: mark, sign, (sexual) characteristic, is not only a symbol of divine generative energy but also an uniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva, which typically consists of an upright standing object, mostly made from stone and, in cases, of a natural or “swayambhu" (self-arisen) stalagmite. The lingam has also been considered the symbol of a phallus or so-called »male creative energy« (force, power) and is often represented in combination within a "yoni", the symbol of "shakti", the female creative energy, or of the goddess. For credulousness workers showing creative skill or taste, the union of lingam and yoni represents the »indivisible two-in-oneness of male and female, the passive space and active time from which all life originates« (JANSEN, Eva Rudy 1993 edited 2003: The book of Hindu imagery: Gods, manifestations and their meaning.- ISBN 90-74597-07-6 pp. 46, 119). NOTE 4: Sandur N15°05': E76°33' (Survey of India sheet 57-A/12, edition 1978).