THE SYNTHESIS OF HINDUISM 173
at Baragaon, between Behar and Rajgir, will be in a position to judge in how many different directions the emblem of Shiva might have been evolved. The four-headed stupa, for instance, was sometimes made to refer to Parvati. Finally, however—with the perfecting of the theological idea of Maheswara—the modified stupa was taken as Shiva. This particular phase must have occurred just as the Rajputs began to settle in Rajputana, and this accounts for the prevalence of the four-headed Shiva in that country. The family-God of the royal line of Udaipur is said to be a four-headed Mahadeva. In Benares again there may be more, but there is certainly one temple in the Tamil quarter behind the monastery of Kedar Nath, where a Shiva of the period in question is worshipped to this day. When first erected this temple was doubtless on a level with the street. Owing to the accumulation of debris in the interim, however, it is now some eight or ten steps down. This fact alone gives us some notion of the age of the building.
The image of Mahadeva has gone through many further phases of simplification since the day we speak of, but this Shiva of Benares and the other of Elephanta belong to a single historic period, and the small four-headed stupa outside the caves is one of their most precious relics.
Hinduism throbs with the geography and history of India. In every image of Shiva speaks the voice of pre-Gupta Benares. In that complex conception
