As one of the first blocks for a large granite panipitha and lingam I first cut out the base and styled the leaves on it. This pedestal is used later on to shape the bottom side of the upper part accurately (see last picture).

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A panipitha is a base for a lingam. A lingam is a symbol of Shiva, an approach to God in his formless State, the male aspect. The panipitha is the thing that carries the lingam, the 'water chair', as translated literally. It is a symbol of God in her manifested state, the female aspect.

After I had already made a small and medium panipitha out of black granite, I now took up the plan to carve out of red, brown and black granite a big panipitha with lingam. Don't ask me why, I felt that I had to make it, and that it would one day become clear to me why. I had the time and the material for it, so I did it.

I started with the base, that I sawed out of a piece Balmoral granite of approximately 100 x 100 x 22 cms wide. The dark red granite is beautiful, but also incredibly hard. Not something to carve with chisels, but fortunately the saw machine helped out.

From a plate of this rock hard Balmoral-granite I cut with my saw machine a round base plate for the panipitha and lingam of about 1 meter in diameter, and then polished it. This will be the base on which the whole thing will ultimately be standing.

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