Shaligrams: God’s Images on Stones

Hinduism believes God to be formless and abstract. God as a Creator is a concept that can be perceived as a bundle of attributes and these attributes are represented symbolically. Conceiving a God with a form becomes an easy way to conceptualize an all-pervading, universal soul for common people. The physical form of the deity (the color), the number of arms, the possessions He carries in those arms….all are allegorical and metaphorical in nature.

Shaligrams are sacred ’shilas’ or stones said to represent the abstract form of Lord Vishnu. Many Hindus place these stones in their puja altars for daily worship. Just as the abstract form of Shiva is the stone ‘lingam’, so is the ‘shila’ a representation of Lord Vishnu.

Deep in the recesses of the high Himalayas in the north-west of Nepal, the Shaligrams are found on the bed of a tributary of Ganges called Gandaki river that flows through Mukti Kshetra and Damodar Kunda.

The Gandaki River

Shaligram refers to the name of the place where the stones are found. So sacred is this place that the Puranic scriptures make a special mention that any stone from this place is equally sacred as a Shaligram.

The river Gandaki is a very ancient river; and the geologists say that it existed even before the formation of the Himalayan ranges. It rises beyond the Himalayan ranges in Tibet, and flows South into Nepal and India. It is an important tributary of the river Ganges and joins Ganges in a place called Bhavatyapur in Bihar. It is called Salagrami or Narayani in Uttar-pradesh.

Shaligrams refer only to those stones found naturally in the river Gandaki. The Shaligrams are specifically described as fossil-stones which have taken shape in the Gandaki-river, and are characterized by the presence of discus marks. These also include the famous Kali-Gandaki River at Muktinath, Damodar Kunda, Devghat, etc.

Kali Gandaki river: Cradle of creation and evolution? Source

According to Hindu tradition, the Shaligram stone is the shelter for a small insect known as the ‘vajra-keeta’ that drills through this stone and lives inside it. Scientific explanation is that these stones are sedimentary rock carrying the fossils of the common ammonite that lived millions of years ago when the Himalayan mountain range formed the bed of a vast ocean floor.