The Hindu heritage of Pakistan can be hard to find but ocassionally in some corners of the country you may find these phallic shaped pillars on circular, sometimes, rectangular plinths. Although many of those that remain are more commonly found in museum like settings, this example is one of the few that are still in their original setting. They are commonly made of stone and in this case sandstone.

The pillar is an aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva and the plinth is a representation of the Goddess Shakti. The two parts of the shrine have come to be known as male and female and thus mistakenly construed by those outside of the Hindu faith as having erotic connotations. It is more accurate to think of them as spiritual representations of the Shiva and Shakti and when merged together they represent the merging of the microcosmos and macrocosmos. As such these shrines are of great importance and it is doubly so when they are placed in places such as the the Katas Raj temples. Thanks to the redevelopments and conservation efforts at the temple over the last two decades, Hindu pilgrims have started to come back to the temples and give offerings and prayer at the shrine. However their ability to do so has sometimes been difficult in the current political climate.