There was a post in Poetryinstone by our beloved Vijay and thanks to him for the wonderful pictures. I have never seen the lingam, though have heard about it earlier. I never bought in the theory that Linga is a representation of Phallus and the Gudimallam photos, helped me to firm up my idea on the same, that the western concept of comparing Linga with Phallas is wrong. I wrote a comment in the website, which I am furnishing below. Like to hear from others too..
"Comparing Linga with Phallus is a western concept which, unfortunately many of us have accepted. I dont buy in this as the westerners do not have any insight into our philosophy. Linga is the representation of Jothiswaroopam, the all luminous, formless form of the Brahmam. Hope all of us know the Lingothbhava concept, where Shiva stands as a pillar of fire and Brahma and Vishnu goes in search of his head and feet. Even today, Linghothbhava has the shiva form depicted inside a linga, which is representation of the supreme in human form insite the pillar of fire (or jothi or whatever we want to call). The cut in the Linga form is just a representation and if it resembles a phallus, its a coincidence.
Coming to the article, its wonderful and thanks a lot for the pictures..I have heard about Gudimallam but never got my eyes on this beautiful linga. This again proves my above statement. Mr. Gopinaths representation has the cross section shown with seven sides. And its unfortunate that you have said that
"It is important to notice that this early Linga is definitely a representation of a Phallus"
Agni is represented with Seven hands, and said to have seven tongues. Sun is said to have seven horses. All these are depiction of the seven colours of light and I will rather go with the seven sides of the lingam to represent the agni form rather than the phallus. "