Bhadreśvara is the Śaiva state god of Champa, the divine linga around whom the temple-city of Mỹ Sơn grew. Its earliest inscription, set up by King Bhadravarman around the turn of the fifth century, dedicates the god a linga whose very name binds the sovereign to Śiva — bhadra, the king's own element, joined to Īśvara, 'the Lord'. The mukhaliṅga, a phallic pillar bearing the god's carved face, made kingship and divinity a single substance, and later rulers styled their own foundation-lingas in the same manner (Śambhu-bhadreśvara, Śrīśānabhadreśvara). Though fire destroyed the original shrine and successive kings rebuilt it, the Bhadreśvara sanctuary endured as the spiritual centre of the northern Cham realm and the archetype of the mukhalinga cult across Champa.