Introduction
Shiva is one of the most important deities of Hinduism, worshipped by hundreds of millions of people. In the classical scheme he is one of the three principal gods, with Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver. He is the destroyer, or more exactly the transformer, who dissolves the universe so that it can be created again. For his devotees, the Shaivas, he is far more than one god of three: he is the supreme reality, who creates, sustains, destroys, conceals and reveals.
Shiva is a god of contrasts. He is an ascetic who lives in the snows of Mount Kailasa and a husband and father. He is terrifying at the cremation ground and gracious to those who worship him with a leaf and a little water. He is the lord of yoga and the lord of dance. His name means "the auspicious one".
Family
Names and epithets
Shiva has a very large number of names, and several traditional lists of 108 and 1,008 names (the Shiva Sahasranama). Some of the best known are:
- Mahadeva, "the great god", and Ishana and Ishvara, "the lord"
- Rudra, the fierce Vedic form, and Shankara and Shambhu, "bringer of benefit"
- Pashupati, "lord of animals" or of all living beings
- Nataraja, "lord of the dance"
- Neelakantha, "blue-throated", and Gangadhara, "bearer of the Ganga"
- Chandrashekhara, "he who has the moon on his head", and Bholenath, "the innocent lord", a popular name
- Tryambaka, "the three-eyed", and Mahakala, "great time"
Origins and early history
The origin of Shiva is debated among scholars. Two main sources are usually named. The first is Rudra, a fierce and ambivalent god of the Rigveda, who is feared as an archer whose arrows bring disease, and also invoked as a healer. In the later Vedic texts, especially the Shatarudriya hymn of the Yajurveda (the Rudram), Rudra becomes more prominent, and in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, Rudra is presented as the one supreme god. The name Shiva at first is an adjective, "auspicious", used to soften the terrifying Rudra.
The second source is the non-Vedic and regional cult of a great ascetic and lord of animals. Some scholars connect this with a seal from the Indus Valley city of Mohenjo-daro that shows a seated horned figure among animals, sometimes called "proto-Shiva". Others regard this identification as speculative.
By the time of the epics and the early centuries CE, Shiva had emerged as a major god. Around the same time, the Pashupata movement, traditionally founded by Lakulisha, and later the Shaiva Siddhanta, Kashmir Shaivism and the Lingayat (Virashaiva) movement of Basava in the twelfth century, developed distinct theologies. In Tamil Nadu, the sixty-three Nayanar saints composed devotional hymns to Shiva that are still sung.
Iconography and forms
Shiva is worshipped in many forms:
- The linga: the most common form in temples is the linga, an abstract, rounded pillar on a base (yoni). It is understood as the formless form of Shiva. In the Lingodbhava story, Shiva appeared as an endless pillar of fire, and neither Brahma, who flew up as a swan, nor Vishnu, who dug down as a boar, could find its end.
- Nataraja: Shiva dancing the cosmic dance of creation and destruction, in a ring of flames, with one foot on the demon of ignorance. The best-known images are the bronzes of the Chola period, and the temple at Chidambaram is dedicated to this form.
- Ardhanarishvara: half male and half female, uniting Shiva and Shakti.
- Dakshinamurti: Shiva as the silent teacher, facing south.
- Bhairava: the fierce form, associated with the cremation ground and with the protection of temples and cities.
- Harihara: a combined form of Shiva (Hara) and Vishnu (Hari).
His common attributes are the trident (trishula), the small drum (damaru), the third eye on his forehead, the crescent moon in his hair, the river Ganga falling through his matted locks, snakes around his neck and a tiger or elephant skin. He smears his body with ash and wears rudraksha beads. His abode is Mount Kailasa.
Family
His wife is Parvati, who is also called Uma, and who is a form of the Great Goddess. Their sons are Ganesha and Kartikeya. In some regional traditions, the god Ayyappan (Shasta) is regarded as the son of Shiva and Vishnu in his female form Mohini. Shiva's attendants are the Ganas, led by Nandi.
Major stories
- The poison: in the churning of the ocean of milk, the deadly poison Halahala came up and threatened to destroy the world. Shiva drank it and held it in his throat, which turned blue.
- Descent of the Ganga: Shiva caught the Ganga in his hair as she fell from heaven, so that the earth would not be broken by her force.
- Sati and Daksha's sacrifice: Sati, the daughter of Daksha, married Shiva against her father's will. When Daksha insulted Shiva at a great sacrifice, Sati gave up her life. Shiva's fury created the fierce Virabhadra, who destroyed the sacrifice. The places where parts of Sati's body fell are the Shakti Peethas.
- The burning of Kama: when the gods sent Kama, the god of love, to break Shiva's meditation so that he would marry Parvati, Shiva burned him with his third eye.
- Tripurantaka: Shiva destroyed the three flying cities of the demons with a single arrow.
- Markandeya: the boy sage Markandeya, who was fated to die at sixteen, held on to a linga. When Yama came, Shiva appeared and defeated him. This is the origin of the name Kalantaka, "ender of Death".
- Bhasmasura: a demon who received a boon that he could burn anyone by touching their head, and tried it on Shiva. Vishnu, as Mohini, tricked him into destroying himself.
Worship and festivals
Shiva is worshipped mostly in the form of the linga, with water, milk, bilva leaves and ash. The most important festival is Mahashivaratri, the great night of Shiva, in the dark half of the month of Phalguna (February or March), with fasting and an all-night vigil. Mondays, and the twilight period of the thirteenth lunar day (Pradosha) are also sacred to him. In the month of Shravana, many devotees carry water from the Ganga in the Kanwar Yatra.
There are twelve Jyotirlingas, the most sacred shrines of Shiva: Somnath, Mallikarjuna (Srisailam), Mahakaleshwar (Ujjain), Omkareshwar, Kedarnath, Bhimashankar, Kashi Vishwanath (Varanasi), Trimbakeshwar, Vaidyanath, Nageshwar, Rameshwaram and Grishneshwar. In Tamil Nadu, five temples are associated with the five elements. Pashupatinath in Kathmandu is one of the most important Shiva temples in Nepal.
The best-known mantras of Shiva are the five-syllable Om Namah Shivaya and the Rigvedic Mahamrityunjaya mantra, which is addressed to Tryambaka.
Meaning
Shiva is often understood as the union of opposites: asceticism and family life, destruction and renewal, stillness and dance. In philosophical Shaivism, he is pure consciousness, and his power (Shakti) is the energy through which the world is manifested.
Beyond India
Shaivism spread through South-East Asia in the first millennium. The Khmer kings of Cambodia and the rulers of Java built great Shiva temples, such as Prambanan in Java. Shiva is worshipped as a major god in Nepal and Sri Lanka, and by Hindu communities in Bali.