Shiva
Rudra, Shiva's Vedic forerunner, was the red god of storms and lightning, the terrifying god living in the mountains and god of cattle and medicine who must be propitiated. As god of lightning, Rudra became associated with Agni, god of fire - and consumer and conveyor of sacrifice. With Rudra as his antecedent, Shiva could claim as his inheritance the position of priest of the gods and of candidate for divine supremacy. By contrast with Brahma, a personification of a relatively late abstract principle, Shiva could combine with his Vedic antecedents features reaching even farther back than the Vedic age. He had characteristics of the Indus god, and his powers, especially in the epics, were said to derive from the practice of austerities, that is from yoga rather than from sacrifice. Such powers heightened his claims as priest of the gods. In the aspect of a yogi Shiva is depicted with a snow-white face, is dressed in a tiger skin and has matted hair. Rudra's original character as god of cattle is extended by combining it with that of the pre-Aryan Lord of the Beasts. The bull is of course universally considered as a symbol of fertility, and this aspect of the lord of cattle had attached to Rudra. But the pre-Aryan Lord of the Beasts exacted sacrifice, because of the ritual connection of sacrifice (death, murder and violence) with plant and animal fertility - a basic cult of agricultural peoples and the foundation of Indian mythology in pre- and post-Aryan periods. The fertility-giving aspect of Shiva is thus reinforced by identification with the yogic Lord of the Beasts, and at the same time the idea of violence present in Rudra is underlined. Shiva Bhairava, the Destroyer, is thus by extension Shiva the bringer of fertility, the creator, the 'Auspicious'. In this sense his activity as destroyer is essential to that of Brahma as creator, and Brahma is thus sometimes said to be inferior to Shiva. For this reason Shiva is known as Mahadeva or Iswara, Supreme Lord. His supreme creative power is celebrated in worship of the lingam or phallus.Shiva repeatedly demonstrates his mastery of austerities as the source of power. Thus in the epic version of the slaying of Vritra by Indra, Vritra has obtained power to create illusions, endless energy, unconquerable might and power over the gods because Brahma cannot deny it to him after his practice of austerities. Shiva alone of the gods has sufficient strength gained by yoga to pit against that obtained by Vritra. It is Shiva who, by backing Indra and lending him his strength, enables him to overcome Vritra.

On another occasion Shiva acquired strength to make him superior to all the gods combined. At one time the asuras had obtained a boon from Brahma which consisted of the posession of three castles which could only be conquered by a deity and then only if he could destroy them with a single arrow. From these bastions the asuras made war on the gods, none of whom was strong enough to shoot the fatal shaft. Indra, king of the gods, asked Shiva for his advice; Shiva replied that he would transfer half his strength to the gods and that they would then be able to overcome their enemies. But the gods could not support even half of Shiva's strength, so instead they gave half of their own strength to Shiva, who proceeded to destroy the asuras. However, he did not return the gods' strength to them but kept it for himself, and ever after was the greatest of the gods. He is often depicted as a demonslayer, in which role he is called Natesa, and is seen dancing on the body of an asura. He sometimes wears an elephant skin belonging to an asura he killed. His boons are also positive: he is worshipped as giver of long life and god of medicine, and his help is inestimable as strengthener of warriors. He is in a sense indiscriminate in his role, for he is ready to give help to anyone who would worship him. Thus in the Mahabharata Arjuna is said to have journeyed to the Himalayas to propitiate the gods before the outbreak of the great war, but got into a fight with a mountaineer who was Shiva in disguise. When he discovered who his adversary was he worshipped him and was not only forgiven but also given a powerful magic weapon. On the other hand Aswathaman, who was on the opposing side in the Bharata war, and who also fought tenaciously with Shiva until he realised who he was, threw himself on a sacrificial fire in the god's honour, this being the only offering he could make; as a reward for this Shiva entered into his body, so enabling him to slay all about him. Among Shiva's beneficent roles is that of distributor of the seven holy rivers. The Ganges, which winds round Brahma's city on Mount Meru in the Himalayas, descends from the mountains in great torrents. Shiva, in order to break the fall, stands beneath the waters, which wind their way through his matted locks and divide into seven, the holy rivers of India, Shiva performed a vital service to the gods and thus to the world during the churning of the ocean of milk, the object of which was to produce amrita, or ambrosia, which was to strengthen the gods in their struggle against the demons. After some time his serpent Vasuki, whom the gods were using as a churning rope, vomited forth poison, and this was about 0 fall into the ocean of milk, contaminate the ambrosia and thus destroy he gods. But Shiva stepped forward, aught the poison in his mouth, and as saved from swallowing it himself only by the efforts of his wife Parvati, who by strangling him held the poison in his throat, which turned it blue.



Shiva Apart from his blue throat, Shiva is represented as a fair man, with five faces, four arms and three eyes. The third eye appeared in the centre of his forehead one day when Parvati playfully covered his eyes and thus plunged the world into darkness and put it in danger of destruction- it is a powerful weapon, for by fixing it upon his enemies Shiva can destroy them with fire. With this eye, he kills all the gods and other creatures during the periodic destructions of the universe. His other weapons are a trident called Pinaka, which is a symbol of lightning and characterises Shiva as god of storms; a sword; a bow called Ajagava; and a club with a skull at the end, called Khatwanga. Further weapons are the three serpents which twine around him and may dart out at enemies: one coiled in his piled up, matted hair and raising its hood above his head; one on his shoulder or about his neck; and one which forms his sacred thread. In addition to the weapons, most of Shiva's personal attributes emphasise the violent aspects of the deity, for which he is most generally known. These include his head-dress of snakes and necklace of skulls, which he wears when haunting cemeteries as Bhuteswara, lord of ghosts and goblins. In the character of Bhairava his violent nature is intensified, for he is then said to take pleasure in destruction for its own sake. When depicted in such roles Shiva is attended by troops of imps and demons. In his role as stern upholder of righteousness and judge, he carries a drum shaped like an hourglass and a rope with which to bind up sinners. Apart from the lingam, personal attributes which characterise Shiva as god of fertility are the bull Nandi which accompanies him or whose symbol in the shape of a crescent moon he wears on his brow, encircling his third eye, and the serpents which twine about him. Many of Shiva's violent aspects are symbolised in the characters of his consorts, who are particularly associated with his bloody rites. The yoni, which is their emblem as the lingam is his, is known as his shakti, or female energy. Shiva likes to dance in joy and in sorrow, either alone or with his wife Devi, for he is the god of rhythm. Dancing symbolises both the glory of Shiva and the eternal movement of the universe, which it serves to perpetuate. But by the Tandava dance he accomplishes the annihilation of the world at the end of an age and its integration into the world spirit, so that it represents the destruction of the illusory world of maya. Maya no longer refers to Varuna 's creative energy in the universe; it is that which governs life on earth, the illusion of material reality, and that from which by various means the faithful seek to free themselves. When dancing Shiva represents cosmic truth; he is surrounded by a halo and accompanied by troops of spirits. He is watched by anyone fortunate enough to be granted the vision.


Shiva is generally depicted immobile, as an ascetic - naked, his body smeared with ashes and his hair matted. His meditation and austerities build up his spiritual strength, giving him unlimited powers to perform miracles - and also strengthening his powers as fertility god, for the two roles are not so antithetical as might at first appear from the myth in which he kills Kama, god of desire, by burning him up with the fire from his third eye. Though Shiva may have struck Kama dead for having interrupted his meditations, the effect of Kama's shaft was not thereby nullified. By still further delaying his union with Parvati, thereby causing Parvati herself to perform austerities in order to arouse his interest and causing all the gods to hope anxiously for the consummation of his desire, Shiva in effect heightened the desire and strengthened the force of his role as fertility god. The child produced from his union with Parvati was one of the strongest of the later pantheon: Karttikeya, god of war, who to some extent supplanted Agni.. It was the angry sage Bhrigu who caused Shiva to be worshipped in the form of the lingam. He was sent by the other sages to test the three gods of the triad to see which was the greatest. When he reached Shiva the god did not welcome him; he was engaged with his wife and would not be interrupted. For his lack of respect due to a sage, Bhrigu cursed Shiva to be worshipped as the lingam. Brahmat also failed to gain Bhrigu's approval for he was too occupied with his own self-importance to receive the sage with due courtesy. Vishnu was sleeping when Bhrigu reached him and the sage rudely kicked him in the ribs. Instead of rising in wrath Vishnu, full of concern, asked him if he had hurt himself, gently rubbing the foot, which had injured him. Bhrigu went away proclaiming that this was the god most worthy of adoration - such compassion and humility before a sage was the mark of greatness. Shiva quarreled with many of the gods, for though he claimed the right to judge their actions and to punish them, many of the other gods in turn considered him to be a Brahminicide because he struck off one of Brahma's heads, for which offence he was condemned to be a wanderer and to perform penances. The gods mocked at him as an ugly, homeless mendicant, unclean, ill-tempered and a haunter of cemeteries. Eventually, however, like Brahma and Vishnu, Shiva acquired a heaven of his own. This was situated on Mount Kailasa, in the Himalayas, and was the scene of his austerities and where the Ganges descended on his head.