Shiva

(auspicious) Along with the god Vishnu
and the Goddess, one of the three most
important deities in the Hindu pantheon. All three are notable for being virtually absent from the Vedas, and their
collective rise to dominance (and the
gradual eclipse of the original Vedic
gods) points clearly to a definitive
change in the Hindu tradition. Of the
three, Shiva is not mentioned at all
in the Veda. He is identified with the
god Rudra, who first appears in a few of
the late Vedic hymns and who is later
identified in the Shvetashvatara
Upanishad as the single supreme deity
behind all things. The word Shiva
(“auspicious”) first appears in this
upanishad, but as an adjective modifying the feminine noun body.
Despite Rudra/Shiva’s appearance in
the upanishad as a supreme divinity, his
position is not clear-cut. He is described
as a master of archery who dwells in the
mountains (and thus away from human
beings) and is implored not to use his
arrows to harm either man or beast. It is
certain that Rudra/Shiva is not a Vedic
deity, and some have claimed that his
roots lie in the ancient urban-cultural
center known as the Indus Valley civilization, citing as evidence one of the
seals found in Harappa, an ancient city
of Pakistan, which shows a horned figure sitting cross-legged as if in meditation. This identification is possible but
hardly compelling. A more likely possibility is that he entered the pantheon as
a god worshiped by ascetics, who have
always been associated with mountain
dwellings. His connection with ascetics
is reinforced by several ascetic characteristics attributed to Shiva, such as the
matted locks and ash-smeared body.
Ascetic origins would also account for
his marginal status among the gods,
since this would have rendered him an
“outsider” to Vedic sacrificial cult, which
was the “established” religion of the
time. Shiva’s dramatic entry into the
pantheon comes in the story of the
death of his wife Sati. In this story, his
633
Shiva
634
Shiva
Statue of the god Shiva from the Kumbha Mela festival in Allahabad. Living outside of society with his hair
in matted locks and his body smeared with ash, Shiva is often regarded as the model for the Hindu ascetic.
father-in-law Daksha’s insulting remarks—
that Shiva was an ascetic with no money,
job, or family, and was unfit to join
respectable society—finally resulted in
the destruction of Daksha’s sacrifice as a
sign of Shiva’s supremacy.
Shiva has retained this ambivalent,
sometimes marginal quality in his
iconography, his mythology, and his
character. Perhaps his most basic and
important characteristic is that he is a
divinity whose nature allows him to
move beyond the opposing forces (or
dualities) within himself and the world
by being at all times the possibility of
both forces at once. Shiva can represent
both the wild and dangerous side of life
and the respectable and refined side. On
the one hand, he is the typical ascetic,
with matted hair, ash-smeared body,
and a home on Mount Kailas in the
remote Himalayas. On the other hand,
he is Hindu society’s ideal for the good
husband, who dotes upon his wife
Parvati. His body is adorned with
snakes and clothed with a bloody elephant skin, but he also wears the
Ganges River and the crescent moon,
which are associated with beauty, purity,
and auspiciousness. His mythic deeds
stress his overwhelming power, against
which no enemy can stand, and his sudden and sometimes impetuous temper,
seen best in the destruction of Kama,
the god of love; yet this sudden violence
contrasts with his grace and favor
toward his devotees (bhakta), by whom
he is given the name “quickly satisfied”
(Ashutosh) and to whom he will give
almost everything. Although he is portrayed as simple and without deceit (as
Bholanath, the “simple lord”), he is also
traditionally described as the expositor
of the tantras, the most secret and
hidden religious practice of all. This
transcendence of all opposites can be
seen in the images that commonly
represent him: in his form as Nataraja,
in which many of these contrary attributes are shown, or as Ardhanarishvara,
in which the image is half male and half
female. This transcendence of duality
is also visible in the linga, the
pillar-shaped object that is his symbolic
form, whose base and shaft are interpreted as symbolizing male and female
reproductive organs. Finally, one can
see this transcendence in the tantric
conception of the subtle body (the
system of psychic centers, or chakras,
that run throughout the human body),
in which religious practice aims for the
union of Shiva and Shakti. As Wendy
Doniger O’Flaherty points out, through
his actions Shiva embodies all the
contradictory possibilities for human
experience, and in mythic form provides
a resolution that one ordinary human
life can never provide.
In medieval times Shiva’s devotees
developed a doctrine of avatars (incarnations of Shiva who take the form of a
variety of saints, sages, and minor
deities who appear on earth to restore
balance and perform other necessary
acts), probably in response to the older
and better developed notion of avatars
of Vishnu. Unlike Vishnu’s avatars,
Shiva’s do not seem to have been a way
to create a place for smaller existing
deities in the larger pantheon. Of Shiva’s
twenty-one avatars, the most important
one is Hanuman, who is the only one
with a well-established independent
cult. The others were sages (such as
Durvasas) and important beings, but
the worship of Shiva’s avatars has never
upstaged the worship of Shiva himself,
as has often happened with Vishnu. For
further information on the mythology of
Shiva, see Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty
Shiva, 1981; and Stella Kramrisch, The
Presence of Shiva, 1981. See also Shaiva.