Shiva ಶಿವ

Names

• Shiva — the Auspicious One¹
• Mahadeva — the Great God¹
• Maheshvara — Great Lord¹
• Parameshvara — Supreme Lord¹
• Rudra — the Vedic storm god with whom Shiva is identified¹
• Pashupati — Lord of animals (or of cattle)¹
• Nilakantha — the blue-throated one, from the poison he held in his throat¹
• Gangadhara — bearer of the river Ganga¹
• Chandrashekhara — he who wears the moon as his crest¹
• Tryambaka — named for his third eye¹
• Shankara, Shambhu, Hara, Bhava — further names in common use¹
• Mahabaleshvara, Virupaksha, Manjunatha, Murudeshvara — names under which he is worshipped at the Karnataka temples in GOD VERSE²³⁴⁵

Family

Consorts

Parvati, Sati

Children

Ganesha, Kartikeya (Subrahmanya)

His consort is Shakti in her many forms: Sati, Parvati, Durga and others; his two children are Ganesha and Kartikeya.¹

Origins

Shiva is identified with Rudra, the storm god of the Rigveda, and the two names are used as synonyms in scripture; scholars also see non-Vedic roots, with older deities merging into one great god.¹

Rudra’s rise to a supreme being is first seen in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (about 400–200 BCE). By the epics and Puranas “Shiva”, once an epithet, had become his name.¹

Iconography

He is shown with a third eye, the crescent moon and the Ganga flowing from his matted hair, carrying a trident; he is very often worshipped in the aniconic linga, with the bull Nandi as his mount.¹

Dance and cosmic activity

In the Nataraja image, Shiva’s dance brings together creation, preservation and destruction. The Met’s late-eleventh-century Tamil copper-alloy sculpture holds a drum and fire, offers reassurance with one hand, and points toward a raised foot associated with refuge. The figure beneath the standing foot represents delusion.⁶

An image with a ritual life

Tamil artists developed an influential bronze form of the dancing Shiva under royal patronage. These were devotional images with lives in temples and processions, not simply decorative sculptures. The Smithsonian’s account relates the image to Tamil religious poetry and continuing worship.⁷

Scope and variation

This entry concerns Nataraja imagery, especially Tamil bronze traditions. It does not define every Shaiva understanding of Shiva or every historical dancing form.⁷⁶

How traditions differ