Who Shiva Is

Before the next story, it helps to know plainly who Shiva is — what he looks like, what he carries, where he lives, and the names by which he is called.

What he looks like. Shiva is described as tall, fair-skinned, with long matted hair tied up in a knot. The Ganga, the holy river, lives in his hair. The moon sits on his crown. There is a third eye on his forehead, kept closed most of the time; when it opens, the look from it can burn anything in front of it. His throat is blue from a poison he once drank (we will hear that story). His body is smeared with white ash — the ash of cremation grounds, because he is not afraid of endings.

He wears the skin of a tiger. He has a snake around his neck. On his shoulder he carries a trident — three prongs, his weapon. In one hand he holds a small drum — the damaru — whose beat begins each new age. At his feet, a white bull is usually sleeping. The bull is Nandi, his gatekeeper.

Where he lives. On Mount Kailash, in the far north, high in the Himalayas. The mountain itself is white, snow-covered, sharp-peaked, and very cold. Shiva lives there as an ascetic — not in a palace, but sitting cross-legged on a rock, meditating much of the time, eyes half-closed.

His family. His wife is Parvati, daughter of the mountain. They have two sons: Ganesha, the elephant-headed boy, and Kartikeya, the six-faced warrior. Together they live on Kailash. Despite Shiva’s ascetic life, his household is unusually warm. The Purana keeps coming back to scenes of the family together — Parvati combing Shiva’s matted hair, Ganesha and Kartikeya playing or quarrelling, Nandi at the threshold, the snake around the father’s neck looking on.

His names. Many of them. Each names one aspect:

• Shiva — the auspicious one, the kind one.
• Rudra — the fierce one, who roars.
• Mahadev — the great god.
• Nataraja — lord of dance.
• Bholenath — the simple-hearted one, easily pleased.
• Pashupati — lord of all creatures.
• Bhairava — the terrible one.
• Shankara — the giver of blessings.
• Mahakal — the lord of time.
• Neelakantha — the blue-throated one (from the poison story).

The Purana uses these names interchangeably and you should not let them confuse you. They are all the same Shiva, named by what he is doing in a particular moment.

What he does. Three things, mainly. He destroys, when destroying is needed — at the end of an age, when an evil has grown too large. He blesses, when a devotee asks honestly. And he sits, vast amounts of the time, in meditation — the deep stillness that, the tradition says, is what holds the world together at the bottom.

That is who he is. The stories that follow show him in all of it — as husband, father, warrior, ascetic, dancer. Begin with the next one: the syllable that came out of him first, the sound the whole tradition chants before any other.