~ S peci fic myths ~ the iconographic genesis of shiva ( from google.com ) sorry all .

1. Shiva
The Iconographic Genesis of Shiva
Shiva, the Mahadeva, represents one of the three visible forms, or the
functional aspects of God, namely, the creation, preservation and
dissolution, that is, bringing the cosmos into existence, sustaining it
and finally withdrawing it from existing. Lord Shiva represents the last
of these three aspects, that is, dissolution or destruction of the
cosmos. The other two aspects, the creation and the preservation, are
represented respectively by Prajapati or Brahma, and Vishnu.
Prajapati Brahma and Vishnu are Vedic gods. In the Rigveda,
Prajapati and Brahma are mentioned as two gods, though both almost
alike responsible for the act of Creation. Hence, in later Vedic
literature, they merge into one entity, and are sometimes alluded to
as Prajapati Brahma and sometimes as two synonymous terms
alternating each other. In Puranic literature, Brahma gets pre-
eminence and the term Prajapati is used only as the other name of
Brahma to avoid monotonous repetition of the same nomenclature.
Initially, that is, in the Rigveda, Vishnu is a subordinate type of god,
but later by Puranic era, he attains the status of the Lord of the
universe and the principal Vedic god.
Shiva as such, or as Mahadeva, is not alluded to in proper Vedas. The
Rigveda, however, frequently mentions a brown complexioned sun-
like brilliant and gold-like glowing animal-skin-wearing entity by the
name of Rudra, or Ishan, who, as per the Rigvedic description, is
synonymous of a violent non-Aryan jungle or tribal god capable of
subduing, by his mighty arrows, even the most wild of animals. He
did not hesitate even to kill human beings and sought delight in such
destruction. Hence, the Rigveda is somewhat critical of his wildness
and invokes him for not destroying his devotees, their ancestors,
offspring, relatives and horses. It is only gradually and somewhat in
simultaneity that the Rigveda softens and sophisticates him into a civil
god of Aryan kind and includes him into the Vedic pantheon. The later
Vedic literature identifies in Rudra the proto form of the subsequent
Shiva. When Puranas perceived the formless God manifest in His
triple function, which He performed as the Creator, Sustainer and
Destroyer, both initially and finally, as well as always, they chose
Shiva to represent one of these functional aspects of Him and
elevated him to the status of the Great Trinity.
Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu, Only the Time-Bound
Manifestations of the Timeless God

2. Shiva, as well as Brahma and Vishnu, do not represent God but only
His functional aspects, which manifest in Creation, in sustaining the
Creation and, finally, in withdrawing the Creation, which occurs after
every kalpa, which is the scheduled age of each Creation. Obviously,
after the Creation is withdrawn and the kalpa comes to an end, God's
functional aspects too disappear and so does the Great Trinity
representing them. Thus, the Trinity, with each of Shiva, Brahma and
Vishnu having a scheduled life-span, is the time-bound manifestation
of the timeless One, that is, the Trinity disappears after its allotted
life-span to re-appear when the next kalpa begins, but the
Omnipresent God neither appears nor disappears because He is
always there before the time began and after its scale has exhausted.
In Indian cosmological tabulation, Shiva's life-span is double of the
Vishnu's and Vishnu's double of the Brahma's. Brahma's life-span
comprises of 120 Brahma years, which are equivalent to 300 million,
9 hundred thousand, 17 thousand and 376 years of human calendar.
Shiva Precedes Trinity-
Partners
Shiva, thus different from
what the Puranas proclaim,
is not Brahma's creation.
He rather precedes his
Trinity counterparts,
Brahma and Vishnu, on
time scale. This pre-
eminence of Shiva over
others as much reflects in
their related theological
chronology and availability
of their iconic
representations in visual
arts. Brahma and Vishnu
have their roots in the
Vedas, and not before.
Shiva has a pre-Vedic
origin, as his worship cult
seems to have been in
vogue amongst the Indus
dwellers, even around 3000
B. C. The excavations of various archaeological sites in the Indus
valley reveal two sets of archaeological finds that suggest the
prevalence of the cult of worshipping both, his anthropomorphic as
well as symbolic representations. This excavated material includes a
number of terracotta seals representing a yogi icon and the phallus
type baked clay objects, obviously the votive lings, suggestive of
some kind of phallus-worship cult of the non-Aryan settlers of the
Pashupati, the Lord of Animals
Mohenjo-daro (Indus Valley)
circa 2000 B.C

3. Indus cities. Seated in meditative posture, the stern looking
Yogi figure wears a typical head-dress made of buffalo horns
and is surrounded by various animal icons, lion, elephant,
buffalo-type bull, rhinoceros etc. and the bird forms above.
In some seals, this Yogi figure consists of three heads. That the
symbolic phallus icons and the anthropomorphic representations
relate to one and the same entity becomes obvious from the
iconographic thrust, which defines the Yogi form. One of the most
significant cardinals of this Yogi iconography, and perhaps more so
than others, is its well erect and emphatically exposed phallus, similar
to the Urddh-ling Shiva icons, a cult of Shiva, which dominated
Shaivite sculptural art for centuries from around the period of
Kushanas. These finds, datable to the period from 3000 B. C. to 1000
B. C. or even later, show the continuity of such worship cult till much
after the Vedic era. This is further affirmed by the Rigveda itself. The
Rigveda at least twice talks of the phallus worshipping non-Aryan
tribes and vehemently condemns the practice.
Shiva in Later Vedic Cult and in The Mahabharata
The Vedas, in their later cult, admit
into Vedic pantheon the jatadhari holy
Shiva with all his manifestations,
namely the bow and arrows carrying
archer Sharva, the all pervading
Bhava, the benevolent Shambhu and
the animal-skin wearer Krittivasanah,
but do not approve his phallus
worship.
Bhava Shiva (A Particularly
Beneficent Aspect)

4. In Brahmanical order, Shvetashvara
Upanishad is perhaps the earliest
treatise that refers, though not
directly, to this aspect of Shiva-
worship with some degree of
reverence when it calls him the Lord
of all yonis, that is, the commander
of genital faculties of all living ones.
It is, however, in the Mahabharata
that his phallus worship has been
directly alluded to. The Mahabharata
widely follows the Indus perception
of Shiva. The Mahabharata, in tune
with the Indus Shiva, perceives him
as Trishira, or Chaturmukha, that is,
having three heads, or four, as
Digvasas, that is, without cloth, as
Urddh-ling, that is, with upward
erect phallus, and as yogadhyaksha,
that is, the Lord of Yoga. The
Mahabharata goes a little ahead and
conceived him also as five headed, four facing the four directions and
fifth looking upwards, that is the guardian of the entire cosmos. It is
from this five headed Shiva concept that his Sadashiva form seems to
have evolved, as these five heads also symbolize five powers- para,
adi, icchha, jnana and kriya, that is, all that is perishable, all that is
timeless, and the desire, knowledge and act, of which the entire
creation comprise.
Panchanana or Five-Headed Shiva

5. Mahabharata's epithet of
Pashupati for Shiva is also an
adherence to the Indus
iconography of Shiva image. The
Mahabharata perceives him
further as Shardularupa,
Vyalarupa and in many other
animal forms and as Vrishvaha, or
Vrishvahan.
Vrishavahana Shiva and Parvati

6. The Skand Purana numbers his
animal heads as seven, two of
which, namely that of the goat
and the horse, he had given
respectively to Brahma and
Vishnu.
Vishnu as Hayagriva

7. Thus again the number of heads
comes to the same five as
perceived in the Mahabharata. In
visual arts, this Mahabharata
iconic vision of Shiva has been
widely followed. Shiva's Trishira,
Chaturmukha, Yogi, Pashupati,
Vrishvaha and Urddh-ling images,
whatever their medium, the
stone, canvas, metals and so on,
are quite in vogue in Indian arts.
The animal headed Shiva is a
rarity. However, in visual arts,
which allow greater scope for
imagination to operate, such as
painting, Shiva has been depicted
sometimes with multiple animal
heads, although to avoid inclusion
of his human face these heads are
planted on the form of Hanuman,
who is Shiva's incarnation. Such
Hanuman forms have heads of
animals that have attained
mythical heights, say, the horse-headed god Hayagriva, the boar-
headed Varah, the great eagle Garuda, and the jungle monarch lion
or Simha. Such five-headed and ten-armed figures not only carry
most of Shiva's attributes in these hands but such figures also stand
upon the form of Apasamara, one of the most characteristic features
of Shiva iconography. This iconographic perception defines, on one
hand, Shiva as Pashupati, the lord of animals, and on the other as
containing within him the entire animal world.
Five Headed Hanuman

8. Shiva's Pre-Aryan Origin
Obviously, Shiva had a pre-Aryan
origin but where, when and how he
came into being, or say into human
perception, is not known. This much
is, however, certain that a god like
him was the presiding deity of the
Indus inhabitants and he was
worshipped as both, iconically as
well as symbolically, that is, as
Pashupati and Mahayogi and as
Ling.
This in all certainties seems to the
initial form of Shiva. May be, the
Indus inhabitants shared their god
with West Asian settlers who
worshipped a similar god Teshav.
Teshav, too, was a bull riding deity
like Vrishvaha Shiva. He also
carried, like Shiva, a trident,
pinakin, the bow, arrows, which
shot as lightening, danda, the rod,
parashu, the axe, and so on. Incidentally, Teshav's consort was also
named Maa and was worshipped as Jaganmata, that is, the world
mother. Her name so much corresponds with Shiva's consort Uma
who too is worshipped as Jagat-janani, the mother of the world.
Jaganmata sounds so much like Indus Mother Goddess. Both, Shiva's
consort Uma and Teshav's consort Maa rode a lion. Images of
Jaganmata, recovered in excavations, have honeybees hovering
around her face. One of the Uma's forms so closely resembles with
this honeybee hovering image of Maa. Markandeya Purana alludes to
Uma's relation with honeybees, or bhramaris, when it calls her as
Bhramaridevi. May be Shiva's consort had some prior tradition of her
association with honeybees. It is for such reasons that the known
historian Roy Chowdhari, in his Studies in Indian Antiquities,
emphatically holds that Rudra-Shiva had some kind of genetic
relationship with various gods whose images have been recovered
from Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Indus Valley.
Shiva in Vedic Pantheon
Shiva Linga Assembly with Dripping
Vase for Milk

9. Whatever Shiva's origin, the pre-
Aryan or from Brahma's frown, as
claims the subsequent Puranic
tradition, the all assimilating
Aryan culture and Vedic religious
cult elevated him into its own
Order and placed him always on
par with its other two great gods,
Vishnu and Brahma, and
sometimes even above them.
Later Vedic literature invested
him with various attributes and
details of his person. He has been
conceived as thousand eyed,
animal skin clad and as possessed
of long hair braided into a crown-
like shape, the jatamukuta, blue
neck, black abdomen, blood-red
back and as containing in him all
medicinal herbs, that is,
possessed of the power to redeem
every one of all kinds of ailments and the cycle of birth and death.
Thus, Vedas perceived him initially as the violent jungle god of non-
Aryan kind but later they discovered the other aspect of his being,
that is, the well meaning benevolent Shiva. It was this perception of
Shiva that seems to have prevailed all after and defined his all
subsequent forms, manifestations and visions. Brahmans and
Upanishads identify this Vedic perception as Shiva's two aspects, one
that of the destroyer and the other of the auspicious benevolent
divinity. The Mahabharata identified these two aspects as Ghora and
Shiva. Of these Ghora has been equated with fire and Shiva, also
mentioned as Maheshvara, has been vested with the deeply spiritual
and auspicious saumyarupa, that is, serene and sublime divine being.
Shiva in Myths and Legends
In the course of time, the tradition of faith, both oral and scriptural,
and the folk and urbanized, wove around Shiva hundreds of myths
and legends and invested his image and visual forms with numerous
new dimensions and meaning. The violent jungle god of Vedas and
the grim looking horn wearing Yogi of Indus emerges upon the altar
of the believing ones, on painter's canvas, in metal casters' mould
and in the strokes of hammer and chisel, as the harmless Bholanath,
the innocence Lord and the good incarnate, as the supreme auspice,
the most formidable of divine powers, the paramount lover and the
holiest model of the Vedic family cult. The term Shiva becomes
Panchamukha Shiva

10. synonymous of the 'auspicious', good and well being and in him
alone, India's all-time maxim, 'Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram', that is,
he alone is truthful, benevolent and beautiful, finds its true meaning.
In his context, love becomes a divine phenomenon and family the
holiest institution. He never codifies his conduct nor sets it to any
established rule, but he is all the way the most devoted husband, who
passionately loves his consort, and a unique father.
He marries Sati, the daughter of Brahma's son Daksha-Prajapati
against her father's wishes. Daksha organizes a great yajna and to
slight Shiva does not invite him.
Sati, in hope to rectify her
father's error, goes to attend
the yajna, though Shiva does
not approve it. Instead of
correcting himself, Daksha
humiliates Sati also for
marrying a tribal brute. Sati,
unable to bear her husband's
insult by her father, ends her
life by immolating herself into
yajna-fire. The outraged Shiva,
who madly loved Sati, longed
to avenge Daksha's act and
created out of his frowns
Virabhadra, a young warrior
endowed with all of Shiva's
powers to destroy Daksha's
yajna.
Virabhadra, Shiva's Most Trusted
Guard

11. After Virabhadra has destroyed the
yajna, entire yajna-bhumi and the
capital of Daksha, Shiva retires to
forest and wanders in wilderness for
thousands of years till Uma, the
daughter of Himalaya, and hence
also known as Parvati, that is, one
born of the Parvata, or mountain, is
able to win his love by her long
rigorous penance. This time he has
in Uma, or Parvati, not a mere
consort he loved but also the most
accomplished woman possessed of
paramount beauty, the most caring
and devoted wife and as much
loving mother. To complete the holy
family, they have, or have been
conceived with, five sons, two,
Karttikeya and Ganesh, the real ones, and three, Vanasura,
Virabhadra and Nandin, the adopted ones, though none of the five
were born of his consort's womb. Ganesh was born of Parvati's body
elements and Karttikeya those of Shiva.
Shiva, the Bholanath in the Real Sense of the Term
Shiva and Family

12. As he was a moral being, so he
was simple, innocent, generous,
benevolent and easily
manageable, and hence, even the
wicked ones often won his favor
and boons of invincible powers
and sometimes used them even
against him. He, however, as
readily punished them when he
knew their designs and intentions.
Ganga was mad in love for him
and wished to unite with him by
whatever mean, fair or fowl.
When Bhagiratha did rigorous
penance to bring Ganga from
heaven to the earth for his
ancestors' death rituals and
redemption, Ganga designed to
fulfill her long cherished desire of
reaching Shiva. She appeared
before Bhagiratha and agreed to
emerge on the earth but warned
at the same time that her current,
unless Shiva took her on his
head, would cleave the earth. Bhagiratha underwent another round of
penance, pleased Shiva and got his prayer granted. But, when Ganga
landed on his head and showed her supremacy, Shaiva kept her
arrested into his hair till she herself prayed him to let her be released.
For long containing Ganga into his hair, Shiva becomes known as
Gangadhara Shiva.
Shiva in Saumya and Raudra-rupas
The Emergence of the Ganga on the
Earth

13. Thus, Shiva's divine perception as well
as iconic visualization developed into two
directions, one growing out of his serene
sublime benevolent Saumyarupa and the
other out of his awe-striking Raudra-
rupa. Even in his Saumyarupa, contrary
to his Vaishnava counterparts, that is,
Vishnu, Brahma or even Indra, whom
Puranas define using feudal terms and
iconography, Shiva is a simpler being, an
amalgam of both, the Raudra and the
Saumya rupas. In both aspects,
jatamukuta is his crown, elephant hide
his cloak, lion skin his loincloth, snakes
his necklace, yajnopavita and other
ornaments, bhang his favored drink and
the shade of a roadside tree his castle.
He is delighted in dance and dances for
both, to create as well as to destroy, and
in lasya as well as in Tandava and his
Tandava is the Anand-tandava as it aims at re-creating and setting
the cycle of creation-destruction-and recreation in motion.
The Dance of Shiva

14. He assists Devas, the gods, in
their exploits and battles
against demons but unlike
them and always differently
and in mightier way. Both, the
gods and the demons, wish to
be immortalized and for
obtaining the immortalizing
nectar join hands to churn
ocean, which contained such
nectar. But before the ocean
yields nectar, there emerges
from it the all-annihilating
venom. Even by its vapors it
begins to suffocate the entire
creation. All, gods and
demons, flee to save their
lives leaving the creation to its
destiny. Shiva comes to
rescue. He deposits the
venom into his throat and
saves the creation from its
devastating effect. Stored perpetually in the throat, the venom
renders it blue and gives Shiva yet another name of Neelakantha,
that is, the blue throated one. It was in consideration to such exploits
that in subsequent days the Vaishnavites and Shaivites were seen
with daggers-drawn on the question of the pre-eminence of their
respective gods. Ultimately the wise ones of both sects had to
discover for the votive images the Harihara form, which combined
Hari and Hara, that is, Vishnu and Shiva, into one sanctum image and
inspired sectarian unity.
HariHara

15. In his purer Raudra-rupa, besides
what the Vedas and Puranas
perceived in it, these aspects farther
expand. He is now perceived as
Bhairava, Kapalika, Kalabhairava,
Mahakala and in similar other terrific
forms. He is the presiding deity of
cremation ground, which is his loving
abode. He rejoices dancing around a
burning pyre and as much upon a
dead body. The dark nights, when
howls of jackals, wolves and other
ignominious animals echoed, are his
chosen hours to operate. These
jackals and other animals living on
human flesh are, otherwise too, his
best companions. Bhairava wears
around his neck the garland of
human skulls and around his waist
the girdle of dismembered human
hands. Now, besides snake
ornaments, scorpions make his
earrings and ghostly spirits dance around him. The human skull is his
cup and ashes of a burnt corpse his talc, with which he smears and
adorns his body. In ritual worship, wine and flesh are his chosen
offerings.
Bhairava

16. In these forms of Shiva Kali,
Smashan-Kali, Mahakali,
Chhinnamasta, Chamunda,
Vagulamukhi etc. are his female
counterparts, perceived in Puranas
often as his consorts.
Bhairava, howsoever terrific
his form, has his softer
aspects when seated under a
canopy or riding his Nandin he
represents such beautiful
musical modes as the Raga
Bhairava, or Raga Kedara.
Kali
Raga Bhairava