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Lord Shiva, Murudeshwara — Public Domain
Lord Shiva
शिव
ശിവൻ
Mahadeva · The Destroyer & Transformer · Nataraja
🕉 Shaivism
🦅 Nandi (Bull)
💛 Goddess Parvati
Lord Shiva is the Supreme Being in Shaivism and one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is Mahadeva — simultaneously the destroyer and the regenerator, the fierce ascetic and the loving householder, the cosmic dancer and the eternal yogi. Shiva is Swayambhu — self-born, without origin — the primordial Adi Deva.
Shiva's origins trace to Rudra — the wild storm-god of the Rigveda. Over millennia Rudra absorbed countless traditions, evolving into Shiva — the ascetic of Kailash, the cosmic dancer Nataraja, the destroyer of the universe's ego at the end of each cycle. His marriage to Parvati, the burning of Kamadeva with his third eye, the holding of the Ganga in his matted locks to protect the earth from the river's force — these stories form the living mythology of Shaivism across the subcontinent.
Shiva in his peaceful form meditates as a yogi — matted locks bearing the crescent moon, the Ganga flowing from them, a third eye on his forehead, a Trishula in hand, Vasuki (cobra) around his neck, and sacred ash (vibhuti) on his body. The Lingam — an abstract pillar of light — is his most widely worshipped form. As Nataraja he dances the Ananda Tandava — the cosmic dance of creation and destruction — within a ring of fire.
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