Shiva is one of the principal gods of Hinduism. With Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver he forms the Hindu trinity as the destroyer, the god who ends a world so that a new one can begin, and he is also the great yogi, meditating on Mount Kailash. In Nepal he is worshipped above all as Pashupati, "lord of animals", at the Pashupatinath temple on the Bagmati river in Kathmandu.
How he is shown
- Matted hair piled high, holding a crescent moon and the river Ganga, which he caught in his hair to break her fall from heaven.
- A third eye on his forehead. Its fire burned Kama, the god of desire, to ashes when Kama disturbed his meditation.
- A blue throat, from the poison he drank and held in his throat, to save the world, when the gods and demons churned the ocean.
- A trident (trishula) and a small hourglass drum (damaru).
- Snakes round his neck and arms, a tiger skin and strings of rudraksha beads: the dress of an ascetic. His skin is usually painted blue or ash-white.
- Nandi, his bull and mount, often lying or standing nearby.
Shiva and Parvati
Parvati, whose name means "she of the mountain", is the daughter of Himavat, the Himalaya, and Shiva's wife. She won him through long ascetic practice, and their sons are Ganesh and Kartikeya. Paintings often show the family together on Mount Kailash, with Shiva's bull and Parvati's lion or tiger. Parvati is often understood as Shiva's shakti, the energy through which he acts, and the fierce goddesses Durga and Kali are widely seen as forms of the same goddess. In Nepal, women recall Parvati's devotion at Teej, when they fast and pray to Shiva for their husbands' well-being or for a good marriage.
Ardhanarishvara
Ardhanarishvara, "the lord who is half woman", joins the two in one body, divided down the middle. The right half is Shiva, with matted hair, crescent moon and snake ornaments; the left half is Parvati, with jewels, a woman's dress and often a lotus or a mirror. The figure expresses that the male and female principles are inseparable. Some of our paintings show this form, with a blue Shiva half holding a trident and a small drum, a golden Parvati half holding a lotus, and the bull and the lion on either side.
Shiva in Nepal
Pashupatinath is one of the most important Shiva temples in the Hindu world and part of the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage Site. On Maha Shivaratri, the "great night of Shiva" in February or March, pilgrims and ascetics (sadhus) from across Nepal and India gather there in their hundreds of thousands.
Mantra
Om Namah Shivaya, "Om, salutation to Shiva", the five-syllable mantra at the heart of Shiva worship.
In a painting
Any two of the crescent moon, the stream of the Ganga in his hair, the third eye, the snakes and the trident identify Shiva. Look for a calm face with half-closed eyes, a well-drawn tiger skin, and fine line work in the coiled hair and the snakes. In an Ardhanarishvara, the dividing line should be clean and each half fully itself, from the hair and ornaments down to the feet.
