Shiva

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Three-headed form of Shiva, Kashmir, c. 750–800 CE.

Shiva (Śiva, lit. "The Auspicious One"), also known as Mahadeva (Mahādevaḥ, lit "The Great God") and Hara (lit. "The Remover"), is one of the principal deities of Hinduism.

In Buddhism, Shiva is depicted in at least one sutra in dialog with the Buddha. And in Buddhist tantra, Shiva appears as a powerful deity who has been converted to Buddhism.

In Hinduism

In the Hindu tradition, Shiva is known as The Destroyer within the Trimurti, the triple deity of supreme divinity that includes Brahma and Vishnu.

In the Shaivite tradition, Shiva is the Supreme Lord who creates, protects and transforms the universe. In the goddess-oriented Shakta tradition, the Supreme Goddess (Devi) is regarded as the energy and creative power (Shakti) and the equal complementary partner of Shiva. In the Smarta tradition, Shiva is one of the five equivalent deities in Panchayatana puja.

Shiva has many aspects, benevolent as well as fearsome. In benevolent aspects, he is depicted as an omniscient yogi who lives an ascetic life on Kailasa as well as a householder with his wife Parvati and his two children, Ganesha and Kartikeya. In his fierce aspects, he is often depicted slaying demons.

Shiva is also known as Adiyogi (the first yogi), regarded as the patron god of yoga, meditation and the arts.

The iconographical attributes of Shiva are the serpent king Vasuki around his neck, the adorning crescent moon, the holy river Ganga flowing from his matted hair, the "third eye" on his forehead (the eye that turns everything in front of it into ashes when opened), the trishula or trident as his weapon, and the damaru.

In Buddhism

The Siva Sutta of the Samyutta Nikaya depicts Shiva as conversing with the Buddha and reciting a gatha.

In the Buddhist Tantras, Shiva is depicted in a variety of forms, such as the fierce deity Mahākāla.

Peter Harvey states:

Tantric forms of Indian religion were particularly strong within strands of Hinduism centred on the deity Shiva, a paradoxical figure seen to periodically re-create and later destroy the world, and an ascetic practitioner of yoga, dwelling in cremation grounds, whose symbol was the ligam, or phallus, emblem of creative power. Tantric Buddhism developed in competition with tantric Shaivism, and, borrowing from its complex symbolism and ritual techniques, adapted them in Buddhist guise, geared to Buddhist goals (Berkwitz, 2010: 125–8). In doing so, it claimed that the Shaiva texts had originally been taught by the Buddha, or that the Hindu gods associated with them were forms in which Buddhas or advanced Bodhisattvas compassionately appear; it also described the subjugation of Shiva by the Buddhist deity Vajrapani (Williams and Tribe, 2000: 242–4). Alexis Sanderson sees Shaiva influence on all Buddhist tantric texts, this becoming more pervasive over time.

Further reading

• Shiva, Wikipedia

Sources

• Harvey, Peter (2013), An Introduction to Buddhism (Second ed.), Cambridge University Press