Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction, formerly known as the God of reproduction “beast Lord” and the God of Vedic storm Rudra in the era of Indus civilization, has dual characters of reproduction and destruction, creation and destruction, and presents various strange and grotesque appearances, mainly including Linga, horror, gentleness, Superman, trihedron, dancing king, Lord of Liga, Lord of bannv, and so on, Linga (male root) is the most basic symbol of Shiva. The following China story network editor will bring you a detailed introduction. Let’s have a look!
The image characteristics of Shiva
Among the existing statues of Hinduism, the most important and famous is the bronze statue of Shiva cast in the age of Jura, called Nataraja, which means the king of dance or the king of dancers. This kind of image was largely created in the era of Jura and lasted in South India until the 12th century.
In Hindu statues, Shiva is usually dressed as a yoga ascetic, covered with ash, hair in a bun, wearing a crescent moon, a long snake around the neck, a skeleton on the chest, a tiger skin around the waist, and holding a trident, axe, tambourine, stick or doe in four hands. He has a third eye on his forehead, which can spray divine fire and burn everything to ashes. It is said that the God of love Gama disturbed Shiva during his ascetic practice. The divine fire sprayed from Shiva’s third eye burned the God of love to the bone, but the God of love did not die, but there was no body, so it is said that love is invisible.
Shiva is shown as dancing the heavenly dance of creating and destroying the world. His hair drifted disorderly with the dance, and drifted with the rhythm of the hourglass drum in his right hand. Complementary to this moment of creation is the simultaneous destruction of the universe, symbolized by the flames around the ring and the single flame in Shiva’s left hand. This single flame turns everything into nothingness: it is precisely balanced with the drum of creation in his right hand. The right hand below means to comfort his believers and bless them with reassuring fearlessness. A further blessing is the “Gaja hasta” of the lower left hand. This “flag” gesture consists of a finger hanging down and touching the trunk, pointing here to the left foot cocked up from the back of the ignorant dwarf. This symbolic gesture can free the believers from the suffering of Maya.
Among many other interesting details, there is a skeleton decorated on the crown of God’s treasure, and a crescent moon, which symbolizes Shiva’s presence in the universe in stages and has been there even when hidden. In his bun mixed with the ashes of the dead, Shiva took over the Ganges River from the sky – a miniature statue of Ganges goddess stood on his right hair. She is a mixed Mermaid with a female upper body and a mocaro lower body. This symbolism is endless. For Shiva believers, this holy image illustrates the compassion and power of dancing to create and destroy the universe.
What weapons does Shiva have
Shiva’s most powerful weapon is the third eye on her forehead. This eye can send out a divine fire to destroy everything in the universe. According to the ancient Indian Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, Shiva once used the divine fire sent out by the third eye to destroy three giant castles in space. At the end of every cosmic period, Shiva will open his third eye, and all gods, humans and animals in the universe will be destroyed by his divine fire. In addition to the eyes that can emit divine fire, Shiva has other types of weapons, that is, a trident called “binaka” and a bow called “ajagawa”. There are not many records about the latter two. Usually, we only know that “binaka” is the symbol of lightning, which means Shiva is the God of storm.
Shiva swallows poison
In Indian mythology, although the life span of gods is longer than that of mortals, they also have birth, old age and death. The gods have been troubled by this problem for a long time, and later had a fierce dispute with Asura. In order to mediate this dispute, Brahma discussed with Asura and the gods and decided to work together to stir the sea, which can make the sea appear the elixir of immortality – Suma. Later, the gods and Asura both succeeded in making the Milky sea (because the sea has been stirred into the Milky sea) appear Suma, but when it was near the end, The giant snake posuji, who was responsible for binding the highest mountain in the universe, Mount Sumi, to stir the sea, could not bear the pain. Her mouth spewed out like a huge amount of venom. The venom splashed on the ground and converged into a river, flowing into the sea, poisoning all living beings in the three worlds. At a loss, the gods decided to ask Shiva, the great God, for help. Shiva couldn’t bear to let all creatures suffer, so she had to swallow the venom into her mouth. The highly toxic juice flowed through Shiva’s throat and burned Shiva’s neck black. Therefore, Shiva was also called “nirakanto” by Indians, which means green neck. Disclaimer: the above content originates from the network, and the copyright belongs to the original author. Please inform us if your original copyright is infringed, and we will delete the relevant content as soon as possible.