SIVA. 



The wives and children of thel'c powers have alfo, like their 

 lords and parents, delcended and allumed a variety of forms 

 on earth, for fimilar purpofes. The hiitory of thefe endlefs 

 incarnations affords ample fcope for the imagination ; and 

 they are worked up by the poets, with wonderful fertility of 

 g-enius and pomp of language, into a variety of fublime de- 

 fcriptions, interfperfed with theological and moral texts, 

 that at length were received as inipired productions, and 

 have become the ilandard of divine truth. See Purana, 

 the title of a feries of mythological poems, or rather of 

 poems on every fubjed, under the fimilitude of mythological 

 adventure. 



The wives or conforts of thefe mythological perfonages 

 ere mentioned above. All the Hindoo deities are mated in 

 fable, and their i'poufes are their powers or aftive energies, 

 and arc called their Saiti. Sec that article. 



The Hindoo deities have alfo vehicles aiTigned for the 

 conveyance of themfelves and wives. Thefe are called 

 vahan. The vahan of Siva is a bull, called Nandi. They 

 have likewife peculiar fymbols or attributes : thofe that 

 more particularly defignatc Siva, his fakti, or iny thing 

 connefted with them, are the Linga, or phallus, and the 

 Trifula, or trident. The phallic emblem denotes his pre- 

 fiding over generation ; reminding us of the Jupiter Genitor 

 of weltcrn mythologiitr,, with whom fir William Jones iden- 

 tifies the Siva of the Ea(t. 



There is yet another attribute of Mahadeva, (a name of 

 Siva,) by which he is too vifibly diltinguifhed in the draw- 

 ings and temples of Bengal. To chjlroy, according to the 

 Vedantis of India, the Sufis of Perfia, and many philo- 

 fophers of our European fchools, is only to generate and re- 

 produce in another form. Hence the god of dejlrud'ion 

 prefides over generation ; as a fymbol of which he rides on 

 a nvhite bull. Can we doubt that the loves and foalts of 

 Jupiter Genitor, (not forgetting the white bull of Europa,) 

 find his extraordinary title of Lapis, for which no fatis- 

 faftory reafon is commonly given, have a conneftion with 

 the Indian philofophy and mythology ? 



The Jupiter Marinus, or Neptune of the Romans, re- 

 fembles Mahadeva in his generative charafter ; efpecially as 

 the Hindoo god is the hvifband of Parv.iti, whofe relation 

 to the luaters is evidently marked, by her image being 

 rellored to them at the conclafion of the great feftival called 

 Durgotfava. She is known to have attributes exaAly 

 limilar to thofe of Venus Marina, whofe birth from the fea- 

 foam, and fplendij rife from the conch in which fhe had 

 been cradled, have offered fo many charming fubjeCts for 

 ancient and modern poetry. Dill, on the Gods of Greece, 

 Italy, and Lidia. Afiat. Ref. vol. i. 



Another writer, Mr. Paterfon, in the eighth volume of 

 the fame work, offers a paffage defcriptive of the cha- 

 raifter and attributes of Siva. " To Siva," he fays, " are 

 given three eyes, probably to denote his view of the three 

 divifions of time ; the palt, the prefent, and the fnture. A 

 crefcent on his forehead, pourtrays the meafure of time by 

 the phafes of the moon ; a ferpent forms a necklace to 

 denote the meafure of time by years ; a fecond necklace, 

 formed of human flcuUs, marks the lapfe and revolutions of 

 ages, and the extinftion and fucccflion of the generations 

 of mankiud. He holds a trident, to (hew that the great 

 attributes are in him afl'embled and united ; in another is 

 a kind of rattle, ftiaped like an hour-glafs, and I am in- 

 clined to think that it was at firfl intended as fuch, fince 

 it agrees with the charafter of the deity ; and a fand 

 fheri is mentioned in the Saftra as a mode of meafuring 

 time. In the hieroglyphic of Maha Pralaya, or grand con- 

 .fammation of all things, when time itfelf (hall be no mere, 



1 



he is reprefcnted as trodden under foot by Mahakal.^, or 

 eternity." Ifi this character he is called Kalanteka. 



An anonymous writer (Edinburgh Review, W XXXIV. 

 p. 316.) has offered fome points of comparifon between the 

 Ofiris of Egypt, the Bacchus of Greece, and the Siva of 

 India, that will ferve to ilhiftrate our obfervations on the 

 latter. " Ofiris was adored in Egypt, and Bacchus in 

 Greece, under the emblem of the phallus. It is under the 

 fame emblem that he is ftill venerated in Hindooftan, and 

 Phallais one of his names in the dictionary of Amara Singha. 

 The bull was facred to him in Egypt. Plutarch allures us 

 that feveral nations of Greece depift Bacchus with a bull's 

 head ; and that when he is invoked by the women of Elis, 

 they pray him to haften to their relief on the feet of a bull. 

 In India he is often feen mounted on a bull ; hence one of 

 his Sanfcrit names, Vrifhadwaja, fignifying, whofe enfign 

 is a bull. Plutarch in.forms us, that ' Nilum patrem ac 

 fervatorem fus regioni", ac definxuin Ofiridis nominant.' 

 The Ganges, in like manner, is fabled by the Hindoos to 

 flow from the treffes of Siva ; hence another of his names, 

 Gangadliara, the fupporter of the Ganges. We conceive, 

 by the way, that Scaliger and Selden are niiflaken i:i fup- 

 pofing that Siris, the Egyptian name of the Nile, is fyno- 

 nimous with Ofiris. Sins feems to lu the Sanfcrit word 

 Saras, a river in general, or the river, from its imputed fu- 

 periority. Ifisisthe confort of Ofiris ; Ifa that of Ifwara, 

 or Siva. (See Isa.) The attributes of the goddefles 

 might be (hewn to correfpond as precifely as thofe of their 

 lords. The attendants of Ifwara refemble in their frantic 

 demeanour the furious Bacchants of the god of Naxos. It 

 is remarkable, that many of the appellations by which the 

 Greeks dillinguifii Bacchus-, are alfo ufed by the Hindoos ; 

 but inftead of applying them to Baghefa himfelf, tlie h.tter 

 give them to his ion, whilft both nations have their legends 

 to account for them. Thus, the Greeks named Baschus, 

 Dimeter, having two mothers; the Hindoo-: call Skanda, 

 the fon of Baghefa, Divimatri, with the fame fignification. 

 (See Skakda.) Pyrignes, born from fire, and its equi- 

 valent in Sanfcrit, Agnija, arc refpeftively Greek and 

 Indian appellatives of Bacchus and Skanda. The title of 

 Thriambus, we are told by Diodorus, was affumed by the 

 Greek deity, in his triumph after the conquell of India. 

 Tryambo, in like manner, is one of the moit common ap- 

 pellations of the Indian Bacchus, but we are not aware of 

 its fignification." See Triambo. 



We will fnbjoin what is given jn the fame article, as de- 

 fcriptive of Siva, under his name of Ifwara, taken from a 

 copious treatife in the Imperial library at Pari*, entitled 

 Hyafiras, but the MS. did not fpecify from what Purar.a it 

 was extracted. The Matfya Purana exhibits a full code of 

 fimilar inllruftions for the guidance of artifts in pourtraying 

 the various deities of the Hindoo Pantheon. (See Puuana.) 

 We premife that the name Ifwara means poiverful ; a cha- 

 racter denoted by many hands, in the way that many heads 

 denote fapience. 



Jfiuara. — Let the arms, (houlders, and thighs of Ifwara 

 be brawny and mufcular ; his colour that of the beams of 

 the crefcent which decorates his brow ; his long hair mud 

 be knotted in many convolutions ; his (houlders covered by 

 a tiger's ficin ; his ten arms ornamented with bracelets of 

 fnakes ; pendents hang from his ears : a fword, a club, a 

 trident, and other weapons, are perceived in his liands. 

 When he appears in the cliarader of the vanqui(her of Tri- 

 pura, during the conflagration of the city, he has fixteen 

 arms. (See Tripuka.) In the character of Yogefwara, 

 his afpeft muil be terrific. See Yogeswara. 



Images and pictures of Siv.i, which, in his various charac- 

 ters. 



