SIVA. 



ters, are very common, reprcfent him under a great many 

 fbrnns, which our limits will not allow us to enumerate. 



In fome piftures he is (een four, fix, eight, or ten, and 

 as far as fixteen-handed ; and in one charaAer with five 

 faces, thc:ce called Panchamuk't, which fee ; in fitting, 

 Itanding, and dancing attitudes. His attributes are nearly 

 fimilar to thofe of his fakti Parvati. Reprefentations of 

 him, or of his family or fe6t, are diilinguifhed by the Linga, 

 or cone, the Trifula, or trident, the Pafha, or cord of pu- 

 niihment, (fee Pasha) ; the third eye, and collar of 

 flcuUs, peculiar to him, his confort, or family ; the moon 

 and Ganga in his hair ; a hand drum, fliaped like an hour- 

 glafs, and called, both in Sanfcrit and Greek, clindima, 

 and hence probably the name of Dindimia, and other fimi- 

 lar names given to the Gifcian queai of heaven ; and Dindy- 

 mos, a fabulous mountain confecrated by the Argonauts to 

 the mother of the gods ; titles as well of the confort of the 

 Indian Siva as of the Grecian Jupiter. An antelope, named 

 Safin, is fometimes feen in Siva's hand, fuppofed to have 

 feme lunar allufion. (See Sasin.) Thefe are his mod 

 common attributes. Sometimes he is joined to his fakti, 

 denoting then a myftical reunion of the powers of nature. 

 The fable of Bramah lofing one of his heads has not hi- 

 therto been explained. It may probably mean that Bramah, 

 or matter, undergoes curtailment by the deftruAive energy 

 of fire, or Siva. Bramah had once five he.-'ds ; he has now 

 only four. Perhaps the older cofmogonies may have 

 affigned five elements to the componency of matter, which a 

 fublequcnt theory, promulgated by a Saiva, reduced to 

 four. From fuch fpeculations originate the fables of my- 

 tholoj^y. Saying that Siva is Brahma, may mean, that as 

 renovator of forms, he is the recreator ; matter being by fome 

 theories eternal ; and creation, as we term it, being merely a 

 periodical reorganization. (See Kalpa.) He is the pa- 

 rent and the offspring of Vifhnu. This is faid according 

 with the theory or fcft, or the philofophy or religion, of the 

 relator. (See Sects of Ntridoos.) Philofophically, it may 

 mean that fire, or heat, is the fvurce of water by its evapo- 

 rating power, and the e/fee! of humidity, through the pro- 

 ccfs of fermentation ; either terreilrial, or by aerial combi- 

 nation. Vilhnu, it will be recoUefted, is a pcrfonification 

 of humidity, and we may thus difcern why Siva and Viflmu 

 may be mythologically parent and offspring. In the article 

 Skadiia an invocation to fire is given, from the funeral cere- 

 monies of the Hindoos, denoting its renovating property. 

 " Fire ! thou was lighted by him ; may he therefore be re- 

 produced by thee." 



As the patron of aftronomy, Siva is the Uranus of the 

 Eaft. He is faid to guide the motions of the planet Jupiter, 

 named by the Hindoos ViiiiiA.si'ATi ; fee that article. He 

 has been already noticed as the fun, though that luminary, 

 or its regent Surya, is more llrikingly aflignable to a rela- 

 tiondiip with Vilhnu. 



As dcllru£\ive fire, that powerful changer of forms, 

 Siva is, in a philoiophical view, more immediately confidered. 

 Of him ill this character, the tone or liiiga, it is faid, is his 

 lymbol ; being the form naturally allumed by flame ; and 

 the inverted cone, as the figure of water naturally defcend- 

 ing, is lymbolical of Vilhnu. A triangle, with its apex 

 upward or downward, is therttorc, being conical, the fym- 

 1)1)1 of tlitfe important (loitic:;,in lluir primary cliar.K'ters of 

 fire and water. Sonxl lines tliefe are feen combined, and 

 are then myllically contemplated as the re-union of nature's 

 elements. 



The feftaries of thefe power'', the confirvativc and the 

 changing, refpecftively uphold the fiipitinacy of ihat'wor- 

 Ihipped fcverally by each, Siva being more immediately 



fire, and Vi(hnu water, the philofophical contcfts for fupre- 

 macy, which have, it is related, been carried to the fad len.Tth 

 of theological war, on the parts of the adherents of tliefc 

 different doftrines, may remind one of thofe controverfics, 

 happily extending no farther, carried on in Europe by the 

 parties at length denominated Vulcanilts and Neptunifl;-. 

 The difference is, that in Europe the caufes of the world's 

 deftrudion by the deluge, and in India, the mode of its re- 

 formation at the period called kalpa, after a pralaya, or dif- 

 organization, is the point in difpute between their refpeftive 

 Saivas and Vaifhnavas ; or, in other words, the Vulcanifts 

 and Neptuniils. Another inftance, confonant to an Euro- 

 pean diftindtion, may be here noticed. It is faid that indivi. 

 duals of the feft of Saiva are of a more refervcd or ferious 

 call than thofe of the Vaifhnava feft. Gloomy individuals 

 are more difpofed to the reverent contemplation of the de- 

 ftruftive and avenging attributes of the god of juftice ; or in 

 other words, is it that thofe who adopt fuch adoration are 

 thence gloomy and dark ? Thofe, on the other hand, who 

 contemplate and adore the deity in his attributes of pre- 

 fervation and mercy, arc of a more cheerful turn. Thus 

 the Saivas are the Calvinilts, the Vaifhnavas or Baudhas the 

 Lutherans of India. 



Siva, as the confort of Kali, is named Kal or Kala, fup- 

 pofed to be time ; for in/, in Sanfcrit and other languages of 

 India, means both yellerday and to-morrow : it means alfo 

 Unci; and in this charaiter Siva, as well as his fakti, is 

 painted of that colour, though under other forms, and 

 ufually, white is the colour of Siva. The contemplation 

 of the diftinflions of day and night ; of the light and dark 

 divifions of the month, a notation of time efpecially and 

 fuperltitioufly attended to in Hindoo ceremonials ; of the 

 fix months' day and fix months' night of the gods (occa- 

 fioned by the obliquity of the fun's path) ; and, lalUy, the 

 contrail of the vifible creation with eternal night ; are fup- 

 pofed by a writer in the Afiatic Refearches (Mr. Paterlon,) 

 to have fuggelled the idea of painting Kal white and Kali 

 black. When, however, he appears as Kal, he is fometimee, 

 as above noticed, alfo black. 



To Siva, in his various forms, feveral plants are efteemed 

 facred, and are of courfe nourifhed by his feftaries ; chiefly, 

 it may be prefumed, by women, by the aged, or by Brah- 

 mans. A (hrub named Afoka, is one fuppofed to be pleaf- 

 ing to Siva. It is defcribcd in the fourth volume of the 

 Afiatic Refearches, art. 17, by fir W.Jones, who fays, that 

 the vegetable world fcarcely exhibits a richer fight than an 

 afoka tree in full bloom : it is about as high as an ordinary 

 cherry-tree. He exprelies a hope that its Sanfcrit name may 

 be retained by botanifls, as it perpetually occur? in the old 

 Indian poems, and in treatifes on religious rites. It is 

 planted near Siva's temples and hi"; worfliippcrs look for 

 efficacy from bathing on a particular day in fome holy 

 llivam, and drinking water with buds of the afoka floating 

 ill it. The name means ^n>/", or lamentation, and is derived 

 by mythologills from the grief of Sita, when confined in a 

 gro.e of it on Ceylon, by the tyrant Raveiia. Sami is the 

 name of another (hrub facred to Siva, connetled with which 

 a great deal of iiitUufi:illic e\travagancc might be pointed 

 out. it may be remarked, that 111 their felcdlion of holy 

 vegetables, the Brahmaiis have fliewed confidcrable talle by 

 fanftifying tliole of tlie moll lovely forts. 



One of the Sanferil a])pell.itions of Siva is the god with 

 a thoufand names. Tlieie are given at lengtli in the Padma 

 Puraiia ; and the fixty-ninth chapter of tlie Sivj Purana is 

 allotted to their emimcr.ition. We propofcd making 1 fc 

 leftion of fome of them in this article; but it hss already 

 been enlarged to its utmofl allowable cvlcnt. 



li 2 Foi 



