Saiva Shaiva Sivite

Saiva, Shaiva, Sivite Sect.—The name given to Hindus who venerate Siva as their special god. Siva, whose name signifies ‘The Propitious,’ is held to have succeeded to the Vedic god Rudra, apparently a storm-god. Siva is a highly composite deity, having the double attributes of destroyer and creator of new life. His heaven, Kailas, is in the Himalayas according to popular belief. He carries the moon on his forehead, and from the central one of his three eyes the lightning flashes forth. He has a necklace of skulls, and snakes are intertwined round his waist and arms. And he has long matted hair (jata), from which the Ganges flows. It seems likely that the matted locks of the god represent the snow on the Himalayas, as the snow is in reality the source of the Ganges; the snow falling through the air and covering the peaks of the mountains might well suggest the hair of a mountain-god; and this interpretation seems to be accepted in Mr. Bain’s In the Great God’s Hair. Siva has thus three components from which the idea of death might be derived: First, his residence on the Himalaya mountains, the barren, lifeless region of ice and snow, and the cause of death to many pilgrims and travellers who ventured into it. Secondly, he is the god of the moon, and hence of darkness and night, which are always associated with death. In this light he might well be opposed to Vishnu, the god of the sun and day, and the source of growth and life; their association as the two supreme deities representing the preservation and destruction of life, would thus, to some extent, correspond to the conflict of good and bad deities representing light and darkness among the Zoroastrians. Thirdly, Siva is a snake-god, and the sudden death dealt out by the poisonous snake has always excited the greatest awe among primitive people. The cobra is widely revered in India, and it is probably this snake which is associated with the god. In addition the lightning, a swift, death-dealing power, is ascribed to Siva, and this may have been one of his earliest attributes, as it was probably associated with his Vedic prototype Rudra. Whether Siva obtained his character as a god of destruction [303]from one only of the above associations, or from a combination of them, is probably not known. Two great forces lend the deity his character of a god of reproduction, the bull and the phallic emblem. The bull tills the soil and renders it fertile and capable of bringing forth the crops which form the sustenance of mankind; while the phallic emblem is worshipped as the instrument of generation. It is believed that there is a natural tendency to associate these two objects, and to ascribe to the bull the capacity of inducing human fertility as well as the increase of the earth. It is in these two attributes that Siva is worshipped in the rural tract; he is represented by the emblem referred to standing on a circular grooved stone, which is the yoni, and in front of him is a stone bull. And he is revered almost solely as a beneficent deity under the name of Mahadeo or the Great God. Thus his dual qualities of destruction and reproduction appear to be produced by the combination in him of different objects of worship; the Himalayas, the moon, the cobra and the lightning on the one hand, and the bull and the emblem of regeneration on the other. Other interesting characteristics of Siva are that he is the first and greatest of ascetics and that he is immoderately addicted to the intoxicating drugs ganja and bhang, the preparations of Indian hemp. It may be supposed that the god was given his character as an ascetic in order to extend divine sanction and example to the practice of asceticism when it came into favour. And the drugs,1 first revered themselves for their intoxicating properties, were afterwards perpetuated in a sacred character by being associated with the god. Siva’s throat is blue, and it is sometimes said that this is on account of his immoderate consumption of bhang. The nilkanth or blue-jay, which was probably venerated for its striking plumage, and is considered to be a bird of very good omen, has become Siva’s bird because its blue throat resembles his. His principal sacred tree is the bel tree,2 which has trifoliate leaves, and may have been held sacred on this account. The practice of Sati or the self-immolation of widows has also been given divine authority by the story that Sati was Siva’s first wife, and that she committed suicide because she and her husband were not [304]invited to Daksha’s sacrifice.3 Siva’s famous consort is the multiform Devi, Kali or Parvati, of whom some notice is given elsewhere.4 The cult of Siva has produced the important Sakta sect, who, however, venerate more especially the female principle of energy as exemplified in his consort.5 Another great sect of southern India, the Lingayats, worship him in the character of the lingam or phallic emblem, and are noticeable as being a Sivite sect who have abolished caste. The Sivite orders of Gosains or Dasnamis and Jogis also constitute an important feature of Hinduism. All these are separately described. Apart from them the Hindus who call themselves Saivas because they principally venerate Siva, do not appear to have any very special characteristics, nor to be markedly distinguished from the Vaishnavas. They abstain from the consumption of flesh and liquor, and think it objectionable to take life. Their offerings to the god consist of flowers, the leaves of the bel tree which is sacred to him, and ripe ears of corn, these last being perhaps intended especially for the divine bull. The sect-mark of the Saivas consists of three curved lines horizontally drawn across the forehead, which are said to represent the tirsul or trident of the god. A half-moon may also be drawn. The mark is made with Ganges clay, sandalwood, or cowdung cakes, these last being considered to represent the disintegrating force of the deity