at its most benign

ṡivá

perhaps connected with ṡvi cf. ṡavas, ṡiṡvi) auspicious, propitious, gracious, favourable, benign, kind, benevolent, friendly, dear (ám ind. kindly, tenderly) RV. etc. etc.;
happy, fortunate BhP. ;
m. happiness, welfare (cf. n.) R. V, 56, 36 ;
liberation, final emancipation L. ;
« The Auspicious one»
N. of the disintegrating orﾠ destroying andﾠ reproducing deity (who constitutes the third god of the Hindū Trimūrti orﾠ Triad, the other two being Brahmā. « the creator» andﾠ Vishṇu « the preserver» ;
in the Veda the only N. of the destroying deity wss Rudra « the terrible god»,
but in later times it became usual to give that god the euphemistic N. Ṡiva « the auspicious» <just as the Furies were called Eὐμενίδες « the gracious ones» >, andﾠ to assign him the office of creation andﾠ reproduction as well as dissolution;
in fact the preferential worship of Ṡiva as developed in the Purāṇas andﾠ Epic poems led to his being identified with the Supreme Being by his exclusive worshippers < called Ṡaivas>;
in his character of destroyer he is sometimes called Kāla « black», andﾠ is then alsoﾠ identified with Time, although his active destroying function is then oftener assigned to his wife under her name Kālī, whose formidable character makes her a general object of propitiation by sacrifices;
as presiding over reproduction consequent on destruction Ṡiva's symbol is the Liṇga <q.v.> orﾠ Phallus, under which form he is worshipped all over India at the present day;
again one of his representations is as Ardha-nārī, « half-female», the other half being male to symbolize the unity of the generative principle RTL. 85 ;
he has three eyes, one of which is in his forehead, andﾠ which are thought to denote his view of the three divisions of time, past, present, andﾠ future, while a moon's crescent, above the central eye, marks the measure of time by months, a serpent round his neck the measure by years,
andﾠ a second necklace of skulls with other serpents about his person, the perpetual revolution of ages, andﾠ the successive extinction andﾠ generation of the races of mankind:
his hair is thickly matted together, andﾠ gathered above his forehead into a coil;
on the top of it he bears the Ganges, the rush of which in its descent from heaven he intercepted by his head that the earth might not be crushed by the weight of the falling stream;
his throat is dark-blue from the stain of the deadly poison which would have destroyed the world had it not been swallowed by him on its production at the churning of the ocean by the gods for the nectar of immortality;
he holds a tri-ṡūla, orﾠ three-pronged trident < alsoﾠ called Pināka> in his hand to denote, as some think, his combination of the three attributes of Creator, Destroyer, andﾠ Regenerator;
he alsoﾠ carries a kind of drum, shaped like an hour-glass, called Ḍamaru:
his attendants orﾠ servants are called Pramatha <qq.vv.>;
they are regarded as demons orﾠ supernatural beings of different kinds, andﾠ form various hosts orﾠ troops called Gaṇas;
his wife Durgā <otherwise called Kālī, Pārvatī, Umā, Gaurī, Bhavāṇī etc.> is the chief object of worship with the Ṡāktas andﾠ Tāntrikas, andﾠ in this connection he is fond of dancing < seeﾠ tāṇḍava> andﾠ wine-drinking;
he is alsoﾠ worshipped as a great ascetic andﾠ is said to have scorched the god of love (Kāma-deva) to ashes by a glance from his central eye, that deity having attempted to inflame him with passion for Pārvatī whilst he was engaged in severe penance;
in the exercise of his function of Universal Destroyer he is fabled to have burnt up the Universe andﾠ all the gods, including Brahmā. andﾠ Vishṇu, by a similar scorching glance,
andﾠ to have rubbed the resulting ashes upon his body, whence the use of ashes in his worship, while the use of the Rudrâksha berries originated, it is said, from the legend that Ṡiva,
on his way to destroy the three cities, called Tri-pura, let fall some tears of rage which became converted into these beads:
his residence orﾠ heaven is Kailāsa, one of the loftiest northern peaks of the Himâlaya;
he has strictly no incarnations like those of Vishṇu, though Vīra-bhadra andﾠ the eight Bhairavas andﾠ Khaṇḍo-bā etc. RTL. 266 are sometimes regarded as forms of him;
he is especially worshipped at Benares andﾠ has even more names than Vishṇu,
one thousand andﾠ eight being specified in the 69th chapter of the Ṡiva-Purāṇa andﾠ in the 17th chapter of the Anuṡāsana-parvan of the Maha-bhārata, some of the most common being Mahā-deva, Ṡambhu, Ṡaṃkara, Īṡa, Īṡvara, Mahêṡvara, Hara;
his sons are Gaṇêṡa andﾠ Kārttikeya) ĀṡvṠr. MBh. Kāv. etc.. RTL. 73 ;
a kind of second Siva (with Ṡaivas), a person who has attained a partic. stage of perfection orﾠ emancipation MBh. Sarvad. ;
ṡiva-liṅga L. ;
any god L. ;
a euphemistic N. of a jackal (generally ṡivā f. q.v.);
sacred writings L. ;
(in astron.) N. of the sixth month;
a post for cows (to which they are tied orﾠ for them to rub against) L. ;
bdellium L. ;
the fragrant bark of Feronia Elephantum L. ;
Marsilia Dentata L. ;
a kind of thorn-apple orﾠ = puṇḍarīka (the tree) L. ;
quicksilver L. (cf. ṡiva-bīja);
a partic. auspicious constellation L. ;
a demon who inflicts diseases Hariv. ;
= ṡukra m. kāla m. vasu m. L. ;
the swift antelope L. ;
rum, spirit distilled from molasses L. ;
buttermilk L. ;
a ruby L. ;
a peg L. ;
time L. ;
N. of a son of Medhâtithi MārkP. ;
of a son of Idhma-jihva BhP. ;
of a prince andﾠ various authors ( alsoﾠ with dīkshita, bhaṭṭa, paṇḍita, yajvan, sūri etc.) Cat. ;
of a fraudulent person Kathās. ;
(du.) the god Ṡiva andﾠ his wife Kir. V, 40 Pracaṇḍ. I, 20 ;
(cf. Vām. V, 2, 1);
pl. N. of a class of gods in the third Manvantara Pur. ;
of a class of Brāhmans who have attained a partic. degree of perfection like that of Ṡiva MBh. ;
(ā) f. Ṡiva's wife ( alsoﾠ ṡivī) seeﾠ ṡivā below ;
(am) n. welfare, prosperity, bliss ( āya, éna orﾠ ébhis, « auspiciously, fortunately, happily, luckily» ;
ṡivāyagamyatām, « a prosperous journey to you!») RV. etc. etc.;
final emancipation L. ;
water L. ;
rock-salt L. ;
sea-salt L. ;
a kind of borax L. ;
iron L. ;
myrobolan L. ;
Tabernaemontana Coronaria L. ;
sandal L. ;
N. of a Purāṇa (= ṡiva-purāṇa orﾠ ṡaiva) Cat. ;
of the house in which the Pāṇḍavas were to be burnt MārkP. ;
of a Varsha in Plaksha-dvīpa andﾠ in Jambu-dvīpa Pur. ;
- शिवकण्ठमलिका
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