Speaking of Shiva

In the Hindu epic, Mahabharata, Bhisma tells Arjuna the story of the fight between Shiva and Daksha. Shiva destroys the yagna of Daksha as he refuses to invite him to partake in a share of the sacrifice. This event happens at Ganga-dvara, which some people believe is Haridwar today.

The epic does not mention Sati, who in popular lore is known as Daksha’s daughter and Shiva’s wife, who kills herself in her father’s fire altar when he refuses to invite his son-in-law to the ceremony. There is no mention of Sati’s corpse being carried by Shiva and pieces of the corpse breaking up in different parts of India, where Goddess temples known as Shakti-pitha are established. These stories of Sati and Shiva appear between 500 AD and 1000 AD. The Mahabharata is older, 100 BC.

Mahabharata refers to Shiva’s wife as Parvati. The earlier Kena Upanishad refers to Shiva’s wife as Uma and identifies Shiva with the ultimate animating principle or Brahman. Again, there is no mention of Sati. So, the idea of Shiva having two wives, first Daksha’s daughter, then Himavan’s daughter, emerged later. Significantly, Shiva may be an ascetic, but his first wife Sati is a Brahmin’s daughter, while his second wife Parvati is a Kshatriya’s daughter.

It is common to trace Shiva’s origins to the Veda, dated to 1000 BC. To the mysterious god Rudra, who lives in the wild, takes care of cattle, is linked to both disease and medicines, who has a bow in hand, and who shoots an arrow stopping the primal father from chasing his daughter. Rudra’s connection to Daksha, comes later. Later still are stories of his marriage and children. All this draws attention to how stories of Shiva changed over time, and space, responding to various cultural motivations and challenges.

Vedic culture thrived after 1000 BC in the doab between Ganga and Yamuna. Here the Vedic rituals were consolidated. There were no temples or permanent shrines, a memory of its nomadic past. Here the earliest stories of Devas fighting Asuras were narrated. Both Devas and Asuras were identified as half-brothers, children of Prajapati, who was the first being, later identified as Brahma. The war was about resources.

Around 500 BC, this materialistic world was challenged by monastic ideas that came from further down the Ganga River basin, from what is now Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. Foremost amongst the monastic orders is Buddhism. The founder, Buddha, was a hermit who became a householder, as per Buddhist lore. So, the Mahabharata introduces us to Shiva, a hermit who is a householder. The Ramayana adds to Shiva lore. It speaks of how Shiva enabled Ganga to descend from the heavens and enable rebirth of dead ancestors.

By 500 AD, Shiva’s stories were mainstream. He challenges both Buddhism and the old Vedic way. He is a hermit who becomes a householder (rejection of monasticism) and who destroys the Vedic yagna (rejection of Brahmanical rituals). His images appear in the western and eastern coasts of India, by Kalchuri, Chalukya and Pallava kings who control trade routes and seaports. In temples, he is shown crushing Ravana, the villain of the Ramayana, when the latter attempts to carry Shiva’s Mountain abode, Kailash.

By 1000 AD, as Brahmins and kings spread into more and more tribal areas, we see greater appeasement of the Goddess through Tantra rituals involving blood, alcohol and sex. We see images of Shiva at the feet of Kali, providing children for the Goddess, seeking her help in battles, and eating food in her kitchen. The wild Goddess becomes domesticated when Shiva gives up his ascetic ways and pays her attention.

By 1500 AD, Islam has entrenched itself in India. Meat-eating is linked to the outsider, hence with pollution. Rituals of purification become popular. Shiva’s old connection with tribals and the ritually impure crematorium is downplayed. More and more blood-drinking goddesses are turned vegetarian, a trend first started by Jains, but then taken up by Brahmin mendicants like Shankaracharya.

The new Muslim rulers view the divine as formless and in response, Shiva-linga is seen increasingly as an abstract symbol of the soul, its phallic nature downplayed. Devotion to the blood-seeking Goddess in Bengal and Assam and Odisha challenges the puritanical devotional movement directed at Ram and Krishna, where the sensual is reinterpreted as spiritual, conceptual and asexual.

In recent times, Hinduism is being marketed as ‘sanatana dharma’—a faith that is eternal and unchanging. This phrase is found in Vedic, Buddhist and Jain scriptures. It essentially refers to rebirth mythologies, where the world and this life has no beginning or end. Everything is cyclical, unlike Christian and Islamic faiths that believe in one life. ‘Sanatan dharma’ does not mean Hinduism or Buddhism or Jainism are static faiths. There are continuities and discontinuities, transformations in response to history and geography, giving rise to diversity and dynamism of traditions. There is no need to homogenise them.