Shiva:(pronunciation: 1; Sanskrit: शिव, IAST: Śiva, lit. "Auspicious one") One of the Trimurtis. Shiva is the supreme God in the Shaiva tradition of Hinduism. In the Smartha tradition, he is one of the five primary forms of God.
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Shiva:(pronunciation: 1; Sanskrit: शिव, IAST: Śiva, lit. "Auspicious one") One of the Trimurtis. Shiva is the supreme God in the Shaiva tradition of Hinduism. In the Smartha tradition, he is one of the five primary forms of God.
Followers of Hinduism who focus their worship upon Shiva are called Shaivites or Shaivas (Sanskrit IAST: Śaiva). Shaivism, along with IAST: Vaiṣṇava traditions that focus on Vishnu, and IAST: Śākta traditions that focus on the goddess IAST: Devī are three of the most influential denominations in Hinduism.
Shiva is usually worshipped in the form of Shiva linga. In images, he is generally represented as immersed in deep meditation or dancing the Tandava upon the demon of ignorance in his manifestation of Nataraja, the lord of the dance.
In some other Hindu denominations, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva represent the three primary aspects of the divine in Hinduism and are collectively known as the Trimurti. In this school of religious thought, Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the maintainer or preserver, and Shiva is the destroyer or transformer.
Etymology and other names
The Sanskrit word Shiva (Devanagari: lang: शिव, IAST: śiva) is an adjective meaning kind, friendly, gracious, or auspicious. As a proper name it means "The Auspicious One", used as a euphemistic name for Rudra. In simple English transliteration it is written either as Shiva or Siva. Pronunciation is written in the International Phonetic Alphabet as IPA2: ɕivə. The adjective IAST: śiva meaning "auspicious" is used as an attributive epithet not particularly of Rudra, but of several other Vedic deities. In the Rig Veda, Indra uses this word to describe himself several times. (2:20:3, 6:45:17, 8:93:3)
In Tamil, Shiva literally means "the supreme one". Tamil "Siva" means Red. Adi Sankara in his interpretation of the name Shiva, the 27th and 600th name of Vishnu sahasranama interprets Shiva to mean either "The Pure One", the One who is not affected by three Gunas of Prakrti, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas or "the One who purifies everyone by the very utterance of His name." Swami Chinmayananda, in his translation of Vishnu sahasranama further elaborates on that verse: Shiva means the One who is eternally pure, or the One who can never have any contamination of the imperfection of Rajas and Tamas
The Sanskrit word IAST: śaiva means "relating to the god Shiva", and this term is the Sanskrit name both for one of the principal sects of Hinduism, and for a member of one of those sects. It is used as an adjective to characterize certain beliefs and practices, such as Shaivism.
The name Shiva, in one interpretation, is also said to have derived from the Dravidian word “Siva” meaning “to be red”. It is the equivalent of Rudra, “the red” RigVeda.
