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HISTORY OF INDIA.

[Book IV.

AD. —

Siv.a, the third mem- ber of the triad.

chS'Mi^^.i

Supremacy- claimed for Siva.

Mr. Elpliinstone,^ "his incarnations or emanations, even as acknowledged in books, are innumerable ; and they are still more swelled by others, in which he is made to appear imder the form of some local saint or hero whom his fol- lowers have been disposed to deify."

Siva, the destroyer, to whom the third place in the Hindoo triad is usually assigned, is distinguished by nmnerous names and represented by various forms.

Among the names those of Maha Deo or Mahadeva and Rudra, are of the most fre- quent occiu-rence. Among his forms the most characteristic are those that are most hideous, since thus only is it possible to portray the features of divinity whom the Puranas describe as "wandering about surrounded by ghosts and goblins, inebriated, naked, and with dis- hevelled hair, covered with the ashes of a funeral pile, ornamented with human skulls and bones, sometimes laughing and some- times crying," His body, painted of a white or silver colour, differs from the human, chiefly in the head and arms. Instead of only one head, he has more frequently five, each of them with a third eye in the forehead; the arms vary from four to six. In his hands he usually holds a trident, one or more human heads, a cup supposed to contain human blood, and a sword or some other instrument of destruction. Occasionally he is mounted on his vahan, the bull called Nandi, while his wife, usually called Parvati, but known also as Devi, Bhavani, Durga, Kali, &c., sits on his knee. In his less revolting forms he is represented with his hair coiled up like a religious mendicant asking alms, or seated as if in profound thought. His heaven is Keilas, one of the most stupendous summits of the Himalaya, where he is enthroned on the edge of a yawning gulf among eternal snows and glaciers. In Parvati he has a mate every way worthy of him. In appearance she ^jesembles a fury rather than a goddess ; her skin is black and her features absolutely hideous ; her body is encircled with snakes, and hung round with a chaplet of skulls and human heads, while her whole attitude indicates defiance and menace. She delights in blood, and it is a weU-authenticated fact that at one time human victims were sacrificed to her.

Siva, like the other members of the triad, has advanced a claim to exclusive supremacy, and in the opinion of his more devoted worshippers, named Saivas,

' Elphinstone, History of India, vol. i. p, 180.

Siva. — From idol in British Museum.