Shiva - destructor to the giver
Today as it is seen, Shiva is definitely way more than just being one of the pillars in “The Hindu Trinity” by perception or definition. He rather is the support system for lacs and crores of devotees, to whom he is the solace, he is the one who grants, saves, and provides. This is why a lion's share of major festivals in India is dedicated to Shiva. Shivaites are one of the three major sects in Hinduism, possibly the largest.
This video aims to investigate the concept of Shiva from different angles like history, geography, and mythology.
Earliest Mention:
About 4500 years ago by the banks of the Indus River lied a string of most sophisticated cities, which in some of the planning-related aspects could have given the smartest cities of today a run for the money. Not much is known about these cities yet, neither probably would be until the script of these ancient people is deciphered. It is agreed by all experts that these cities housed the people who were mainly traders and they traded with far-off lands like Mesopotamia, Egypt, etc. One of the seals of these traders has one figure which is believed to be one of the proto Shiva characters, which Indians worshiped.
In the seal, there a three-headed reminiscent is see in the lotus position, surrounded by different animals. The reminiscent is seen to be wearing a horned headdress and he is possibly ithyphallic.
The seal was discovered around 1928-29, the then director of an archeological survey of India, John Marshal first linked the figure in the seal with lord Shiva. Marshal presented many arguments like Shiva’s link with Animals in his Pashupati form, the seating posture, the link with the symbol of phallus, etc. Though his arguments were solely through symbolism, as there is no significantly better way of ratification available to date – the image remained as some form of Shiva in the history books even today.
From the oldest scripture:
In those hymns, there is a humble mention of Rudra the storm god. Storm naturally was one of the acts of nature which affected human life in some way.
Rudra only was mentioned but was not given as importance as the deities of rain, sun, or fire. Only 3 out of 1028 hymns of Rigveda are dedicated to Rudra. Still why this apparently not so important deity seeded the thought of one of the most important concepts of Hinduism is purely by the virtue of his nature. In the old texts, Rudra is the mightiest of the mighty, Rudra the frightening one does the total destruction at the time of great dissolution. It’s his terrifying side that has been portrayed more than the other – which made him a god who is offered prayers to stay away, not to grant bounty. However the other side of Rudra is the strongest link precursory to Lord Shiva in his current form - the mention in Rigveda Hymn 10.92, Rudra has two natures one wild and cruel (The Rudra), another that is kind and tranquil (The Shiva).
Yajur Veda
In the later Vedas, we find the importance to be slowly increasing. Yajur Veda composed around 2500-3000 years ago, sings a hymn called Sri Rudram in the praise of Rudra. It’s this hymn, which contained the most famed prayers to Shiva, sung even today i.e. Panchakshar Mantra or Namoh Shivaya and Mahamrityunjaya Mantra, which is believed to have magical abilities to get someone recovered from any ailment even today.
Sri Rudram first names its presiding deity as the lord of the universe, he is mentioned as the supreme being the Purusha who alone is the soul of all creatures, the material universe, the created beings, and whatever there is manifoldly and profusely created. In the past and in the present, in the form of the world—all that is indeed this Rudra.
This concept is very frequent in later Vedic or Upanishadic texts where it says Brahman or Purusha alone exists and all that which appears, appears within the existence of Brahman, in Sri Rudram shiva is given the status of Purusha, the highest possible ideological status in Hinduism. Quite obviously, scholars, especially from the later days Shivaite sect, connected Sri Rudram to the “Purusha Suktam” one of the most profound creation theories in Hindu theology, where Purusha is said to be sacrificed himself into himself to create the universe – thus Shiva becomes a creator in addition to his original form of mighty destructor.
Post-Vedic literature
The epics which were probably formally written down a few centuries later than the Yajurveda, mentions Rudra or Shiva time and again. The mention of the tranquil face of the character by then became significantly over-indexed in terms of number. The mighty Rudra started getting associated with Kaal by this time, which means time, which only is the great destructor.
In Ramayana, the first poet or humankind Valmiki made his mighty antagonist Ravana who was a Brahmin and a devotee of Shiva. Some of the finest literary pieces by Valmiki like ‘Shivatandava stotram’ has been attributed to Ravana. The deity and the devotee are associated here probably to symbolize the raw might, Ravana possessed. He only bowed to Shiva who is Rudra the mightiest of the mighty.
Another mighty, Lord Hanuman who is considered to be the mightiest among the Vanaras is also associated with Shiva in Ramayana. He is born by the blessings of Shiva to Anjana, a staunch devotee of Shiva. In a few later pieces of literature, Hanuman is said to be a reincarnation of Rudra himself.
The selective worship of Shiva, re-inforces the idea of a sect being formed who are getting drawn towards the idea of the benevolent face of a malevolent god of destruction called Kaala or Rudra.
In Mahabharata, the incidence of the mention of Shiva increases exponentially. Mahabharata referred to the events which occurred much later than the events mentioned in Ramayana, by then Shiva is seen to be not anymore limited to certain sects. Rather he became respected by all irrespective of cast, creed, and social status.
It was Shiva by whose boon, the Kauravas were born to Gandhari. It was Shiva who blessed Draupadi, by virtue of which she got married to five Pandavas. It was Shiva, who blessed Amba to be born as Sikhandi, who would kill Bhisma.
The most famous Siva centric event was Arjuna’s penance for Pasupatastra, the most powerful weapon of that time, Shiva came down to Arjun in the guise of a hunter to test if Arjuna is worthy of the great weapon.
There are many not so famous events, where Shiva indirectly influenced the turn of events leading to the ultimate results of the famous Dharmayuddha. Be it the Vyasa explaining Arjuna’s vision or Aswathama getting the divine sword from the lord on the night he massacred the camps of the Pandavas, in the eerie presence of Kala Ratri, who herself is one aspect of Kaala, Shiva himself.
In Mahabharata, Shiva appeals to all and is not limited to a particular sect or group. Both the protagonist as well as the antagonists get the blessings of the supreme Shiva. As he blesses the oppressed in form of Amba, also blesses Aswathama going to kill the allies of Pandavas in the most unlawful manner. Siva in Mahabharata is Ashutosh, the “go-to” deity who grants the wishes of whoever prays to him irrespective of their camp, philosophy, intent or position apart from the other factors as we mentioned before like cast and creed.
What might have happened in between?
Phase 1 - Better days of Humankind
After the last ice age ended about 10000 years ago and the huge ice sheets melted leaving the planet a lot more habitable. It was then humankind’s better days began and the wheel of civilization started spinning rapidly. In the next couple of millennia, Humans domesticated cattle, spun wool, replaced stone weapons with newly found copper; it even learned the art of cultivation. The use of newly developed tools like wooden wheels and copper equipment for agriculture was making life easier with each passing day.
This was the time when people started understanding the value of nature and its activities around. The rain became the most important natural activity as it brought the grass and weed back for the pastors and helped farmers to grow crops. They understood the value of the sun as the source of energy to the whole ecosystem and fire was the most important means for that primitive human to fight back threats.
These forces are what they considered to be the primal ones, which needed to be worshiped. This tradition was carried on from generation to generation. The over-indexation of Vedic hymns dedicated to Indra (Rain God), Sabitur (Sun God) & Agni (fire god) is a continuation of this tradition only. They further acknowledged others like Marut (Wind), Varuna (sea), storm (Rudra), etc. but the commonality between all is their existence around through nature.
Ownership of land was still not that important as it was abundantly available, 7000 years ago the world’s population was only 5 million. But they valued fertile land, that’s why all primitive human settlements were in the most fertile stretches of the planet. These human settlements in another 1-2 millennia became bustling cities with the advent of trading activities. The western part of India was blessed by the fertility of two mighty rivers Indus and Saraswati, it was the Indus Sarawati basin which these primitive human beings chose as one of their homes, later on, which turned into sophisticated cities which controlled a complicated trade route through which Crafts, Metals, Jewels were traded to the human settlements in Central Asia. This cluster of cities today is known as the Indus valley civilization.
Phase 2 - End of great civilizations
But time is cyclical, so came another wave of climatic change around 4000 years ago. It was the time when the rainfall decreased sharply over centuries. This era is well documented in some historical accounts, termed as 300-year drought by modern meteorologists. The huge grasslands like Thar and Baluchistan became desserts during this time, Sea level dipped by 15 meters, the navigable parts of the sea like Rann of Kutch became dry planes. The most prominent river of India, Saraswati got lost permanently only to remain in the hymns of Rigveda. The change was so severe all the major civilizations collapsed including the bustling Indus valley, the grand old Egyptian kingdom, sophisticated Mesopotamian civilization, etc.
Humankind was almost back to where it all started. They again had to thrive for food in the absence of grass planes for cattle to graze and fertile land to keep themselves fed. It was the time when probably early humans understood the prowess of time, which can end everything. Whatever is created would be destructed is eternal truth preached by all schools of Indic philosophy.
This probably was the time, when these people realized the power of destruction and the resultant stress of it. It was the time when in the tussle between the nurturer and destructor, the destructor won. Giving rise to the importance of the destructor Rudra, who otherwise was not given much importance earlier. The time was so, the rain god must not have listened even after millions of prayers, who danced around was the fearsome Rudra, with the most frightening of its weapons – people had to take refuge in him.
It's further tempting to hypothesize a series of frequent terrible storms due to sudden change in Atmospheric temperature, these storms which probably had transported dust and sand particles miles to create fearsome desserts of today – must have also looked like Rudra himself dancing in wrath.
Phase 3 – Gods Grace
It was the time when these people started moving eastwards and discovered the Ganges – Yamuna basin which was relatively fertile and again around that place human settlement started to grow. This was linked with the Tranquil Shiva, who led the river Ganges down to earth. Symbolically it is tempting enough to assume, it was a tranquil, wish-granting lord who led this person eastward in the search of greener and more fertile lands and got ultimately settled by the banks of Ganges. It was since then, the Ganges is considered to be the holy river of Hinduism which ascended directly from heaven by the grace of Shiva.
The epics Ramayana and Mahabharata were written on the banks of Ganges and its tributaries, whereas Rigveda was written on the banks of Indus Saraswati, Yajurveda was written somewhere in between if not on the banks of Ganges.
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This is how the story of Rudra began as a storm God which should be kept pleased to avoid destruction on the happy days on the banks of Indus Saraswati, gained prominence as the great destructor of civilization (epistemologically the Samsara) as the cities declined and people abandoned those in search of better places. The Samsara or Civilization got reestablished on the banks of Ganges by the grace of him only, as he was the one to get maximum share of human prayers. If this is not maintaining the Cycle of time as Kaala, what else is?
Continued:
http://www.actualization.in/2020/12/who-is-shiva-part-ii.html
~Avirup Chakraborty
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