Shiva

The Cosmic Destroyer

Domain: Destruction & Renewal
Alignment: True Neutral
Element: Fire
Relics of Power: Trishula Trident

Speak with Shiva

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Hindu peoples

Region

Indian subcontinent

Period

c. 1500 BC – present

The Hindu deities have been worshipped for over three thousand years across the Indian subcontinent, from the Vedic hymns to the living Hinduism of today. Billions of devotees dedicate to them temples, festivals such as Diwali and Holi, and daily rituals in the home. It is one of the largest religious traditions still practiced in the world.

Diwali lights up India with oil lamps in honor of Lakshmi, and Holi celebrates spring with clouds of colored powder. At the Kumbh Mela, the largest pilgrimage on Earth, tens of millions bathe in the sacred rivers, and daily puja brings flowers, incense, and food to the altars.

At a glance

Śiva occupies different places in Hindu traditions: an ascetic linked to Mount Kailāsa, husband of Satī and Pārvatī, lord of accompanying beings, and a deity worshipped in the liṅga and in human images. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa recounts his response to Dakṣa's sacrifice and his intervention against the poison produced by the churning of the ocean. The Rāmāyaṇa tells how he held the Ganges in his hair, while the Mahābhārata presents him as a hunter before Arjuna. These passages do not form a single biography or justify reducing his worship to destruction: each text and object emphasizes different roles.

8 min read · Reviewed on October 13, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

Trishula trident, crescent moon, third eye, serpent, damaru drum and the bull Nandi

Family

Shiva

Unions

SatīPārvatī (Umā)

Children

GaṇeśaSkanda (Kārttikeya)

Genealogy according to Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.3–7 (Satī); Metropolitan Museum of Art, Shiva and Parvati and Their Children Skanda and Ganesha (2026)

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Tradição do Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.3. translation: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. read
Tradição do Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.4. translation: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. read
Tradição do Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.5. translation: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. read
Tradição do Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.6. translation: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. read
Tradição do Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.7. translation: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. read
Tradição do Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 8.7. translation: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. read
Vālmīki (atribuição tradicional), Rāmāyaṇa, Bālakāṇḍa 43. translation: Ralph T. H. Griffith. read
Vālmīki (atribuição tradicional), Rāmāyaṇa, Bālakāṇḍa 44. translation: Ralph T. H. Griffith. read
Tradição do Mahābhārata, Mahābhārata, Vana Parva 3.39. translation: Kisari Mohan Ganguli. read
Tradição do Mahābhārata, Mahābhārata, Vana Parva 3.40. translation: Kisari Mohan Ganguli. read

Studies

Monier Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, verbete śiva. open
UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Elephanta Caves. open
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Shiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja). open
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Shiva, Parvati, and Their Son Skanda (Somaskandamurti). open
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Shiva and Parvati and Their Children Skanda and Ganesha. open

Name and epithets

The Sanskrit adjective śiva means 'auspicious', 'propitious', or 'benevolent' in Monier-Williams's dictionary. As a divine name, Śiva appears alongside designations such as Rudra, Hara, and Mahādeva in the texts consult…

In the ancient sources

Bhāgavata Purāṇa, composed and transmitted in layers; exact date debated. Accounts of Satī, Dakṣa, and the poison, read here in a digital edition with Sanskrit verses and an English translation from a Vaiṣṇava tradition…

The myths

Satī, Dakṣa, and the interrupted sacrifice. In the fourth book of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the rivalry between Dakṣa and his son-in-law Śiva appears in a sacrifice from which the god has been excluded.

Worship and archaeology

The worship of Śiva takes forms that the epic episodes alone do not describe. The liṅga shrine in Elephanta's main cave places an emblem of the god at the center of ritual space, surrounded by large narrative reliefs.

How the god was depicted

The Chola bronze Naṭarāja described by the Metropolitan Museum of Art dances within a ring of flames. One upper hand holds the small ḍamaru drum; the other bears fire.

What scholars debate

One deity, different texts and hierarchies. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa was consulted in a Vaiṣṇava devotional translation; its commentaries distinguish Śiva from Viṣṇu according to that tradition.

After antiquity

Chola sculptures of Naṭarāja made a visual synthesis of movement and balance recognizable. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's example, dated to the late eleventh century, brings drum, fire, protective gesture, and raised…

Did you know?

On the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Chola image of Śiva, Pārvatī, and Skanda, four rings in the base allowed the sculpture to be attached to a processional platform.

Codex relic

Trishula Trident. A three-pronged trident representing the destruction of ego desires.

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