Category: Home & Kitchen
Vendor: Elegant statue depics Hindu God Shiva in a meditating pose 8 Inch stone statue from India. Shiva is seated on a lion skin with
Product Description : Shiva is the destroyer & the restorer, the great ascetic & the symbol of sensuality, the benevolent herdsman of souls & the wrathful avenger. Originally known as Rudra, a minor deity addressed only three times in the Rig Veda. He gained importance after absorbing some of the characteristics of an earlier fertility god & became Shiva, part of the trinity, or trimurti, with Vishnu & Brahma. Shiva wears a snake coiled around his upper arms & neck symbolizing the power he has over the most deadly of creatures. Snakes are also used to symbolize the Hindu dogma of reincarnation. Their natural process of molting or shedding their skin is symbolic of the human souls transmigration of bodies from one life to another. Thiruvalangadu, north of Madras, is associated with the dance contest between Shiva & his consort in the form of Kali. According to legend, Shiva danced vigorously, & to subdue Kali, threw up his leg in the rhythm of the dance. Being a lady, Kali could not repeat this feat & stood dismayed. This dance & the subjugation of Kali, are described in the hymns of the female saint-poet Karaikkal Ammai. He often holds a trident, which represents the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Shiva & Vishnu. It is also said to represent the threefold qualities of nature: creation, preservation & destruction, although preservation is usually attributed to Vishnu. As the destroyer Shiva is dark & terrible, encircled with serpents & a crown of skulls. Shiva wears sacred Rudraksha beads, perhaps a reference to his earlier name Rudra. The crescent moon Shiva wears on his crown, besides being a symbol of Kama the goddess of nightly love, also represents the bull, Nandi, a fertility symbol. Shiva holds a skull that represents samsara, the cycle of life, death & rebirth. Samsara is a central belief in Hinduism. Shiva himself also represents this complete cycle because he is Mahakala the Lord of Time, destroying & creating all things.
