Kissa Shiva ka

In the classic Hindu legend, the Mahabharata, there’s a tale told by Bhisma to Arjuna. It’s about a clash between Shiva and Daksha. Daksha snubs Shiva by not inviting him to share in a special ritual. In response, Shiva wrecks Daksha’s ceremony. This incident is said to have taken place in a location known as Ganga-dvara. Many people think this place is what we now call Haridwar.

Our epic does not talk about Sati. The common tales say she’s Daksha’s kid and also Shiva’s spouse. They say she ended her life on her dad’s fire altar. Why? Because he did not invite her husband to his event. Not a single mention of Sati’s lifeless body held by Shiva. Or about pieces of it scattering across India. Those places later became known as Shakti-pitha, places with temples to a Goddess. The tales of Sati and Shiva only started to come out between 500 AD and 1000 AD. The Mahabharata is much older, dating back to 100 BC.

The story of Mahabharata introduces Shiva’s spouse as Parvati. Shiva’s partner, however, is named Uma in the older Kena Upanishad, where Shiva represents the ultimate life force, Brahman. Here, no reference to Sati exists. This means that the concept of Shiva with two brides—one the offspring of Daksha, the other the child of Himavan—materialized later in time. Notably, despite Shiva’s austere lifestyle, his initial partner Sati was a Brahmin’s child, and his subsequent spouse Parvati was a Kshatriya’s daughter.

People often link Shiva’s beginnings to the Veda, around 1000 BC. The god Rudra, a bit of an enigma, embodies this link. He’s a wild dweller, a cattle guardian, and has ties to both illness and healing. He wields a bow, uses an arrow to halt the first father’s pursuit of his daughter. Daksha’s link to Rudra appears later on. Then come tales of his marriage and offspring. All this shows how Shiva’s tales have evolved with time, geography, different cultural needs, and obstacles.

The time after 1000 BC saw the flourish of Vedic culture, set amid Ganga and Yamuna’s doab. It was here that people built upon Vedic practices, holding tightly to their nomadic past with no temples or persistent shrines. Epic tales of Devas battling Asuras began here. It was said that Devas and Asuras, despite being half-brothers and children of Prajapati, the first being who later was known as Brahma, fought fiercely. The root of their conflict?- was Resources.

In about 500 BC, our material-focused world met new ideas from monks originating further along the Ganga River. Regions like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Bihar birthed these thoughts. Buddhism stands out among these monk-led orders. Buddha, the originator, was once a recluse who morphed into a family man, according to Buddhist legends. The Mahabharata introduces us to Shiva, a recluse who also becomes a family man. The Ramayana adds to Shiva’s story, explaining how Shiva helped the Ganga river descend from heaven to bring revival to deceased kin.

By the year 500 AD, tales of Shiva had hit the mainstream. He dared to challenge both Buddhism and the established Vedic practices. Shiva was portrayed as a hermit-turned-householder, representing a rejection of monastic life. He also disrupted Vedic yagna, a clear refusal of Brahmanical ceremonies. His depictions cropped up on India’s west and east coasts, promoted by Kalchuri, Chalukya, and Pallava rulers overseeing trade and ports. Temples presented him overpowering Ravana, the Ramayana’s antagonist, when he tried to seize Shiva’s Mountain home, Kailash.

Around the year 1000 AD, Brahmins and kings reached further into tribal lands. Here, they tried to please the Goddess with Tantra rituals. These involved blood, alcohol, and sex. Images of Shiva prostrating before Kali were common. He would seek her assistance in wars, provide offspring for her, and partake in meals from her kitchen. Once the untamed Goddess got attention from Shiva, who was no longer an ascetic, she turned domesticated.

By the year 1500, Islam firmly roots itself in India. The act of eating meat becomes associated with outsiders, leading to an intrigue of contamination. Popular trends now lean towards purification ceremonies. Shiva’s previous tie with tribal people and the ritually unclean cremation site is subtly reduced. An increasing number of deities known for consuming blood begin to prefer a vegetarian diet – a transformation first initiated by Jains, and later adopted by Brahmin wanderers such as Shankaracharya.

Muslim leaders perceive the divine in a formless manner, hence the Shiva-linga symbol becomes more abstract, signifying the soul, while its phallic nature becomes less notable. The devotion to the blood-calling Goddess prevalent in Bengal, Assam, and Odisha presents an alternative to the more orthodox adoration movement focused on Ram and Krishna, where the sensual shifts into a spiritual, conceptual, and asexual sphere. In our modern era, ‘sanatana dharma’—or a timeless, steadfast faith—is becoming a popular tagline for Hinduism. This term, native to Vedic, Buddhist and Jain texts, essentially relates to theories of reincarnation, where the world and life have no origin or termination. Everything flows cyclically, diverging from the Christian and Islamic belief in a single life. ‘Sanatana dharma’ does not imply that Hinduism, Buddhism, or Jainism are unchanging faiths. There exist both consistencies and inconsistencies, changes springing from various historical and geographical circumstances, which birth the variety and dynamism of traditions. No need exists for their unification.

By the year 1500, India is firmly under Islam’s influence. Consuming meat becomes associated with foreigners, implying contamination. Rituals for cleaning grow in popularity. Shiva’s prior association with tribal people and the symbolically unclean cremation site gets less attention. More blood-thirsty goddesses switch to plant-based diets, an idea first introduced by the Jains, but later adopted by wandering Brahmins like Shankaracharya.

Under the new Muslim governance, the divine has no physical form. Shiva-linga begins to represent the soul abstractly, reducing its phallic connotation. In Bengal, Assam, and Odisha, the devotion to the goddess who thirsts for blood opposes the purist worship of Ram and Krishna. Here, all things sensual are seen as spiritual, intelligible and non-sexual. Recently, people are promoting Hinduism as ‘sanatana dharma’, or an everlasting faith. This term is used in Vedic, Buddhist, and Jain scriptures. It mainly alludes to reincarnation myths where life and the world are endless. Everything comes full circle, different from Christianity and Islam that believe in linear life. ‘Sanatan dharma’ doesn’t imply Hinduism, Buddhism, or Jainism are frozen in time. They have common and contrasting features, modifications due to time and place, leading to variation and liveliness in traditions. There’s no need to make them uniform.

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