Shiva is one of the principal Hindu deities who, together with VISHNU and BRAHMA, forms the Trimurti, or triad of great gods. He is believed to have developed from RUDRA, a minor...

Shiva is one of the principal Hindu deities who, together with VISHNU and BRAHMA, forms the Trimurti, or triad of great gods. He is believed to have developed from RUDRA, a minor deity who appears in the Rig-Veda, the collection of ancient Hindu hymns dating from between 1500 and 900 BC. It seems that the god grew in stature after absorbing some of the characteristics of an ancient fertility god sometimes referred to as 'proto-Shiva'. Representations of this god, sitting in the position of a yogi and associated with animals and plants, have been ascribed to the Indus Valley culture, which dates from before 1500 BC. Shiva can be kind and protective, but he is also terrifying and is found in such places as battlefields and cremation grounds. He is offer shown decorated with a string of skulls. Although he is a god of creation, he is also the god of time and thus the great destroyer. He is a fertility god, but his also as ascetic who has conquered his desires and lives on Mount Kailasa in the high Himalayas, deep in the meditation which deeps the word in existence.

Although Shiva brings death, he also conquers death as well as disease and is invoked to cure sickness. He is sometimes depicted as half-male, half-female. The conflicting qualities and attributes found within the god are intended to symbolize a deity within whom all opposites are reconciled. Even Shiva's nave, which means 'Auspicious', is intended to reconcile and propitiate the dark aspect of his character, which caused him to be known as the 'destroyer'.