Although Vishnu manifests himself mainly as Krishna, we must not forget the other nine incarnations mentioned above. They too focus on the creation, destruction and recreation of the universe and their story is told in the Matsya Purana. Flood talks about this in his ‘Introduction to Hinduism’ (1996:116) and tells of how Matsya, the fish, saves Manu, the first man, from a “cosmic deluge” (Flood, 1996:116); how Kurma, the tortoise, supports the huge mountain Mandara in the sea of milk by positioning himself underneath it, allowing the gods to use the mountain as a rod to mix the water, creating arta, the nectar of immortality; how Varaha, the boar, saves the world by going to the bottom of the ocean, taking the earth back up to the top and spreading it over the seven continents; how Narasimha, the man-lion, kills a wicked demon for trying to destroy a follower of Vishnu; how Vamana, the ignorant dwarf, takes three strides over the universe to kill a demon; how Parasurama, Rama with an axe, destroys the Ksatriyas (the warrior class) to save the Brahmans (the priestly class); how Buddha distracts the demons and leads them astray; and how Kalki, the white horse, will come after kali-yuga (our current age of darkness) to restore virtue in the world and destroy the wicked.
While Vishnu is at the centre of Hinduism, Shiva lies at the edge of society as he deals with issues such as sex and death, making people uncomfortable. There are four chief portrayals of Shiva. The first is of him as the lord of the dance, Siva Nataraja, where he is seen expressing his energy while dancing in the middle of a circle of flames, representing the life cycle of the universe. In this depiction he has four arms like Vishnu and is all the time either creating, maintaining or destroying. Secondly, Shiva is often portrayed as the lord of yoga (the discipline of asceticism), meditating in the Himalayas, covered in ashes wearing rudraksa beads and a snake around his neck, holding a trident and sitting on a tiger skin as he is closely associated with the animal. He is seen to have crescent moons in his hair to represent the horns of the bull god and his third eye burns with erotic love (kama). His hair, which is in a knot tied up at the back of his head, has “the Ganges pouring from his locks” (Flood, 1996:151). A third representation shows Shiva as the family man with his wife Parvati and his sons, Ganesha and Skanda. Here he is seen to be caring and protective of Parvati as he chops off Ganesha’s head to defend her after failing to recognise his son and not wanting his wife to come to any harm. Parvati is most distressed by this and requests that Shiva bring her son back to life. Siva promises to administer a head to Ganesha of the next passing animal. The animal happens to be an elephant, which is why Ganesha is always seen with an elephant’s head. A fourth depiction of the deity Shiva is of him representing “a phallus within a vulva, symbolic of the union of Shiva with his dynamic energy or sakti” (Flood, 1996:151). In this form as the Shiva linga (icon), he is a wild man with a strong sexual desire and is symbolised by a cylindrical stone as a phallic item. One example of his need for eroticism is in the Mahabharata where it tells of how he seduced the wives of the ascetics in the pine forest and another is in the Puranas where he makes love to his wife Parvati for one thousand years. A lesser depiction of Shiva is of him as the animal god, Siva Pasupati, but it is not certain that the seal found of the animal god is really of him. He is also said to have had five faces and eight forms. The faces look in the direction of the four points of the compass and of the point of zenith. They also represent the five senses. The eight forms symbolise the five elements plus the sun, the moon and the sacrifice.
Although Shiva’s manifestations as a human are rarer than Vishnu’s, he is often seen as Rudra, the Vedic god of the wilderness and is known for his wrathfulness so he tends to stay away from the human world, dwelling in the atmosphere of which he is a popular deity. When he did appear on earth, he was seen to be brown in colour with a black stomach and a red back. At times he was unruly and even vicious though at other times he healed people of their diseases with his therapeutic herbs. Rudra was “feared for his malevolent destruction and anxiously invoked with the hopeful epithet Shiva (auspicious), yet was often praised for his ability to bestow healing remedies and protect his petitioners from destruction” (Hopkins, 1971:13). Rudra became to be known as Sambhu (the Benign), Samkara (the Beneficent), Bhasa (the Existent), Mahadeva (the Great God), Hara (the Bearer/Destroyer) and Isana (the Ruler). His popularity as a deity grew, taking Shiva along in the acme. So, as this essay has now shown, both Krishna and Rudra alleviated the idolisation of the deities Vishnu and Shiva although the spread of Vaishnavism occurred around 400CE whereas the development of Shaiva theology did not arise till around 700 – 1100 CE.
There is one occasion in particular where Shiva and Vishnu are seen interacting, highlighting their different roles while doing so. It occurs at the wedding of Shiva and Sati when the couple retire to Mount Kailasa and Daksa, Sati’s father, invites all the deities to a sacrifice except Shiva, snubbing him for dealing with issues on the edge of society and for not always fitting in amongst the other gods. This situation bothers Sati a great deal and so she goes to the sacrifice to appeal to her father for him to reconsider his decision over accepting Shiva as her husband. Daksa rejects her and in her rage she commits suicide “burning herself with her yogic power” (Flood, 1996:150). Shiva is so enraged by this that he kills his father-in-law as well as the animal sacrifice, once again assuming the role of the destroyer. This story is first seen in the Mahabharata and ends with Shiva resuscitating them and participating in the sacrifice. However, later versions of this story are seen in the Devibhagavata Purana and the Kalika Purana, both containing vastly different endings to the original story. Here, Shiva is said to have been so distraught that he picks up his wife’s lifeless body and dances with it on his shoulders. It is at this point where Vishnu interjects because as the maintainer of the universe, he has a duty to uphold which involves preventing Shiva from destroying it. While Shiva is performing his death dance, the other gods become worried that he will demolish the world and so Vishnu takes Sati’s body away from Shiva and hacks it to pieces until Shiva calms down. Once again, Vishnu has saved the day.
As this essay has proved, the Hindu deities Vishnu and Shiva are two of the most important gods in the religion but is one more powerful than the other? In the Svetasvatara Upanisad Shiva is recognised as the Absolute but as the above myth shows, he has a destructive nature and is not always in control. However, even the mighty Vishnu is seen to lose his supremacy in the Devimahatmya where the goddess Mahamaya puts a spell on him, sending him into a deep sleep to allow her to attack Brahma, elevating herself above Vishnu in superiority as a deity. At separate points, both are seen as the central god. Vishnu in the Visnu Purana and Shiva in the Siva Purana.
With many people being unable to read during and around the Puranic period, the iconography became of vast importance. People relied on the pictures to tell them the stories of the gods and that is a large reason why each aspect of the icon represents something different, to tell the story of the god. For example, Vishnu’s lotus he holds symbolises his purity and the fire Shiva encircles is representing the life cycle of the universe. However, this essay does not attempt to deny the importance of the scriptures, as without them, the pictures are merely pictures and not visions of spirituality. In conclusion, although this essay has looked at Vishnu and Shiva individually as separate deities, the focus must be left on them as one, for that is what they are, existing only with each other. The cycle of the universe relies on all of them, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, to continue for if one were to disappear, the chain of the creation, destruction and recreation of the world would be broken. “Germination creates the tree, destroys the seed and preserves the species; the joiner creates the table, destroys the tree and preserves the wood” (Larousse, 1965:211).
