Shaiva Deities
Shiva and the gods of his family and tradition: the great ascetic, Ganesha the remover of obstacles, Murugan, and the forms of the Shaiva stream.
The Shaiva stream is one of the three great currents of Sanatana Dharma, and it gathers around Shiva: the ascetic on the mountain, the lord of the dance, the one the Shvetashvatara Upanishad calls the single ruler standing behind all the worlds. What the stream contains is wider than one god. It holds Parvati, his consort, and in the Shakta reading his equal and his source. It holds Ganesha, whose worship crosses every sectarian line in India. It holds Murugan, who in the Tamil country stands closer to the centre than his father does. And it holds Bhairava, the terrifying form the tradition posts at the gates of Kashi.
These pages take each figure on its own terms, from the Vedic Rudra through the Puranic Mahadeva to the local forms that never left their district. Where the texts converge they say so plainly. Where the Shaiva Siddhanta of the south and the non-dual Shaivism of Kashmir genuinely disagree about what Shiva is, the disagreement is named rather than smoothed away.
Begin with Shiva himself if you are new here. The rest of the family reads better once the centre is clear.