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Home > Temples of Kerala > Lord Siva Lord SivaSiva, the most powerful of the Triad, represents the character of destroyer and regenerator. In the Vedas the only name of the destroying deity was Rudra, the 'terrible God'. In course of time it became usual to give the God the euphemistic noun Siva 'the auspicious'. Siva is acclaimed as the Master with five functions (as per Saivaagamas) - creation, sustenance, destruction, veiling and showering of grace.According to Saivism Lord Siva is not merely one of those Gods of the Trinity but the supreme ie, Mahadeva. He was worshipped by early Dravlqians and considering the antiquity Siva is treated as a pre-Aryan and non-Aryan deity. He is commonly known as Rudra, Mahadeva, Maheswara, Samba, Iswara, Digambara, Kiraathamoortthi or Nataraja, besides large number of other names. The various legends associated with the worship of Siva particularly in Linga form are available in Puraary.as-and.reproduced in Puraanic Nikhandu and hence not dealt with here. However the worship of Siva falls under six important forms viz (i) as Mahadeva (in the linga form) (ii) as Pancha-lingeswara in pancha-linga form, (iii) Kiraathamoortthi or Vettakkappan and (iv) The linga or phallus is the most common form of worship. Among bronze or pancha-loha-bimbas there are idols in the form of Nataraja. In northern Kerala, particularly in Kasaragod taluk, many temples are dedicated to Mahalingeswara. It may be said that Lord Siva came to be associated with the name of MahaIinga, by about 1463 A.D or a bit earlier. Before this nomenclature of Mahalinga, he was known as Mahadeva only: We may attribute this change in nomenclature to the Veera-Saiva influence87. Similarly there are pancha-lingeswara temples, their peculiarity being that all the five lingas are installed on the same pedestal instead of in five separate shrines. Another special feature is the Manjunathha shrines Kasaragod district. In these shrines the prathishta is in the form of linga. According to Hindu pantheon Lord Siva is never known as Manjunathha. Therefore we are confronted with the problem of identifying the deity with Siva. This leads us inevitably into the history of the birth and development of Saiva faith known the Nathha-pantha. The
cult of Nathhism is known to have developed itself Gut of the vajrayaana system of Mahayaaya form of Buddhism and thus it was in !ts origin a form of Thaanthric
Buddhism, before it transformed itself into Thaanthric Saivism. Thus the influence
of Naathha-pantha must have been responsible for the popularity of the names The uthsava-moortthi or bali-Devatha, symbolizes and represents the sankalpa of the principal deity in anthropomorphic form. These bimbas of uthsava moortthies have the height either equal to the height of the circular portion ot the bimba or diameter of the Siva-linga or equal to the circumference of the idol. Among the anthropomorphic forms, Nataraja form is the most common.- The Nataraja concept may be generalised as personifying the cosmic energy that keeps the Universe in existence through rhythmic motion On the east coast the image is endowed with a remarkably vivid realization of rhythmical motion, the elegant figure of the deity resting apparently lightly and momentarily on one foot. On the west coast, on which Travancore is situated, the image is sturdy in build, and with both feet planted on a symbolical 'demon' suggests, rather than expresses, the dance'89. Siva is also worshipped as a hunting deity, known as Kiraathamoortthi. Though the deity is installed .as Siva-linga there are number of sankalpas of Siva having weapons in hand, ornaments, dress etc. At the Kunnambattu (Thrippannikunnu) Parvathi-Parameswara temple at Mathamangalam (Kannur district) the idol of Siva (Kiraathamoortthi) has a bow in left arm and arrow in the right. There are similar temples in other parts of the state also. The idol in anthropomorphic form at the Thiruairanikkulam or Iraanikkulam (near Kuzhur, Mukundapuram taluk) temple is indeed very beautiful and made of panch-loha. It weighs thousand kilograms. The right hand of this idol
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