Old SymbolsWhere every symbol began

Plate 1 A trident standing upright, a small double drum tied below its prongs and a crescent moon beside it

Shiva

Shiva is the Supreme Being of Saivism, the Hindu tradition devoted to him. He is known by his trident with a small drum tied to it, the crescent moon at his brow, the snakes in his matted hair, and Nandi, the white bull he rides.

Hindu deities and their symbols. Also called Lord Shiva, Mahadeva, Nandi, Shiv, shiva lingam, shiva symbol, shiva symbols, shiva trident.

Meaning

The Himalayan Academy’s glossary renders his name as the “Auspicious,” “Gracious,” or “Kindly one” and calls him, as personal Deity, “Creator, Preserver and Destroyer.” Devotion to him reaches well beyond Saivism: a 2021 Pew study on religion in India, the Hindu American Foundation notes, found Shiva to be the god Hindus most commonly feel close to, and the foundation describes yoga as part of the Hindu tradition that reveres him as Adiyogi, its first teacher. In paintings he looks like a yogi. The Cleveland Museum of Art describes him in a Pahari painting of about 1675 with matted locks entwined with serpents, skin white with ash from funeral pyres, the third eye of true knowledge and a leopard-skin loincloth, holding a skull cup, a sword and a drum; another Cleveland painting gives him a trident and the crescent moon at his brow. In his temples he is worshipped above all as the linga.

Origin and history

Two stories explain the forms people know best. The first is the blue throat. In the Bhagavata Purana, as the Hindu American Foundation retells it, the gods and the asuras agreed a truce to churn the ocean of milk for amrita, the nectar of immortality, and before the nectar came a poison called halahala rose and began to spread in all directions. Shiva gathered all of it in the palm of his hand, drank it and held it in his throat, which the poison turned blue, and he has since been called Nilakantha, “blue throat”.

The second is the Lingodbhava, the appearance of the linga. Brahma and Vishnu argued over which of them was the greater, the foundation’s telling goes, when a column of fiery light rose from the ground and towered as far as the eye could see. Vishnu took the form of a boar and went down to find its base; Brahma became a swan and flew up to find its top. After thousands of years it was clear the light had no limit. Then the light parted and Shiva came out of it with five heads, as the source of its power. Devotees, the foundation says, see the linga’s shaft in three divisions accordingly, with Brahma at the bottom, Vishnu in the middle and Shiva at the top.

What Shiva holds

The trident is his weapon. In the Himalayan Academy’s reading its three prongs are the three powers of Shakti, his energy: desire, action and wisdom. The damaru, the small double drum often tied to the trident, is in the Cleveland Museum’s words a drum that beats the rhythm of time. The crescent moon sits at his brow, snakes twist through his hair, and the river Ganga flows from his topknot, as in a Pahari painting of the holy man Bhagiratha, who stood on one leg for 1,001 years to win the river’s descent.

Nandi, the bull

Each Hindu god, the Himalayan Academy explains, is shown riding an animal or bird, a vahana, which stands for one of the god’s functions, and Shiva rides the bull, a symbol of strength and potency. The bull is Nandi, “the joyful”: a white bull with a black tail, a symbol of the powerful instinctive force Shiva has tamed, and the perfect devotee, kneeling humbly before Shiva and always concentrated on him. A Pahari painting of a temple sanctum in the Cleveland Museum shows a stone Shiva seated on Nandi, with Parvati on a lotus above his knee.

The linga

The Himalayan Academy calls the Shivalinga, “Mark,” “Token” or “Sign of Śiva,” the most prevalent emblem of Shiva, found in virtually all Shiva temples: a rounded, elliptical, aniconic image, usually on a circular base, the pitha, and the simplest and most ancient symbol of Shiva, especially of Shiva as God beyond all forms and qualities. The base stands for Parashakti, the manifesting power of God. The Hindu American Foundation describes the same two parts as a vertical stone shaft for the masculine aspect of the Divine, Shiva, and a circular base, the yoni, for the feminine aspect, Shakti, and calls the linga, “sign” or “mark”, his most prevalent image because it is an emblem of his full nature. In the temple sanctum in the Cleveland painting, the cylindrical stone linga denotes the formless essence of Shiva, and the tridents before it were placed there by devotees whose wishes came true.

Maha Shivaratri

Shivaratri, the “Night of Shiva”, falls every lunar month, from the 13th night to the 14th day, as the waning moon turns new. The one in Phalguna, the last month of the Hindu lunar year, is Maha Shivaratri, the “Great Night of Shiva”, in February or March. The Himalayan Academy calls it Saivism’s foremost festival, kept with fasting and an all-night vigil. The Hindu American Foundation adds that it is generally kept with fasting, meditation and worship of the Shivalingam, and that Kashmiri Pandits celebrate it over a full fortnight, centred on a ceremony called Vatuk Puja.

See also

Damaru, Om, Ganga, Unalome, Ganesha, Murugan.

Sources

  1. Dancing with Śiva: glossary (Śiva, Śivaliṅga, Nandi, Śakti), Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Śiva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism, glossary, Himalayan Academy (Kauai’s Hindu Monastery), glossary, s.v. Śiva, Śivaliṅga, Nandi, Śakti
  2. Dancing with Śiva: glossary (Mahāśivarātri), Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Śiva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism, glossary, Himalayan Academy (Kauai’s Hindu Monastery), glossary, s.v. Mahāśivarātri
  3. Dancing with Śiva: glossary (vāhana), Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Śiva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism, glossary, Himalayan Academy (Kauai’s Hindu Monastery), glossary, s.v. vāhana
  4. 5 things to know about Maha Shivaratri (Syama Allard, Hindu American Foundation), Syama Allard, “5 things to know about Maha Shivaratri”, Hindu American Foundation, 2021, Hindu American Foundation, article text
  5. All about the Shiva Linga (Syama Allard, Hindu American Foundation), Syama Allard, “All about the Shiva Linga”, Hindu American Foundation, 2024, Hindu American Foundation, article text
  6. The Hindu roots of yoga: Shiva (Syama Allard, Hindu American Foundation), Syama Allard, “The Hindu roots of yoga: Shiva”, Hindu American Foundation, 2023, Hindu American Foundation, article text
  7. Shiva and Devi on Gajasura’s hide (1952.587, Cleveland Museum of Art), Shiva and Devi on Gajasura’s hide, c. 1675–80, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952.587, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
  8. Shiva under trees (1960.48, Cleveland Museum of Art), Shiva under trees, c. 1780, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1960.48, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
  9. Stone sculptures in a Shiva temple (2018.112, Cleveland Museum of Art), Stone sculptures in a Shiva temple, c. 1710, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2018.112, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
  10. Descent of the Ganges (2018.111, Cleveland Museum of Art), Descent of the Ganges, c. 1700–1710, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2018.111, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description

The same shape elsewhere

Browse symbols formed from curves and waves or lines.

Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research

Added .

Report a problem

Please don’t include personal details.