Shiva
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Related to Shiva: Kali
Shiva
Shiva or Siva (shēˈvə), one of the greatest gods of Hinduism, also called Mahadeva. The “horned god” and phallic worship of the Indus valley civilization may have been a prototype of Shiva worship or Shaivism. Shaivism is mentioned as early as the Upanishads and the Mahabharata (500–200 B.C.). Shiva is identified with the fierce Vedic god Rudra and, in his terrible aspect, is the god of destruction and cosmic dissolution. He is commonly worshiped in the form of the lingam, or symbolic phallus. His other main forms are the great yogi, or ascetic, and Nataraja, Lord of the Cosmic Dance. As a yogi he is depicted as seated deep in meditation in the Himalayas, holding a trident, a snake coiled around his neck, his body smeared with ashes, and his hair long and matted. As Nataraja, he is shown four-armed, bearing various emblems, and dancing on one foot on a prostrate demon. Shiva's mount is the bull Nandi, and his consort is the goddess Uma, Parvati, Durga, or Kali.
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Shiva
Lord of creation; danced to begin life. [Hinduism: Binder, 23]
See: Creation
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Siva
, Shiva Hinduism the destroyer, one of the three chief divinities of the later Hindu pantheon, the other two being Brahma and Vishnu. Siva is also the god presiding over personal destinies
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
Shiva
(Shiva Corporation, Cambridge, MA) A manufacturer of networking equipment. Founded in 1985, Shiva's first products were its network modems for Macs and PCs. LANRover was a proprietary remote access server, providing dial-up access to LANs. Shiva also developed the remote access software in Windows 95. In 1999, the company was acquired by Intel, and via subsequent acquisitions by Simple Access, Inc., Mernet and Eicon, Shiva products wound up in Dialogic Corporation (www.dialogic.com).Copyright © 1981-2019 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.