Topic
shiva
Essays connected by a shared question.
Age of the Shiva Tandava Stotra
The hymn is credited to Ravana, but its metre, vocabulary and imagery point somewhere else entirely: eighth-century Rashtrakuta India.
The Many Faces of Indian Gods: A Historical Story
In the Rigveda the gods have no faces, only fire, storm and wind. How Indian divinity travelled from poetic metaphor into carved, worshipable stone.
The Timeless Evolution of Shiva
Ascetic, dancer, destroyer. Shiva was not born whole: he accumulated, absorbing a wild forest power, a storm god and a yogi across four thousand years.