The Codex Glossary

Ādiyogī

The first yogi · Śiva as the original transmitter of yoga to the Saptaṛṣis on the shores of Lake Kāntisarovar.

Ādi-Śakti

The primordial energy · the Devī before all names. The feminine half of Brahman from which every form of the Mother emerges.

Anugraha

Grace · the fifth and final of Śiva's Pañcakṛtya · pure unearned compassion that grants liberation when readiness ripens.

Ardhanārīśvara

"Half-woman half-lord." The composite form revealing that Śiva and Śakti are one inseparable reality.

Aṣṭamūrti

"Eight forms." Śiva pervading the five elements + sun + moon + the worshipper — the cosmos itself is His body.

Aṣṭādaśa

Eighteen. The canonical count of Śaṅkara's Mahā Śakti Peeṭhas, of the Purāṇas, and of the steps of Śabarimala.

Ātman

The Self · the unchanging awareness that is the same in every being. Realised as identical with Brahman in non-dual schools.

Avatāra

"Descent." The taking of form by the formless. Śiva has 19 Rudra-avatāras, including Hanumān, Bhairava, and Aśvatthāmā.

Ānanda

Bliss · the third member of the sat-cit-ānanda triad describing Brahman. The Ānanda Tāṇḍava is Naṭarāja's dance of pure joy.

Ākāśa

Space · the subtle element pervading the others. Cidambaram enshrines Śiva as the ākāśa-liṅga — invisible, infinite.

Bhairava

"The Terrible." Śiva's wrathful form. Kāla-Bhairava is the guardian of Kāśī; the form that severed Brahmā's fifth head.

Bhakti

Devotion · love offered to the divine as the surest path. The Śiva Purāṇa is itself a manual of Śaiva-bhakti.

Bhasma

Sacred ash · what remains when fire has done its work. Śiva smears Himself with it as a constant reminder: all returns to dust.

Bhasmāsura

"The ash-asura." Granted a boon that whomever he touched would turn to ash; undone when Viṣṇu as Mohinī tricked him into touching his own head.

Bhrāmarī

The bee-goddess. Bhramarāmbikā of Śrīśailam took the form of a swarm of black bees to slay the demon Aruṇāsura.

Bīja-mantra

"Seed-mantra." A single-syllable mantra that holds the entire essence of a deity — e.g. klīṁ for Kālī, hrīṁ for Bhuvaneśvarī.

Brahman

The absolute reality · the formless one without a second. Not to be confused with the deity Brahmā or the priestly varṇa.

Cit

Pure consciousness · awareness itself. The second member of sat-cit-ānanda; the substrate that knows even before there is anything to know.

Cidambaram

"Sky of consciousness." The Tamil shrine where Naṭarāja dances and the inner sanctum is famously empty — the ākāśa-liṅga.

Chinnamastā

The sixth Mahāvidyā · the self-decapitated. Stands on the copulating Kāmadeva and Rati; three streams of blood flow from Her neck to feed Her two attendants and Her own severed head.

Cāmuṇḍā

The fierce form of Devī who slew the demons Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa. Enshrined at Cāmuṇḍī Hill, Mysūru.

Ḍamaru

The hour-glass drum in Śiva's upper-right hand. Its beat is the first sound — the rhythm of creation itself.

Dakṣa

A Prajāpati, father of Satī. His refusal to invite Śiva to his great yajña led to Satī's self-immolation and Vīrabhadra's destruction of the sacrifice.

Dakṣiṇāmūrti

Śiva as the silent guru facing south. Seated under the banyan tree, teaching the four boy-sages without uttering a single word.

Darśana

"Seeing." The auspicious mutual gaze between devotee and deity — the heart of all temple worship.

Durgā

"The unconquerable." The warrior-Mother who rides a lion or tiger. Slew Mahiṣāsura the buffalo-demon; head of the Navadurgā sequence.

Dhūmāvatī

The seventh Mahāvidyā · the smoke-widow. Rides a wheel-less chariot. The only Mahāvidyā without a male consort — she swallowed Him.

Gaṅgā

The celestial river · daughter of Himavān. Brought down by Bhagīratha's tapasyā; caught in Śiva's matted hair to save the earth.

Gaṇa

A retinue, troop, or attendant — specifically Śiva's company of bhūtas, pramathas, and yogis who throng Kailāsa. Gaṇeśa is their lord.

Gaṇeśa

Elephant-headed son of Śiva and Pārvatī. Formed from saffron paste, beheaded for guarding His mother, restored with an elephant's head. Lord of beginnings.

Guṇa

A strand or quality of Prakṛti. The three: sattva (clarity), rajas (motion), tamas (inertia). All forms are woven of their interplay.

Guru

"Dispeller of darkness." The teacher. Śiva is the Ādi Guru — the first guru — manifested as Dakṣiṇāmūrti.

Hālāhala

The world-ending poison that arose from the churning of the milk ocean. Śiva drank it, holding it in His throat — earning the name Nīlakaṇṭha.

Hanumān

Son of Vāyu, devotee of Rāma · the eleventh Rudra-avatāra in the Śaiva counting. Cirañjīvī — one of the seven eternal beings.

Hari-Hara

The dual form of Viṣṇu (Hari) and Śiva (Hara) merged into one body — half blue, half ash-white. Ayyappa, the lord of Śabarimala, is Hari-Hara-suta, their son.

Iṣṭa-devatā

"The cherished deity." The form of the divine to which one's heart most readily flies — chosen by, or revealed to, the devotee.

Īśāna

"The Lord-most." The upward fifth face of Sadāśiva, facing the zenith — the face of pure transcendence.

Jaṭā

Matted locks of an ascetic, especially Śiva's. The Gaṅgā falls into them; the crescent moon and the cobra ride in them.

Jñāna

Knowledge · specifically liberating knowledge of the Self. The path of inquiry transmitted in silence by Dakṣiṇāmūrti.

Jyotirliṅga

"Liṅga of light." A self-arisen liṅga marking a place where Śiva manifested as a column of pure radiance. There are twelve across Bhārat.

Kailāsa

The crystal mountain in Tibet that is Śiva's eternal abode. Axis-mundi of the Śaiva cosmos.

Kālī

"She who is time." The dark Mother, dancer on Śiva's prone body, the first of the ten Mahāvidyās. Liberator from kāla (time, death).

Kārtikeya

Six-faced son of Śiva, born of fire-sparks, raised by the six Kṛttikā stars. Slayer of Tārakāsura; commander of the deva armies.

Kāma

Desire personified as the god of love, Kāmadeva. Burned to ash by Śiva's third eye; reborn formless as Anaṅga.

Karma

Action and its inevitable fruit. The current that binds beings to saṁsāra until burned by jñāna or dissolved by anugraha.

Kathā

A sacred story — but more: an oral ritual where deity steps into the room with the telling. The Codex collects fifteen.

Kuṇḍalinī

"The coiled one." Śakti as a serpent sleeping at the mūlādhāra, who when awakened ascends to unite with Śiva at the sahasrāra.

Kāśī

"The luminous." Vārāṇasī, the city of Viśvanātha and Annapūrṇā. Those who die here, it is said, attain liberation directly.

Liṅga

"Mark, sign." The aniconic emblem of Śiva — a vertical column rising from the yoni-pīṭha. Not phallic but cosmogonic: the axis of manifestation.

Līlā

Divine play · cosmic sport. All of creation is Śiva's līlā — serious without being solemn, a game played for its own delight.

Lalitā

"The playful one." Lalitā Tripurasundarī — the supreme goddess of the Śrī Vidyā lineage, seated on the Śrī Cakra.

Mahāvidyā

"Great wisdom." The ten Tantric goddesses who emerged when Satī revealed Her cosmic form to Śiva at Dakṣa's house.

Mantra

"Instrument of mind." A sound-form charged with consciousness — repeated, it tunes the speaker to the deity it names. The Pañcākṣarī namaḥ śivāya is the great Śaiva mantra.

Mārkaṇḍeya

A young devotee fated to die at sixteen. Embracing the Śiva-liṅga, he was saved when Mṛtyuñjaya kicked aside Yama's noose. Forever sixteen, forever singing.

Māyā

The power of appearance that conceals the One as the many. Not illusion in the sense of "unreal" — the real seen wrongly.

Mokṣa

Liberation · release from the wheel of saṁsāra. The fourth and final goal of human life (puruṣārtha).

Mauna

Silence as a teaching. The voice of Dakṣiṇāmūrti and the inner sanctum of Cidambaram. Where words end, the Lord begins.

Mṛtyuñjaya

"Victor over death." Form invoked by the Mahā-mṛtyuñjaya mantra of the Ṛgveda — the great mantra of healing and longevity.

Nandi

"The joyful one." The white bull who is Śiva's vāhana and foremost devotee. Sits facing the liṅga in every Śiva temple.

Naṭarāja

"King of dancers." Śiva in His most iconic four-armed dancing form — drum, fire, abhaya, gajahasta — within a ring of flame at Cidambaram.

Nīlakaṇṭha

"Blue-throated." The name Śiva earned when He held the hālāhala poison in His throat — turning it forever blue.

Nirguṇa

"Without qualities." Brahman beyond every attribute. The Liṅga is worshipped as nirguṇa Śiva; the murti as saguṇa.

Oṁ (Praṇava)

The primordial syllable, made of a-u-m. The seed of every mantra. Omkāreśvara is the jyotirliṅga where the river itself flows in the shape of Om.

Pañcakṛtya

The five acts of Śiva: Sṛṣṭi (creation), Sthiti (preservation), Saṁhāra (dissolution), Tirobhāva (veiling), Anugraha (grace). The Trimūrti's three plus two.

Pañcānana

"Five-faced." Sadāśiva with five faces: Sadyojāta (W), Vāmadeva (N), Aghora (S), Tatpuruṣa (E), Īśāna (zenith).

Pārvatī

"Daughter of the Mountain." Himavān's daughter, Satī reborn, Śiva's eternal consort, mother of Gaṇeśa and Kārtikeya.

Prakṛti

"Nature." The unconscious material principle that, in union with Puruṣa (consciousness), produces all manifestation.

Prema

Selfless love · the love that asks nothing, the bond between Śiva and Pārvatī that holds the cosmos in tension.

Purāṇa

"Ancient lore." A class of Sanskrit narrative scripture. There are eighteen Mahāpurāṇas; the Śiva Mahāpurāṇa is the source of this codex.

Puruṣa

"Person." The pure conscious witness, paired with Prakṛti. In Śaivism, Sadāśiva is the supreme Puruṣa.

Rudra

"The Howler." The Vedic name for Śiva — the storm-god of the Ṛgveda whose Śatarudrīya hymn is still chanted in every abhiṣeka.

Raktabīja

"Blood-seed." The asura whose every drop of fallen blood spawned another like him — until Kālī drank them from the air.

Rudrākṣa

"Rudra's eye." The seed of Elaeocarpus ganitrus, said to be tears wept by Śiva. Worn as a mālā for japa and protection.

Sadāśiva

"Ever-auspicious." The supreme tattva in Śaiva Siddhānta — Śiva in His fivefold cosmic body before manifestation.

Śakti

Energy, power, the feminine principle. Inseparable from Śiva — without Her, Śiva is shava (a corpse). She is the action; He is the awareness.

Śiva

"The auspicious one." The Lord of dissolution and grace, of yoga and of love. The Mahādeva — great god of the Trimūrti.

Satī

Dakṣa's daughter, Śiva's first wife. Self-immolated at her father's yajña; her body parts fell across Bhārat as the Śakti Peeṭhas. Reborn as Pārvatī.

Saṁsāra

"Flowing together." The endless round of birth, death, and rebirth driven by karma. Mokṣa is its cessation.

Saṁhāra

"Drawing-in." Dissolution — the third of Śiva's Pañcakṛtya. Not destruction but reabsorption into the source.

Sat-Cit-Ānanda

Being-Consciousness-Bliss · the three inseparable attributes by which Vedānta describes Brahman.

Śivarātri

"The night of Śiva." Mahāśivarātri — the chaturdaśī of Kṛṣṇa-pakṣa in Phālguna — when devotees keep vigil, fast, and chant through four prahara.

Śloka

A Sanskrit verse — usually a couplet of 32 syllables. The verses of the day on the home page are ślokas drawn from the Mahāpurāṇa.

Tāṇḍava

The cosmic dance of Śiva. There are seven canonical Tāṇḍavas — from the joyful Ānanda to the wrathful Saṁhāra. The dance by which the worlds rise and fall.

Tantra

"Loom · weave." A class of post-Vedic scripture revealed by Śiva to Pārvatī, centred on śakti, mantra, yantra, and the path of integration rather than renunciation.

Tapas

"Heat." Voluntary austerity that refines. Pārvatī's tapasyā, standing on one toe surrounded by five fires, won Her Śiva as husband.

Tat Tvam Asi

"That thou art." One of the four Mahāvākyas of the Upaniṣads. The Self that you are is the very Brahman that is the All.

Tirobhāva

"Veiling." The fourth of Śiva's Pañcakṛtya — the act of concealment that creates the very possibility of seeking.

Trimūrti

The three-formed One: Brahmā (creator), Viṣṇu (preserver), Śiva (dissolver). Three breaths of a single life.

Triśūla

The trident of Śiva. Three prongs: the three guṇas, the three times, the three worlds — all held in His single hand.

Upaniṣad

"Sitting near." The mystical end-portion of the Vedas. The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad is the great early Śaiva text.

Umā

"O do not!" — the cry of Pārvatī's mother begging Her to stop Her tapasyā. The name stuck. Umā is one of the most beloved names of the Mother.

Vāhana

"Vehicle." The animal mount of a deity. Śiva's is Nandi; Pārvatī's the lion; Gaṇeśa's the mouse; Kārtikeya's the peacock.

Veda

"Knowledge." The four eternal scriptures heard by the ancient ṛṣis. The Śatarudrīya hymn of the Yajurveda is the Vedic root of Śaivism.

Vibhūti

Sacred ash worn in three horizontal lines on the forehead. Marks the wearer as one who remembers death — and so lives free.

Vīrabhadra

"The auspicious hero." Born from a single matted lock of Śiva flung to the ground. Destroyer of Dakṣa's yajña; first of the 19 Rudra-avatāras.

Viṣṇu

The preserver of the Trimūrti. The blue-skinned lord of Vaikuṇṭha, reclining on Ananta-Śeṣa, who in Mohinī form once tricked Bhasmāsura and birthed Ayyappa with Śiva.

Vṛndā

Wife of the asura Jalandhara, whose pātivratya made him invincible — until Viṣṇu wore Her husband's form. Reborn as the sacred Tulasī plant.

Yajña

Sacred fire-ritual · the Vedic centre of cosmic order. Dakṣa's yajña was the one Śiva was not invited to — and the one Vīrabhadra destroyed.

Yoga

"Union." The science and art of joining the individual to the universal. Śiva is Ādiyogī — the first transmitter of yoga.

Yoginī

A female adept; in Tantra, one of the 64 śakti-attendants of the Mother. The Sixty-Four Yoginī temples (Hirapur, Khajuraho) still stand.