The Presence of Siva / / S. Kramrisch.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton eBook Package Archive 1931-1999
• VerfasserIn: Kramrisch, S.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2021]; ©1981
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology ; 141
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (560 p.)

One of the three great gods of Hinduism, Siva is a living god. The most sacred and most ancient book of India, The Rg Veda, evokes his presence in its hymns; Vedic myths, rituals, and even astronomy testify to his existence from the dawn of time. In a lively meditation on Siva--based on original Sanskrit texts, many translated here for the first time--Stella Kramrisch ponders the metaphysics, ontology, and myths of Siva from the Vedas and the Puranas. Who is Siva? Who is this god whose being comprises and transcends everything? From the dawn of creation, the Wild God, the Great Yogi, the sum of all opposites, has been guardian of the absolute. By retelling and interweaving the many myths that keep Siva alive in India today, Kramrisch reveals the paradoxes in Siva's nature and thus in the nature of consciousness itself.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- The Presence of Siva -- I. THE PRIMORDIAL SCENE -- II. THE ARCHER -- III. VASTOSPATI, THE LORD OF THE DWELLING -- IV. MANIFESTATIONS AND REALIZATIONS OF RUDRA -- V. THE BIRTH OF RUDRA -- VI. THE REFUSAL TO PROCREATE AND THE ENCOUNTERS WITH DEATH -- VII. LINGA -- VIII. THE ANDROGYNE GOD -- IX. BHAIRAVA -- X. THE FAMILY OF SIVA -- XL T H E DEMONS -- XII. THE PRESENCE OF SIVA -- APPENDIX. THE GREAT CAVE TEMPLE OF SIVA ON THE ISLAND OF ELEPHANTA -- Glossary -- Abbreviations -- Bibliography -- Index of Themes -- Plates