Shiv-Mahima

Shiv-Mahima — 15 chapters, 150 questions. From several texts.

Shiva's stories are found whole in no single text, and the texts that tell them do not always agree. The Shiva Purana is the largest source; the Linga Purana, the Skanda Purana and the Kurma Purana each add their own parts. The Kirata episode is in the Mahabharata's Vana Parva, the lifting of Kailasa in the Ramayana. Some stories, like Lingodbhava, are openly Shaiva claims — Vaishnava texts tell them differently or not at all. This retelling says in every chapter which text its episode comes from, where the texts collide, and where the matter is only living tradition. The Tamil Shaiva stream — the Tevaram, the Periya Puranam — is a large separate current; where a story comes from there, that is said. The halahala-Neelkanth story, the Ganga held in his hair, and the axe given to Parashurama are already told on this site in Vishnu-Puran — they are not retold here, only pointed to.

The Pillar of Light — Two gods set out to find the two ends of one pillar, and a flower was made to lie
Daksha's Sacrifice — A father would not give his daughter's husband a place at the sacrifice, and the daughter gave up her body in that same assembly by the power of yoga
Virabhadra — Shiva tore a lock from his matted hair, and what rose from it pulled a whole sacrifice out by the roots
The Shakti Pithas — Shiva lifted Sati's body onto his shoulder and refused to set it down — so Vishnu began, quietly, to cut it away
The Third Eye — The gods sent the god of desire to wake want in Shiva's mind — and Shiva opened an eye and turned him to ash
Parvati's Penance — Kamadeva failed, so the daughter of the mountain took off her ornaments and went to that peak to do penance herself
Ganesha — Parvati made a son from her bathing paste, and that son stopped Shiva at the door of his own house
Kartikeya — The son Kamadeva burned for — neither fire could hold him, nor the Ganga; six Krittikas raised him
Tripurantaka — Three flying cities that only one arrow could destroy — and only when the three came into a single line
Bhasmasura — Shiva granted the boon without thinking, and the very next moment that boon moved toward his own head
Markandeya — A boy was destined to live only sixteen years — and in the sixteenth year he held the Shiva-linga tight
Nataraja — The proud sages of a forest sent a tiger, a snake and a dwarf against Shiva — and Shiva put all three on and began to dance
Ravana and Kailasa — Ravana tried to lift the mountain Shiva was seated on — and Shiva, without rising, pressed it down with the toe of one foot
Kirata — Arjuna shot an arrow at a boar, and in the same instant a wild hunter did too — then the two came to blows over whose kill it was
Ardhanarishvara — The Shiva who had burned Kamadeva is half Parvati in one body — the ascetic on the right, the goddess on the left