Ardhanarishvara- Hindu GodDeity"The Lord Who Is Half Woman"
Also known as: अर्धनारीश्वर, Ardhanārīśvara, Ardhanari, Naranārī, and Ammaiappan
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
Shiva and Parvati fused into a single body — the right half male, the left half female. When the sage Bhringi tried to worship only the Shiva half by boring through the center as a worm, Parvati cursed him to lose all flesh and blood, leaving him a skeleton that could not stand.
Mythology & Lore
The Form
One body, divided vertically. The right half is Shiva: matted hair, crescent moon above the ear, third eye open, a serpent coiled around the arm, the skin ash-white. The left half is Parvati: well-combed hair falling over a silk-draped shoulder, gold ornaments, saffron skin, a single feminine curve. Where the halves meet, the line runs straight down from crown to foot. There is no seam.
Brahma's Failure
The Shiva Purana tells how Brahma, tasked with creating the universe, found his creation could not sustain itself. He had made only male beings, and without the feminine principle nothing could reproduce. Brahma prayed to Shiva for help. Shiva appeared as Ardhanarishvara, and the female half separated from his body as the goddess. With her came the creative power that made ongoing generation possible. Brahma's creation filled the world.
Parvati's Desire
Another tradition presents the form as arising from Parvati's longing. Having performed severe austerities to win Shiva, having married him on Mount Kailash, she asked to be united so completely that no separation between them would remain. Shiva absorbed her into his own body. Two natures, one being.
Bhringi
The sage Bhringi was devoted exclusively to Shiva. He refused to acknowledge Parvati, would not bow to her, would not include her in his prayers. When Shiva merged with Parvati into the composite form to make worship of one without the other impossible, Bhringi transformed himself into a worm and bored through the center of the body to circumambulate only the Shiva half.
Parvati cursed him. She stripped all flesh and blood from his body, the maternal contributions to physical existence. What remained was a skeleton. It could not stand.
Shiva, in compassion, granted Bhringi a third leg so the bones could hold themselves upright. Bhringi stood, bare and rattling, a devotee who had gotten exactly what he asked for: Shiva without Shakti, consciousness without the flesh that gives it life.