37yxxx As Maha Shivratri Marks End Of Kumbh 2025, A Look At The Complex Idea Of Shiva

　　As Maha Shivratri Marks End Of Kumbh 2025, A Look At The 'Shiva Complex' In Indian Politics| Photo: Outlook Archives/ PTI As Maha Shivratri Marks End Of Kumbh 2025, A Look At The 'Shiva Complex' In Indian Politics| Photo: Outlook Archives/ PTI

Maha Shivratri on February 26, 2025, marks the end of the 45-day Kumbh pilgrimage festival. With chants of "Har Har Mahadev," millions of devotees from across the country will take part in the final snan, marking an end to the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj.

The religious gathering takes place once in 12 years. This year, the Maha Kumbh saw grand processions of Naga Sadhus and three Amrit Snans involving around 60 crore pilgrims.

The festival of Maha Shivratri marks the wedding of Shiva and Parvati, Shiva's performance of the Tandava dance, and the conquest of enemies.

Shiva is a complex concept. The Hindu god is both benign and destructive, hermit and householder, Brahminical and subaltern—and difficult to appropriate. We delved into this complexity in depth in Outlook's 2022 Issue 'Recasting Shiva'.

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In an interview with India Today, renowned actor Swastika Mukherjee, who has been actively taking part in the protests, said, “I don’t think anyone who has heard the victim’s parents speak,betef or seen them, could celebrate puja with the usual excitement and vigour. Every year, we look forward to what we’ll wear, where we’ll go pandal-hopping, what we’ll eat, and which friends are visiting. But this year, all that excitement feels lost. I’m sure people will still visit the pandals, but the spirit of celebration won’t be the same.”

Devdutt Pattanaik talks about how the Hindu God has been reimagined. In "Shiva In Mythology: Let’s Reimagine The Lord", Pattanaik writes - "We forget that Shiva is present in both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, crushing the arrogance of Ravan and humbling the privileged Arjun. This cannot be explained historically."

Ganeshwar, a PhD Scholar from Hyderabad University writes about how a Dravidian Discourse of Shiva serves as the antidote to Hindu Nationalism.

Shiva is also seen as a deity of the Dalits. However, as per Y.S Alone, in 'Shiva: Not A God Of The Subaltern Communities', the idea that Shiva is the god of Dalits and Adivasis is inaccurate due to their exclusion from spaces of worship and Hindu rituals.

To read other articles in this issue37yxxx, click here.