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by Richard Stoney
An essay showing similarities between two
"different" goddesses, but with a unique
twist why their names both mean
"living".
These are the three main elements to this
essay:
Siva, a Slavic goddess. Her name means
"living, being, existing." She is is also
known as Siwa, pronounced "sheeva" in
modern Polish; she was worshipped in
Poland, Czechoslavakia, East Germany.
Also known as Russian Zhiva/Z'iva, Polabi
Zhywie and Slovak Zivena. Even other
forms of her name are Sivve, Shiwa, Sieba, Syeba, Siba and Dsiva
(Znayenko,
pp. 75, 220). With regards to the
etymology of her name, “some
scholars associate the name with
Dlugosz’s Zywye, others with the
Indian SHIWA, [sic] god of life, still
others with SIVA, 'grey'”.
Bhavani, Hindu goddess. Her name means
"coming into being, existence" < Skt.
BHAVA < BHU, "to be, exist, live".
Shiva, "Auspicious" Hindu god; third
member of the Hindu triad with Brahma and
Vishnu. He is aso known as Ardhanarishvara, "Androgynous Lord", who
is half-Shiva, half-female/half-shakti.
The interesting aspect of this is that in
Bengal and Assam, they do use Shiba as a
name for Shiva; both areas also happen to
have been strong centers of Shakti
worship.
The purpose of this article is to point
out the close similarities between
Bhavani and Siva. But here is the
critical, compelling element/factor
joining the two. Bhavani is one of Shiva's Shakti. The Sanskrit word shakti means
"power", but it can also be used as "the
meaning of words." (Monier-Williams, p.
1044). Therefore as Shakti of Shiva, Bhavani
has the meaning of Siva.
Similarities between
Bhavani and Siva.
Both Siva and Bhavani are goddesses of
life, offspring production and fertility. There is another similarity between Siva
and Bhavani: “In pagan
worship…Friday was sacred to the
goddess [Siva] of the Western
Slavs.” (Hubbs, p. 117). There are
stories of the twelve Fridays, which
“provided protection from some
specific evil—fire, sickness,
flood, and so forth” (Ibid). In the
case of Bhava’ni’, she is
known as Sankata’ Devi’,
“Goddess of Dangers”, for she
is the one who vanquishes dangers for her
devotees with celebrations taking place
on Fridays in Benares (Eck, pp. 168-9).
In Slovakia, the equivalent to Siva is
life-goddess Zivena, who is counterposed
with chief god Praboh (Jones and Pennick,
p. 187). His name means “(original)
primitive god” (Konus, p. 906).
Compare these interrelated Sanskrit
words:
PRA- (prefix): "before, in front", and
therefore, "first, original"; BHU, #1
BHU', #2 BHU': "becoming, being,
produced, live". All are the root words
of BHAVA/BHAVANI
---PRA-BHU*, “excelling, powerful,
lord”, a name of Shiva. The name
itself means “before-living”,
in other words, “original
God”. It obtains the concept of
“excelling, powerful” exactly
in the same way that Eng. PRIME implies
“the best”.
---PRA-BHU/PRA-[root]BHU’, -BHAVATI, “originate from, be
powerful/master.”
---PRA-BHAVA*, “excelling,
production, origin, Creator
(“might,
power”=PRA-BHA’VA) (Monier-Williams).
A picture of Siva shows her with a
sun-disk behind her head (admittedly, not
an unusual occurrence for ancient
deities). And there is mention of Siwa/Syuna, a goddess of the Polabi
(Hastings, vol. 11, p. 594). According to
one source, etymology about this word is
confusing at best, but consider [?] Skt.
SYU’NA, “ray of light, sun.
The following deals with Zhiva:
“..…There persisted another
religious rite more closely related to
Procopius’s account of the
veneration of nymphs. This religion
appears to have had no organized
priesthood. It revolved around the
goddess called Zhiva … by the Elbe
Slavs…The ceremonies were
performed by the whole community in the
depths of the forests [like the
Baiga’ and Savara’s of
Northern India, who believe fully in
forest spirits. (Hastings, vol. 2, p.
333; vol. 7, p. 214}] and in places where
land and water met. (Hubbs, pp.12-13).
“Chroniclers, who confirm
Procopius’s earlier observations,
refer to the river, lake, and forest
nymphs as BEREGINY” (from BEREGINA,
“earth, shore”). BEREGINY
represent the fertility goddesses (Ibid,
pp.14-15).
The role of diety of guardianship/family/
household is shared by
Bhava’ni’, Prabha’ and
the BEREGINY (Kinsley, pp. 109 and 110;
Ann and Imel. p. 291; Hubbs, p. 13).
In a similar vein, Shiva-Bhava is the
“presiding diety of the
waters” (Gupta, p.15).
Bana’ras/Benares, known as
Shiva’s City, is referred to as the
center of Earth, “this
shore,” on the Ganges River and is
an embodiment of the goddess
Ka’shi’ (“shining,
sun”. Cf. Hebrew names Ziva or Zivah, “shining, radiant”).
Kashi is a counterpart to
Bhava’ni’ and is a shakti of
Shiva (Eck, pp.159, 418).
Ka’shi’ is said to sit above
the earth as a “crossing
place” between earth and the
“far shore” of the
transcendant Brahman. (Eck, pp. 6, 35).
It is said that, when one dies, Shiva
whispers the "ferryboat mantra", or
mantra of the crossing (Eck, p. 331).
This compares with Slavic concepts of the
dead traveling across an ocean with a
“conductor” to guide the
deceased. Likewise, the Slavic Siva is
connected with the life/death cycle. (Ann
and Imel, p. 73).
Compare Slavic SHIVAYA/ZHIVAYA VODA
(various sources give different
spellings), “living water”,
which brings dead people back to life;
and MERTVAYA VODA, “dying
water”, which makes a living person
dead (Professor A. Babyonyshev, email).
The “dying water” heals all
wounds on the corpse of the deceased, and
then the sprinkling of “living
water” bring it to life.
And in the Kanjar tribe,
Bhava’ni’ is worshipped along
with the goddess Prabha’,
“light” (Hastings, vol. 7,
p.653). This word is associated with a
sun-disk (Monier-Williams, p. 683). The
Kanjar use a protector-exorcist called a
SYA’NA’ (“wise
one”) to propitiate bad spirits
(Hastings, vol. 7, p. 653). Neither the
Kanjar nor the followers of Siva had any
formal priesthood (Hubbs, pp. 13, 14;
Hastings, vol. 7, p. 652).
There is a tale in which Zhiva falls in
love with Dazhdbog, “the god who
gives well-being” (Gutkin). Like
Shiva, he is god of prosperity and
wealth. (Jobes, vol. 1, p. 420; Smith,
p.158). In the end, they “accept
the gold wreath and get married. So that
is how Russians appeared, and
that’s why they are called his
grandchildren” (Naoumov).
Similarly, “in the
Chhatti’sgarh District, the Baiga
worship centers around the
Du’lha’ Deo, the deified
bridegroom god and Devi’, the
Mother-Goddess, in her manifestation as
Bhavani” (Hastings, vol. 2, p.
333).
Dazhdbog is the third member of the
Kievan pantheon, while Shiva occupies the
same position in the Hindu triad. And
there is a picture which shows, in order
from the left, Prono, Ridegast and Siva.
In some mythology, Slav Svarog is the
supreme god, and since he created the
living Universe (Naoumov), he could be
considered the “original
god”. He had a son, Perun, who then
had a son, Dazhdbog. That would make
Dazhdbog the grandson of the Original
God. However, according to one mythology,
Perun is top god, so that would make
Dazhdbog “Son of the Original
God”. Similarly in another myth,
“in old chronicles, Daz^bog is
termed ‘Czar Sun’ and
‘Son of Svarog’” This
would make him the son of the Original
God who is married to Zhiva/Siva
(MYTHOLOGY OF ALL RACES, vol. 3, p.297).
Meanwhile on the Hindu side of the
equation, Bhava’ni’ is
worshipped by the Baiga with
Na’ra’yan Deo (Hastings, p.
333)(cf. Skt. Na’ra’yana,
“son of the original god”
from Skt. NARA, "primeval Man or eternal
Spirit pervading the Universe"; he is
always associated with Na'ra'yana. Both
are considered as gods [Monier-Williams,
pp. 528-9, 536]). He is a sun-god, like Dazhdbog, but I am not aware of whether
he is actually married to Bhavani.
There is mention of a Polish god, Zivalo
(Hastings, vol. XI, p. 593). Could he be
a male counterpart to Siva, just as Bhava
corresponds to Bhavani?
Here is some information about Bhavani in
her role as Annapurna: "On the eleventh
day of each fortnight, when the giving of
alms is especially prescribed, one will
hear [elderly people] at the doors of
Banaras households, calling to the mother
of the house..., "Mother, give me food."
(Eck, p. 161). Similarly, Naumov explains
the meaning of Dazhdbog's name: "There is
one version of Yuri Miroliubov that I
personally support. The word is a complex
conglomerate of the two. Listen:
Dazhdbog--->Dazhdbo--->Dai
Bo--->Dai Bog. The final two are in
English 'Give me, God'". The connection
between Bhavani and Dazhdbog is weak in
this case, but I am including it just for
the record.
Also, the Kanjar wandered around in
gangs, supporting themselves by theft and
highway robbery (Hastings, vol. 7, p.
652). Bhavani was also worshipped by The
Thugs of India. The Thugs were assassins
and robbers, whose victims were
“always taken unawares from
behind”. They formed their own
organizations and held responsible
positions in government (Walker, vol. 2,
pp.501-2). (cf. Slang SHIEVER,
“double-crosser”. Quote:
“The worst thing you can call a
crook is a shiever”; Ger.
SCHIEBERTUM and SCHIEBUNG,
“corruption, graft, dirty
politicians”; Ger. SCHIEBEN,
“act corruptly”;
CHIVE-FENCER,
“murder-protector” (Wentworth
and Flexner, p. 466) or
“criminal-protector”
(Partridge, p. 149); CHIVING-LAY,
“robbing the rear of a coach by
cutting” (this final word may
actually derived from CHIV/SHIV,
“knife.”).
Interestingly enough, the Polabi
worshipped a goddess named Svantovit on
the island of Rugen/Rungen in the Baltic,
where there is a mention of armed
military men who were pirates. There is a
statue of Svantovit which mirrors that of
a Tree of Life goddess found in northern
Russia and which is said t be similar to
statues of Scythians (=ancient Iranians).
This Shiva-like statue has four faces, is
phallic-like, has females breasts on one
side, and is associated with fertility
and warrior functions. (Hubbs, p. 12).
The high priest had long hair, longer
than was customary for the day (Hastings,
vol. XI, p. 593), while Shiva has hair
that is dishevelled/shieveld (see Oxford
English Dictionary). According to
http://www.waningmoon.com/guide/library/lib0019.html
(under "Slavic"), Dazhdbog was worshipped
as Svantovit during harvest. There have
been various interpretations of
Svantovit's name, the most common being
"Holy Light". But consider Skt. SV-ANTA,
"auspicious"; Slavic -OVIT, "son of." Son
of Auspicious?
According to at least one source, Slavs
are the only people among the European
nations with mythology based on
Indo-European and Indo-Iranian beliefs.
They are believed to be of Indo-European
stock, so there are many similarities
between Hindu and early Slavic worlds:
practice of cremation and belief in
reincarnation; karma, in which like
produces like; existence of vampires,
phallic deities plus polycephalous gods
in their mythologies; having the sun
represented by Sanskrit SU'RYA and Slavic ZORYA; and the use of waving iron to
drive away demons. Also, women played an
important part in religious ceremonies.
There is mention of early Slavs being
leery of the wind; in their heaven, there
are no cold winds. Compare that with the
fact that Hindu “heaven”,
Nirvana, means “no wind”. In
the end, both the Slavs and Hindus
basically believed in one god but
accepted the smaller gods as viable
(henotheism). Admittedly, however, many
of these concepts are characteristic of
many other ancient ethnic groups.
Sources
Ann, Martha, And Imel, Dorothy Myers. Goddesses Of The World
Babyonyshev, A, Professor. Email)
Eck, Diana. Banaras City Of Lights
Gupta, Shakti M. FROM Daityas To Devatas In Hindu Mythology
Gutkin, Irina, Professor. Email
Hastings, James , Ed. Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics
Hubbs, Joanna. Mother Russia
Jobes, Gertrude. Dictionary Of Mythology, Folklore And Symbols
Jones, Prudence, And Pennick, Nigel. A History Of Pagan Europe
Kinsley, David. Hindu Goddesses
Konus, Jozef J. Slovak-English Phraseological Dictionary
Monier-Williams, Monier. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary
Naoumov, Sergei. "Dazhdbog’s Grandchildren", Sunsite.Unc.Edu/Sergei/Dazhdbog.Html
Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition
Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary Of Slang And Unconventional English
Ralston, W.R.S. The Songs Of The Russian People
Smith, David. The Dance Of S’iva
Walker, Benjamin. The Hindu World
Wentworth And Flexner. Dictionary Of American Slang
Znayenko, Myroslava. The Gods Of The Ancient Slavs
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Source:© 2000 and subsequent years.Richard
Stoney of Humboldt County, California, USA. No
part of this article shall be reproduced in any
manner either in part or in full without the prior
permission of its author.
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