Talk:Shiva
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Page scope
The page covers Shiva as the god with whom cannabis is associated in Hindu worship: the names and attributes that tie him to the plant, the myths, the shrines where bhang, ganja and charas were and are offered, the Shaiva ascetic orders, paintings that show him with bhang, the dating of the association, and the law at his shrines. The general mythology and theology of Shiva are outside its scope. Cannabis in Hindu worship as a whole is covered on Cannabis in Hinduism; the festival on Maha Shivaratri; the preparations on Bhang, Ganja and Charas.
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Record source conflicts, dating problems and unresolved readings here. Keep narrative content on the article.
Discussion
Sources
- Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, vol. I, ch. IX (paras. 431–450, pp. 159–166) and its appendices by J. M. Campbell (vol. III, pp. 250–252) and G. A. Grierson (vol. III, pp. 246–249) are the evidence of the 1890s. Campbell's stories of Shiva and the plant were collected in western India; he names a text for only a few of them.
- Sarbacker (2026) is a study of psychoactive substances in the history of yoga; his points on the Ānandakanda, śivamūlī and "Gorak's Root" rest on Wujastyk, Sauthoff and David White.
- Briggs (1938) and Oman (1903) wrote about Hindu ascetics in missionary and colonial settings. Their characterisations of ascetics ("notorious as drug addicts", "habitual smokers") are their own and are quoted as theirs.
- Acharya et al. (2014) surveyed 200 sadhus at Pashupatinath during Shivaratri in February 2014. The figure for sadhus who said that Shiva had said cannabis should be used is 13.5 per cent in the results; the discussion rounds it to 14 per cent.
- The two pictures described in the section on painting are in the Victoria and Albert Museum (IM.2:217-1917 and IM.2:190-1917); the readings of them are the museum's catalogue entries. The lead painting's identification comes from its source page, which credits the Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba.
How old the association is
- The texts that join Shiva and the plant cited on the page date from the 12th or 13th century (the Ānandakanda) and about 1400 (Vidyāpati's hymn, in Grierson's account). The two Atharvaveda verses that name bhaṅga do not name Shiva, and their reading as cannabis is disputed (see Atharvaveda).
- O'Flaherty (1968) called the tradition that Shiva uses bhang a late characteristic of Bengal Śaivism. Hasan (1975) wrote that why Hindus associate hemp drugs with Shiva "is not clearly known".
- Sarbacker (2026) connects the Rigvedic hymn of the long-haired ascetic who drinks a poison with Rudra to the later Nīlakaṇṭha story, and suggests for it "perhaps even datura or aconite".
A woodcut with two descriptions
- A Sikh woodcut of about 1870 in the same Victoria and Albert Museum collection (IM.2:165-1917) is described by the museum as showing Shiva and Parvati preparing opium; an older description copied elsewhere says bhang. Because the two descriptions differ, the woodcut is not cited for bhang.