Key Takeaways
- The eleven Rudras
- Kapali, and why that name carries weight
- The nineteen avatars
- The great forms, which are not avatars
In This Article
Three different lists get called “the avatars of Shiva” and they are not the same thing. The eleven Rudras are emanations named in the Shiva Purana and the Matsya Purana. The nineteen avatars are a separate enumeration in the Shiva Purana, and include Hanuman. And forms like Nataraja and Ardhanarishvara are neither — they are aspects in which Shiva is depicted, not descents into the world. This page keeps the three apart, because mixing them is what makes most accounts of this confusing.
The eleven Rudras
The Ekadasha Rudras appear in the Shata-Rudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana and again in the Matsya Purana. They are described as governing the vital breaths and the forces of dissolution — fierce and restorative at once, which is the characteristic Rudra combination. Names vary between Puranas; this is the list the Matsya Purana gives.
| Rudra | The name means | What this form carries |
|---|---|---|
| Kapali | Skull-bearer | The ascetic who has passed beyond fear of death and its symbols. The most iconographically distinct of the eleven |
| Pingal | Tawny, golden | Associated with the ordering rhythm underneath things, and with the sun’s colour |
| Bheem | The terrible | Overwhelming force, invoked where something must be broken rather than negotiated with |
| Virupaksha | Odd-eyed | The third eye, and perception that is not bound to the ordinary two |
| Vilohita | Deep red | The colour of the storm at dusk, and of the life force |
| Shasta | The ruler, the teacher | Shiva as the source of instruction and restraint |
| Ajapad | The unborn-footed | One who stands without support — the self-existent |
| Ahirbudhnya | Serpent of the deep | The oldest of the eleven, named in the Vedas, dwelling at the base of things |
| Shambhu | Source of wellbeing | The benign aspect, and the name most used in ordinary prayer |
| Chanda | Fierce, burning | Heat and wrath, directed |
| Bhava | Existence itself | Shiva as the ground from which being arises |
Kapali, and why that name carries weight
More readers arrive looking for Kapali than for any other single name on this page, and it is the one worth dwelling on. Kapala is a skull; Kapali is the one who bears it.
The image is not about death as horror. In the Shaiva reading the skull is what remains when everything contingent has gone — the ornament of someone who has stopped pretending the body is permanent. Shiva as Kapali is the renunciate who has walked through the cremation ground and come out the other side unafraid, which is why the ash-smeared ascetics of Kashi take him as their own. The Kapalika tradition took its name from this form.
For a family arriving in Varanasi after a death, the connection is not abstract. The city’s whole relationship with dying rests on this: that the thing everyone else flees is where Shiva is already standing.
The nineteen avatars
A separate enumeration, and the one meant when the Shiva Purana speaks of avatars proper — descents with a story and a purpose attached to each.
| Avatar | Form | Why he came |
|---|---|---|
| Piplaad | Sage | Born to Dadhichi, and the avatar associated with relief from Shani’s affliction |
| Nandi | Bull | The gatekeeper of Kailash, and Shiva’s own vehicle and foremost devotee |
| Veerbhadra | Warrior | Created from Shiva’s matted locks to destroy Daksha’s yajna after Sati’s death |
| Sharabha | Part lion, part bird | Taken to subdue Narasimha when his fury would not subside |
| Ashwatthama | Warrior | The Mahabharata figure, held to carry a portion of Shiva and to be deathless |
| Bhairava | Fierce | The terrifying form, and the guardian of Kashi |
| Durvasa | Sage | Born to Atri and Anasuya. Famous for a temper that moved events |
| Grihapati | Child | Born to Vishwanar, and connected with protection from untimely death by fire |
| Hanuman | Vanara | The Shiva Purana counts him here, which surprises people who know him only through the Ramayana |
| Vrishabha | Bull | Taken in the netherworld, to end the line of Vishnu’s sons born there |
| Yatinath | Ascetic guest | Came as a guest to test the hospitality of a tribal devotee and his wife |
| Krishna Darshan | Householder | Taken to establish the importance of yajna and the rites of the householder |
| Bhikshu Arya | Mendicant | The begging ascetic, taken to protect devotees in distress |
| Sureshwar | Boy | Appeared to test the devotion of Upamanyu as a child |
| Kirateshwar | Hunter | Met Arjuna as a tribal hunter and granted him the Pashupatastra |
| Suntantarka | Dancer | Came as a performer to ask for Parvati’s hand from Himavan |
| Brahmachari | Student | Came to Parvati during her austerities, to test her resolve |
| Yaksheshwar | Yaksha | Appeared to humble the devas after their victory over the asuras |
| Avadhut | Renunciate | Came to curb Indra’s pride |
The great forms, which are not avatars
These are how Shiva is depicted and worshipped rather than descents he made, and treating them as avatars is the most common error in popular accounts.
- Nataraja — the lord of dance, in the ring of fire, one foot on the demon of forgetfulness. The tandava is creation and dissolution held in the same movement. An iconographic form, perfected in the bronzes of the Chola period, not a birth.
- Ardhanarishvara — half Shiva, half Parvati in one body, divided down the centre. The form exists to say that the masculine and feminine principles are not two things in opposition but one thing seen from either side.
- Rudra — the Vedic name, older than most of the material on this page, and the one the Rigveda uses. Rudra is not a form Shiva took; Rudra is who he was called before the name Shiva became usual.
- Bhairava — sits in both lists, which is why it causes trouble. The Shiva Purana counts him among the nineteen avatars, and he is also worshipped as a standing form with his own temples, especially at Kashi.
Where these forms are worshipped
Kashi Vishwanath at Varanasi for Shiva as the lord of the cremation ground and of liberation — Kapali and Bhairava belong to this city more than anywhere. Mahakaleshwar at Ujjain for Shiva as Mahakala, time itself, and the only jyotirlinga facing south. Trimbakeshwar near Nashik, at the source of the Godavari, for the ancestral and serpent rites. The full set is in the twelve jyotirlingas.
Shiva in the ancestral and serpent rites
The practical reason families reach this page from our site is usually a jyotishi’s reading. Shiva is the deity invoked in two of the remedies that come up most, and it is worth knowing which is which.
| Rite | From | When it is prescribed |
|---|---|---|
| Rudrabhishek | ₹5,100 | The general Shiva abhishek, for obstacles, health and a new undertaking. The lightest of the three and the one most often enough |
| Kaal Sarp Dosh puja | ₹11,000 | Where all planets fall between Rahu and Ketu in the chart. Performed at Trimbakeshwar or Ujjain — see the complete guide first |
| Mahamrityunjay Jaap | ₹31,000 | The death-conquering mantra, for serious illness or a reading of danger to life. The heaviest, and not to be bought casually |
🕉️ Rudrabhishek at Har Ki Pauri
- Full abhishek with panchamrit, bilva and the Rudri path
- Performed at Haridwar, Varanasi, Ujjain or Trimbakeshwar
- We will tell you honestly if a lighter rite is what your reading calls for
- Live video link and a written record for families abroad
If someone has told you that a Shiva remedy will resolve an ancestral problem, it is worth checking which problem they mean — kaal sarp and pitra dosh are different things with different rites, and the Narayan Nagbali guide covers the case where a serpent was killed in the family line. A mangal dosha reading calls for something different again. Send us the chart detail and a pandit will say which, including when the answer is none of them.
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