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One of the most important Hindu gods, Siva (or Shiva) is the destroyer, responsible for death and transformation. Whereas many gods are only worshipped in particular areas, Siva is worshipped across India.
Siva Quotes in Kanthapura
The Kanthapura quotes below are all either spoken by Siva or refer to Siva. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Section 1 Quotes
Sometimes people say to themselves, the Goddess of the River plays through the night with the Goddess of the Hill. Kenchamma is the mother of Himavathy. May the goddess bless us!
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Achakka personifies the Hill and River as goddesses, introducing her village’s two most important geographical landmarks and illustrating how the people of Kanthapura and their culture are deeply intertwined with their landscape. Kenchamma Hill shows the villagers that Kenchamma watches over the village because it is red on the spot where the goddess allegedly slew a demon, and the villagers explain the Himavathy River’s constant noise and motion by treating the river as another goddess. In both cases the villagers see their gods not as abstract entities governing humankind as a whole, but rather as entities embedded in the land Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occae
Siva himself will forthwith go and incarnate on the Earth and free my beloved daughter from her enforced slavery.
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After Moorthy hires the famous harikatha-man Jayaramachar to visit Kanthapura, Achakka paraphrases Jayaramachar’s discourse about a conversation between the creator god, Brahma, and a great sage who accuses Brahma of neglecting his daughter Bharatha (the traditional Sanskrit word for India) by allowing her to be colonized by the British. At this point in his story, Jayaramachar argues that the great transformer god Siva has been incarnated on Earth as Mahatma Gandhi at Brahma’s request. Equating Gandhi with Siva allows Moorthy’s movement to gain momentum, since it frames Gandhism’s demand for Indian independence (swaraj) within the villagers’ existing religious beliefs. Later Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. M
Section 11 Quotes
Changing he changes not,
Ash-smeared, he’s Parvati’s sire,
Moon on his head,
And poison in his throat,
Chant, chant, chant the name of Eesh,
Chant the name of Siva Lord!
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Although Moorthy had previously warned Advocate Sankar not to let the other villagers continue singing bhajans, “lest the police fall on them,” Rangamma, Vasudev, and Seenu nevertheless decide to restart them and first sing this song about the destroyer god, Lord Siva. All the villagers continue to worship Kenchamma throughout the book, but after Moorthy discovers the linga in the first section, the Gandhians shift toward specifically honoring Lord Siva. Kenchamma is a local goddess, but Siva is worshipped by Hindus across India, and the villagers’ increasing reverence for him demonstrates how they increasingly define their identity on a national Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempor
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Siva Term Timeline in Kanthapura
The timeline below shows where the term Siva appears in Kanthapura. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Section 1
One day, Moorthy found a “half-sunk” linga (an idol that represents Lord Siva) in Achakka’s backyard and convinced the other brahmins to clean and build a small shrine...
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...to incarnate a god on Earth to save “your enslaved daughter,” and Brahma promises that “Siva himself will forthwith go and incarnate on the Earth and free my beloved daughter from...
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Section 7
...filling the earth. He “falls prostrate before the god” and chants, “Sivoham, Sivoham. I am Siva. I am Siva. Siva am I.”
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Section 17
...encourages her to be patient and they take refuge in the temple, where they call Siva to protect them and make offerings to the god.
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...door. In the temple, they light the sacred flame and sing a bhajan for Lord Siva.
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...policemen and Moorthy and the Mahatma” before dozing off to sleep, but started to see Siva and suddenly awake in terror, waking one another up and banging on the temple door...
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Section 19
...even Waterfall Venkamma left town. Rangè Gowda prayed for blessings from Mother Kenchamma and Father Siva before leaving town, but admits that “my heart it beat like a drum.”
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