Shiva to Shankara

Download or read book Shiva to Shankara written by Devdutt Pattanaik and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-04-10 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in times where people have extreme views. On the one hand, there are scholars who describe Shiva's linga literally as a phallus, and see all metaphoric meaning as embarrassed apology of the uneducated. On the other hand, we have puritanical Hindus who want to strip the Shiva linga of all sexual meaning and sanitize Shiva's lore. In both cases, a symbol is being reduced to a sign. In Shiva to Shankara, Devdutt Pattanaik, India's leading mythologist, seeks to bridge the gap. As he explores the layers of meanings embedded in Shiva's linga, we discover why and how the Goddess transforms Shiva, the hermit, into Shankara, the householder.