the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
RAID 5+1: Mirror a set of RAID 5: In a situations where the RAID is made of six disks, any three can fail (without data being lost).
RAID 6+0: Stripe several RAID 6 arrays over a RAID 0; Two disks of each RAID 6 can fail without data loss.
With six disks of 300 GB each, a total capacity of 1.8TB, it is possible to make a RAID 5, with 1.5 TB usable space.
In that array, one disk can fail without data loss.
With RAID 50, the space is reduced to 1.2 TB, but one disk of each RAID 5 can fail, plus there is a noticeable increase in performance.
RAID 51 reduces the usable size to 900 GB, but allows any three drives to fail.
Making a RAID
There are different ways to make a RAID.
It can either be done with software, or with hardware.
Software RAID
A  RAID can be made with software in two different ways.
In the case of Software RAID, the disks are connected like normal hard disks.
It is the computer that makes the RAID work.
This means that for each access the CPU also needs to do the calculations for the RAID.
The calculations for RAID 0 or RAID 1 are simple.
However, the calculations for  RAID 5, RAID 6, or one of the combined RAID levels can be a lot of work.
In a software RAID, automatically booting from an array that failed may be a difficult thing to do.
Finally, the way RAID is done in software depends on the operating system used; it is generally not possible to re-build a Software RAID array with a different operating system.
Operating systems usually use hard disk partitions rather than whole hard disks to make RAID arrays.
Hardware RAID
A RAID can also be made with hardware.
In this case, a special disk controller is used; this controller card hides the fact that it is doing RAID from the operating system and the user.
The calculations of checksum information, and other RAID-related calculations are done on a special microchip in that controller.
This makes the RAID independent of the operating system.
The operating system will not see the RAID, it will see a single disk.
Different manufacturers do RAID in different ways.
This means that a RAID built with one hardware RAID controller cannot be rebuilt by another RAID controller of a different manufacturer.
Hardware RAID controllers are often expensive to buy.
Hardware-assisted RAID
This is a mix between hardware RAID and software RAID.
Hardware-assisted RAID uses a special controller chip (like hardware RAID), but this chip can not do many operations.
It is only active when the system is started; as soon as the operating system is fully loaded, this configuration is like software RAID.
Some motherboards have RAID functions for the disks attached; most often, these RAID functions are done as hardware-assisted RAID.
This means that special software is needed to be able to use these RAID functions and to be able to recover from a failed disk.
Different terms related to hardware failures
The failure rate is how often a system fails.
The mean time to failure (MTTF) or mean time between  failures (MTBF) of a RAID system is the same as that of its components.
A RAID system cannot protect against failures of its individual hard drives, after all.
The more complicated types of RAID (anything beyond "striping" or "concatenation") can help keep the data intact even if an individual hard drive fails, though.
Mean time to data loss
The mean time to data loss (MTTDL) gives the average time before a loss of data happens in a given array.
Mean time to data loss of a given RAID may be higher or lower than that of its hard disks.
This depends on the type of RAID used.
Mean time to recovery
Arrays that have redundancy can recover from some failures.
The mean time to recovery shows how long it takes until a failed array is back to its normal state.
This adds both the time to replace a failed disk mechanism as well as time to re-build the array (i.e. to replicate data for redundancy).
Unrecoverable bit error rate
The unrecoverable bit error rate (UBE) tells how long a disk drive will be unable to recover data after using cyclic redundancy check (CRC) codes and multiple retries.
Problems with RAID
Adding disks at a later time
Certain RAID levels allow to extend the array by simply adding hard disks, at a later time.
Information such as parity blocks is often scattered on several disks.
Adding a disk to the array means that a reorganisation becomes necessary.
Such a reorganisation is like a re-build of the array, it can take a long time.
When this is done, the additional space may not be available yet, because both the file system on the array, and the operating system need to be told about it.
Some file systems do not support to be grown after they have been created.
In such a case, all the data needs to be backed up, the array needs be re-created with the new layout, and the data needs to be restored onto it.
Another option to add storage is to create a new array, and to let a logical volume manager handle the situation.
This allows to grow almost any RAID system, even RAID1 (which by itself is limited to two disks).
Linked failures
The error correction mechanism in RAID assumes that failures of drives are independent.
It is possible to calculate how often a piece of equipment can fail and to arrange the array to make data loss very improbable.
In practice, however, the drives were often bought together.
They have roughly the same age, and have been used similarly (called wear).
Many drives fail because of mechanical problems.
The older a drive is, the more worn are its mechanical parts.
Mechanical parts that are old are more likely to fail than those that are younger.
This means that drive failures are no longer statistically independent.
In practice, there is a chance that a second disk will also fail before the first has been recovered.
This means that data loss can occur at significant rates, in practice.
Another problem that also occurs with RAID systems is that applications expect what is called Atomicity: Either all of the data is written, or none is.
Writing the data is known as a transaction.
In RAID arrays, the new data is usually written in the place where the old data was.
This has become known as update in-place.
Jim Gray, a database researcher wrote a paper in 1981 where he described this problem.
Very few storage systems allow atomic write semantics.
When an object is written to disk, a RAID storage device will usually be writing all copies of the object in parallel.
Very often, there is only one processor responsible for writing the data.
In such a case, the writes of data to the different drives will overlap.
This is known as overlapped write or staggered write.
An error that occurs during the process of writing may therefore leave the redundant copies in different states.
What is worse, it may leave the copies in neither the old nor the new state.
Logging relies on the original data being either in the old or the new state, though.
This permits backing out the logical change, but few storage systems provide an atomic write semantic on a RAID disk.
Transactional support is not present in all hardware RAID controllers.
Therefore, many operating systems include it to protect against data loss during an interrupted write.
Novell Netware, starting with version 3.x, included a transaction tracking system.
Microsoft introduced transaction tracking via the journaling feature in NTFS.
NetApp WAFL file system solves it by never updating the data in place, as does ZFS.
Unrecoverable data
Some sectors on a hard disk may have become unreadable because of a mistake.
Some RAID implementations can deal with this situation by moving the data elsewhere and marking the sector on the disk as bad.
This happens at about 1 bit in 1015 in enterprise-class disk drives, and 1 bit in 1014 in ordinary disk drives.
Disk capacities are steadily increasing.
This may mean that sometimes, a RAID cannot be rebuilt, because such an error is found when the array is rebuilt after a disk failure.
Certain technologies such as RAID 6 try to address this issue, but they suffer from a very high write penalty, in other words writing data becomes very slow.
Write cache reliability
The disk system can acknowledge the write operation as soon as the data is in the cache.
It does not need to wait until the data has been physically written.
However, any power outage can then mean a significant data loss of any data queued in such a cache.
With hardware RAID, a battery can be used to protect this cache.
This often solves the problem.
When the power fails, the controller can finish writing the cache when the power is back.
This solution can still fail, though: the battery may have worn out, the power may have been off for too long, the disks could be moved to another controller, the controller itself could fail.
Certain systems can do periodic battery checks, but these use the battery itself, and leave it in a state where it is not fully charged.
Equipment compatibility
The disk formats on different RAID controllers are not necessarily compatible.
Therefore, it may not be possible to read a RAID array on different hardware.
Consequently, a non-disk hardware failure may require using identical hardware, or a backup, to recover the data.
What RAID can and cannot do
This guide was taken from a thread in a RAID-related forum.
This was done to help point out the advantages and disadvantages of choosing RAID.
It is directed at people who want to choose RAID for either increases in performance or redundancy.
It contains links to other threads in its forum containing user-generated anecdotal reviews of their RAID experiences.
What RAID can do
RAID can protect uptime.
RAID levels 1, 0+1/10, 5 and 6 (and their variants such as 50 and 51) make up for a mechanical hard disk failure.
Even after the disk failed, the data on the array can still be used.
Instead of a time consuming restore from tape, DVD or other slow backup media, RAID allows data to be restored to a replacement disk from the other members of the array.
During this restoration process, it is available to users in a degraded state.
This is very important to enterprises, as downtime quickly leads to lost earning power.
For home users, it can protect uptime of large media storage arrays, which would require time consuming restoration from dozens of DVD or quite a few tapes in the event of a disk failing that is not protected by redundancy.
RAID can increase performance in certain applications.
RAID levels 0, 5 and 6 all use striping.
This allows multiple spindles to increase transfer rates for linear transfers.
Workstation-type applications often work with large files.
They greatly  benefit from disk striping.
Examples for such applications are those using video or audio files.
This throughput is also useful in disk-to-disk backups.
RAID 1 as well as other striping-based RAID levels can improve the performance for access patterns with many simultaneous random accesses, like those used by a multi-user database.
What RAID cannot do
RAID cannot protect the data on the array.
A RAID array has one file system.
This creates a single point of failure.
There are many things that can happen to this file system other than physical disk failure.
RAID cannot defend against these sources of data loss.
RAID will not stop a virus from destroying data.
RAID will not prevent corruption.
RAID will not save data when a user modifies it or deletes it by accident.
RAID does not protect data from hardware failure of any component besides physical disks.
RAID does not protect data from natural or man made disasters such as fires and floods.
To protect data, it must be backed up to removable media, such as DVD, tape, or an external hard disk.
The backup must be kept in a different place.
RAID alone will not prevent a disaster, when (not if) it occurs, from turning into data loss.
Disasters cannot be prevented, but backups allow data loss to be prevented.
RAID cannot simplify disaster recovery.
When running a single disk, the disk can be used by most operating systems as they come with a common device driver.
However, most RAID controllers need special drivers.
Recovery tools that work with single disks on generic controllers will require special drivers to access data on RAID arrays.
If these recovery tools are poorly coded and do not allow providing for additional drivers, then a RAID array will probably be inaccessible to that recovery tool.
RAID cannot provide a performance boost in all applications.
This statement is especially true with typical desktop application users and gamers.
For most desktop applications and games the buffer strategy and seek performance of the disk(s) are more important than raw throughput.
Increasing raw sustained transfer rate shows little gains for such users, as most files that they access are typically very small anyway.
Disk striping using RAID 0 increases linear transfer performance, not buffer and seek performance.
As a result, disk striping using RAID 0 shows little to no performance gain in most desktop applications and games, although there are exceptions.
For desktop users and gamers with high performance as a goal, it is better to buy a faster, bigger, and more expensive single disk than it is to run two slower/smaller drives in RAID 0.
Even running the latest, greatest, and biggest drives in RAID-0 is unlikely to boost performance more than 10%, and performance may drop in some access patterns, particularly games.
It is difficult to move RAID to a new system.
With a single disk, it is relatively easy to move the disk to a new system.
It can simply be connected to the new system, if it has the same interface available.
However, this is not so easy with a RAID array.
There is a certain kind of Metadata that says how the RAID is set up.
A RAID BIOS must be able to read this metadata so that it can successfully construct the array and make it accessible to an operating system.
Since RAID controller makers use different formats for their metadata (even controllers of different families from the same manufacturer may use incompatible metadata formats) it is almost impossible to move a RAID array to a different controller.
When moving a RAID array to a new system, plans should be made to move the controller as well.
With the popularity of motherboard integrated RAID controllers, this is extremely difficult.
Generally, it is possible to move the RAID array members and controllers together.
Software RAID in Linux and Windows Server Products can also work around this limitation, but software RAID has others (mostly performance related).
The RAID levels used most often are RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5.
Suppose there is a 3 disk setup, with 3 identical disks of 1 TB each, and  the probability of failure of a drive for a given timespan is 1%.
RAID 6 tutorial
Working RAID pictures
RAID Levels — Tutorial and Diagrams
Animations to learn about RAID Levels 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50
Leonid Illich Brezhnev (19 December 1906 – 10 November 1982) was a leader of the Soviet Union.
Born in 1906, Brezhnev was First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, effectively the dictator of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982.
During the Second World War, Brezhnev was a Political Commissar, supervising various military units.
There, he became a friend of Nikita Khrushchev.
Unlike Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union before him, Brezhnev did not agree with the process of destalinization, and did not support reform.
Under Brezhnev, the Soviet economy mostly consisted of military spending.
Because the country's resources were going to the armed forces, as they had under Joseph Stalin in wartime, consumer wants were ignored.
The standard of living began to fall.
An approximation is a version of a piece of information that does not describe it exactly, but is close enough to be used.
An approximation may be used either when the exact piece of information is not known, or when it's too long or complicated and people need something simpler.
If you are left with a balance of Dollar 78.23 you might want to say you are left with 80 dollars.
In mathematics, this is written using the  symbol (e.g., ).
Archimedes used polygons to approximate a circle, and to calculate an approximation for  as shown below:
Mathematical approximation
phpBB is a commonly used, free computer software for forums.
As the name suggests, phpBB is written in PHP, with the use of one of SQL compatible databases.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is part of the United Nations (UN), working on international public health, with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
The WHO was established by the UN on April 7, 1948.
In the previous year they had already started an epidemiology service.
WHO World Health Day is celebrated on April 7.
Medical and health organizations
United Nations specialized agencies
A jerboa is a small desert rodent of Asia and northern Africa.
It looks like a mouse, but it has a long tail and very long back legs.
The jerboa moves by jumping.
Jerboas have long tails, long hind legs, and short front legs.
Aesop, or Æsop (from the Greek Αἴσωπος Aisopos), is known for his fables.
He was, by tradition, a slave of African descent who lived from about 620 BC to 560 BC in Ancient Greece.
Aesop's Fables are still taught as moral lessons and used as subjects for  entertainment, especially children's plays and cartoons.
Aesop is said to have written thousands of fables, but none has been verified.
This means we do not know whether he wrote any, or perhaps just collected them.
His most famous one was perhaps The Lion and the Mouse.
No writings by him survive.
Tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages.
This is a storytelling tradition that continues to the present day.
Many of the tales have animals and inanimate objects that speak, solve problems, and generally have human characteristics.
The tradition is that he was at one point freed from slavery and that he eventually died at the hands of Delphians.
In fact, the doubt about his life has led some to deny his existence altogether.
His most famous fable is a parable of the tortoise and the hare.
In this story, a rabbit challenges a tortoise to a race.
The rabbit is sure of its victory and as a result, depending on the version of the story, in some way completes the race slower than the turtle.
Often, the hare takes a nap or takes too many breaks.
The persistent tortoise, despite being slower, wins because it persevered.
Aesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop.
Aesop's Fables has also become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, usually involving personified animals.
The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today.
Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" was derived), The Tortoise and the Hare (see Zeno's paradoxes) and The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf (also known as The Boy Who Cried Wolf), are well-known throughout the world.
Caxton, John, 1484.
The history and fables of Aesop, Westminster.
Modern reprint edited by Robert T. Lenaghan (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1967).
Caxton's famous Epilogue
Bentley, Richard, 1697.
Dissertation  upon the Epistles of Phalaris...  and the Fables of Æsop.
Jacobs, Joseph, 1889.
The Fables of Aesop: Selected, Told Anew, and Their History Traced, as first printed by William Caxton, 1484, from his French translation
i. A short history of the Aesopic fable
The Fables of Aesop
Handford, S. A., 1954.
Fables of Aesop.
New York: Penguin.
Perry, Ben E. (editor), 1965.
Babrius and Phaedrus, (Loeb Classical Library) Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965.
English translations of 143 Greek verse fables by Babrius, 126 Latin verse fables by Phaedrus, 328 Greek fables not extant in Babrius, and 128 Latin fables not extant in Phaedrus (including some medieval materials) for a total of 725 fables.
Temple, Olivia and Robert (translators), 1998.
Aesop, The Complete Fables,  New York: Penguin Classics. ()
Bryn Mawr Classical Review, with Aesop bibliography
Aesopica.net – Over 600 English fables, with Latin and Greek texts also – Searchable
AesopFables.com – Large collection of fables, but many fables are NOT Aesopic
Free audiobook of Aesop's Fables  from LibriVox
The Fables – A site primarily for children
620 BC births
560 BC deaths
Olfaction, the sense of smell, that is, the ability to perceive odors
Odor - the sensation perceived by the detection of certain chemical compounds by the sense of olfaction
Olfaction is the sense of smell.
The sense of smell is how a human or animal notices a smell (or odour or odor) by using the nose.
Many animals have better noses than people.
Some animals can detect small particles in the air or sometimes water that people cannot.
People have special cells in the nose that can detect some chemicals.
These are special nerve cells attached to the olfactory epithelium.
All vertebrates have these cells.
The smell is first processed by the olfactory system.
The information is given to the olfactory bulb in the front of the forebrain.
Olfactory reception cells
The olfactory reception (OR) cells are neurons (nerve cells).
Many tiny hair-like cilia stick out of these cells into the mucus covering the surface of the epithelium.
The surface of these cilia is covered with olfactory receptors, a kind of protein.
There are about 1000 different genes which code for the ORs, though only about a third are functional.
The rest are pseudogenes.
The OR genes are the largest gene family.
An odor molecule dissolves into the mucus of the olfactory epithelium and then binds to an OR.
Various odor molecules bind to various ORs.
The basis of the sense of smell is that different groups of scent molecules bind to different receptor cells and so fire different groups of neurons.
Inside the olfactory region of the brain, the firing of neurons produces the perceived smell.
When the OR is activated, changes start in the cells.
Positive ions come in and  negative ions go out of the cells.
This causes the neuron to fire an impulse (generate an action potential).
Smells and Odours - How Smell Works
The importance of smell, and pheromones, to Humans and other Animals
Structure-odor relations: a modern perspective (PDF)
Olfactory network dynamics and the coding of multidimensional signals  (PDF)
A teaspoon is a spoon used for stirring tea, measuring sugar, and playing games such as spoons.
They are also called flatspoons in American English.
Longer teaspoons can be used to eat ice cream and other desserts, too.
It is usually covered with silver or stainless steel.
Camembert is a village in France.
It is in Normandy.
It is in the Orne département of the Lower Normandy region in France.
It is most famous as the place where Camembert cheese originated.
In 1999, 199 people lived there.
Communes in Orne
Camembert cheese, more generally known as Camembert, is a French soft cheese.
It originated in the village of Camembert in Normandy.
Since 1983, the name Camembert de Normandie has been protected as Appellation d'Origine controlée (AOC).
Camembert is made from unpasteurized cow's milk, and is ripened by the moulds Penicillium candida and Penicillium camemberti for at least three weeks.
It is produced in small rounds, about 250 grams in weight, which are wrapped in paper and boxed in thin wooden boxes.
Camembert was reputedly invented in 1791 by Marie Harel, a farmer from Normandy.
However, the origin of the cheese we know today as camembert is more likely to rest with the beginnings of the industrialisation of the cheese-making process at the end of the 19th century.
In 1890, an engineer, M. Ridel invented the wooden box which was used to carry the cheese and helped to send it for longer distances, in particular to America where it became very popular.
These boxes are still used today.
Before fungi were properly understood, the colour of Camembert rind was a matter of chance, most commonly blue-grey, with brown spots.
From the early 20th century onwards the rind has been more commonly pure white, but it was not until the mid-1970s that pure white became standard.
The cheese was famously issued to French troops in the First World War, becoming firmly fixed in the French popular culture as a result.
It has many other roles in French culture, literature and history.
The cheese is said to have inspired Salvador Dalí to create his famous painting, The Persistence of Memory.
Its "melting" watches were inspired by the sight of a melting wheel of over-ripe Camembert.
Brie, a similar cheese from a different region
Camembert: A National Myth by Pierre Boisard  claims that Camembert was one of the first globalised, homogenised and standardised foods.
Camembert website
Camembert AOC
Joseph Knirim, Marie Harel and the camembert cheese
Castello's Camembert
Saga Blue's Camembert
Childbirth, also known as labour and delivery, is the ending of pregnancy where one or more babies leaves the uterus by passing through the vagina or by Caesarean section.
In 2015, there were about 135 million births globally.
Birth rate is important in determining the population growth rate.
Shiva or Mahadeva is the supreme god in Shaivism tradition in Hinduism and one of the chief deities as a member of the Trimurti.
Shiva is causeless auspiciousness.
An embodiment of ultimate space of enlightenment.
He assumed human form to guide humans in the past and thus is known as Adhiguru (first guru).
His space of enlightenment is what all spiritual seekers aspire for.
All enlightened masters live in this space of Shiva.
Shiva is known as the destroyer god because he removes all evil from the world.
His wife is the goddess Parvati or Devi Durga.
According to Hindu legend, he has a blue neck because he swallowed a poison in order to save the universe.
He has three eyes, the third eye is on his forehead.
Shiva is one-third of the Hindu trimurti including Brahma and Vishnu.
Lord Shiva lives in the Mount Kailash with his two sons Kartikeya and Ganesha who is known as the Remover of Obstacles.
There is a statue of Shiva in Bangalore which is a great tourist attraction.
Etymology and other names
In the earliest of the vedic texts, the word Shiva means Auspicious, Sacred.
It does not relate to any deity, but refers to the quality of being sacred and auspicious.
In later vedic texts, Shiva becomes a deity.
Shiva is also called as Brahman, the supreme universal consciousness.
The word shivo'ham translates as I am Shiva, conveying that one's consciousness is where the lord resides, uniting it with the supreme transcendence.
In Tamil, he was called by different names other than Sivan.
Nataraja (Dancing form of Shiva), Rudra (Enraged form of Shiva), and Dhakshinamoorthy (Yoga form of Shiva).
Nataraja is the only form of Shiva worshipped in a human figure format.
Elsewhere he is worshipped in Lingam figure.
Pancha Bootha temples are located in south India.
Pancha Bhoota Stalam refers to five temples dedicated to Shiva.
Tamil literature is enriched by Shiva devotees called 63 Nayanmars (Nayanars).
The Sanskrit word "śiva" (Devanagari: शिव, also transliterated as shiva) means, states Monier Monier-Williams, "auspicious, propitious, gracious, benign, kind, benevolent, friendly".
The roots of śiva in folk etymology are śī which means "in whom all things lie, pervasiveness" and va which means "embodiment of grace".
The word Shiva is used as an adjective in the Rig Veda (approximately 1700–1100 BC), as an epithet for several Rigvedic deities, including Rudra.
The term Shiva also connotes "liberation, final emancipation" and "the auspicious one", this adjective sense of usage is addressed to many deities in Vedic layers of literature.
The term evolved from the Vedic Rudra-Shiva to the noun Shiva in the Epics and the Puranas, as an auspicious deity who is the "creator, reproducer and dissolver".
Sharva, sharabha presents another etymology with the Sanskrit root 'śarv-, which means "to injure" or "to kill", interprets the name to connote "one who can kill the forces of darkness".
The Sanskrit word 'śaiva' means "relating to the god Shiva", and this term is the Sanskrit name both for one of the principal sects of Hinduism and for a member of that sect.
It is used as an adjective to characterize certain beliefs and practices, such as Shaivism.
The Vishnu sahasranama interprets Shiva to have multiple meanings: "The Pure One", and "the One who is not affected by three Guṇas of Prakṛti (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas)".
Shiva is known by many names such as Viswanatha (lord of the universe), Mahadeva, Mahandeo, Mahasu, Mahesha, Maheshvara, Shankara, Shambhu, Rudra, Hara, Trilochana, Devendra (chief of the gods), Neelakanta, Subhankara, Trilokinatha (lord of the three realms), and Ghrneshwar (lord of compassion).
The highest reverence for Shiva in Shaivism is reflected in his epithets 'Mahādeva' ("Great god"; 'mahā' "Great" and deva "god"), 'Maheśvara' ("Great Lord"; 'mahā' "great" and 'īśvara' "lord"), and 'Parameśvara' ("Supreme Lord").
Sahasranama are medieval Indian texts that list a thousand names derived from aspects and epithets of a deity.
There are at least eight different versions of the Shiva Sahasranama, devotional hymns (stotras) listing many names of Shiva.
The version appearing in Book 13 (Anuśāsanaparvan) of the Mahabharata provides one such list.
Shiva also has Dasha-Sahasranamas (10,000 names) that are found in the Mahanyasa.
The Shri Rudram Chamakam, also known as the Śatarudriya, is a devotional hymn to Shiva hailing him by many names.
Historical development and literature
The Shiva-related tradition is a major part of Hinduism, found all over the Indian subcontinent, such as India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia, such as Bali, Indonesia.
Scholars have interpreted early prehistoric paintings at the Bhimbetka rock shelters, carbon dated to be from pre-10,000 BCE period, as Shiva dancing, Shiva's trident, and his mount Nandi.
Rock paintings from Bhimbetka, depicting a figure with a trishul, have been described as Nataraja by Erwin Neumayer, who dates them to the mesolithic.
Indus Valley origins
Of several Indus valley seals that show animals, one seal that has attracted attention shows a large central figure, either horned or wearing a horned headdress and possibly ithyphallic, seated in a posture reminiscent of the Lotus position, surrounded by animals.
This figure was named by early excavators of Mohenjo-daro as Pashupati (Lord of Animals, Sanskrit 'paśupati'), an epithet of the later Hindu deities Shiva and Rudra.
Sir John Marshall and others suggested that this figure is a prototype of Shiva, with three faces, seated in a "yoga posture" with the knees out and feet joined.
Semi-circular shapes on the head were interpreted as two horns.
Scholars such as Gavin Flood, John Keay and Doris Meth Srinivasan have expressed doubts about this suggestion.
Gavin Flood states that it is not clear from the seal that the figure has three faces, is seated in a yoga posture, or even that the shape is intended to represent a human figure.
He characterizes these views as "speculative", but adds that it is nevertheless possible that there are echoes of Shaiva iconographic themes, such as half-moon shapes resembling the horns of a bull.
John Keay writes that "he may indeed be an early manifestation of Lord Shiva as Pashu-pati", but a couple of his specialties of this figure does not match with Rudra.
Writing in 1997, Srinivasan interprets what John Marshall interpreted as facial as not human but more bovine, possibly a divine buffalo-man.
The interpretation of the seal continues to be disputed.
McEvilley, for example, states that it is not possible to "account for this posture outside the yogic account".
Asko Parpola states that other archaeological finds such as the early Elamite seals dated to 3000-2750 BCE show similar figures and these have been interpreted as "seated bull" and not a yogi, and the bovine interpretation is likely more accurate.
Gregory L. Possehl in 2002, associated it with the water buffalo, and concluded that while it would be appropriate to recognize the figure as a deity, and its posture as one of ritual discipline, regarding it as a proto-Shiva would "go too far".
Vedic origins
The Vedic literature refers to a minor atmospheric deity, with fearsome powers called Rudra.
The Rigveda, for example, has 3 out of 1,028 hymns dedicated to Rudra, and he finds occasional mention in other hymns of the same text.
The term Shiva also appears in the Rigveda, but simply as an epithet, that means "kind, auspicious", one of the adjectives used to describe many different Vedic deities.
While fierce ruthless natural phenomenon and storm-related Rudra is feared in the hymns of the Rigveda, the beneficial rains he brings are welcomed as Shiva aspect of him.
This healing, nurturing, life-enabling aspect emerges in the Vedas as Rudra-Shiva, and in post-Vedic literature ultimately as Shiva who combines the destructive and constructive powers, the terrific and the gentle, as the ultimate recycler and rejuvenator of all existence.
The similarities between the iconography and theologies of Shiva with Greek and European deities have led to proposals for an Indo-European link for Shiva, or lateral exchanges with ancient central Asian cultures.
His contrasting aspects such as being terrifying or blissful depending on the situation, are similar to those of the Greek god Dionysus, as are their iconic associations with bull, snakes, anger, bravery, dancing and carefree life.
The ancient Greek texts of the time of Alexander the Great call Shiva as "Indian Dionysus", or alternatively call Dionysus as "god of the Orient".
Similarly, the use of phallic symbol as an icon for Shiva is also found for Irish, Nordic, Greek (Dionysus) and Roman deities, as was the idea of this aniconic column linking heaven and earth among early Indo-Aryans, states Roger Woodward.
Others contest such proposals, and suggest Shiva to have emerged from indigenous pre-Aryan tribal origins.
Shiva as we know him today shares many features with the Vedic god Rudra, and both Shiva and Rudra are viewed as the same personality in Hindu scriptures.
The two names are used synonymously.
Rudra, the god of the roaring storm, is usually portrayed in accordance with the element he represents as a fierce, destructive deity.
The oldest surviving text of Hinduism is the Rig Veda, which is dated to between 1700 and 1100 BC based on linguistic and philological evidence.
A god named Rudra is mentioned in the Rig Veda.
The name Rudra is still used as a name for Shiva.
In RV 2.33, he is described as the "Father of the Rudras", a group of storm gods.
The hymn 10.92 of the Rigveda states that deity Rudra has two natures, one wild and cruel (Rudra), another that is kind and tranquil (Shiva).
The Vedic texts do not mention bull or any animal as the transport vehicle (vahana) of Rudra or other deities.
However, post-Vedic texts such as the Mahabharata and the Puranas state the Nandi bull, the Indian zebu, in particular, as the vehicle of Rudra and of Shiva, thereby unmistakably linking them as same.
Rudra and Agni have a close relationship.
The identification between Agni and Rudra in the Vedic literature was an important factor in the process of Rudra's gradual development into the later character as Rudra-Shiva.
The identification of Agni with Rudra is explicitly noted in the Nirukta, an important early text on etymology, which says, "Agni is also called Rudra."
The interconnections between the two deities are complex, and according to Stella Kramrisch:The fire myth of Rudra-Śiva plays on the whole gamut of fire, valuing all its potentialities and phases, from conflagration to illumination.
In the Śatarudrīya, some epithets of Rudra, such as Sasipañjara ("Of golden red hue as of flame") and Tivaṣīmati ("Flaming bright"), suggest a fusing of the two deities.
Agni is said to be a bull, and Lord Shiva possesses a bull as his vehicle, Nandi.
The horns of Agni, who is sometimes characterized as a bull, are mentioned.
In medieval sculpture, both Agni and the form of Shiva known as Bhairava have flaming hair as a special feature.
Coin of the Kushan Empire (1st-century BCE to 2nd-century CE).
The right image has been interpreted as Shiva with trident and bull.
According to Wendy Doniger, the Puranic Shiva is a continuation of the Vedic Indra.
Doniger gives several reasons for her hypothesis.
Both are associated with mountains, rivers, male fertility, fierceness, fearlessness, warfare, the transgression of established mores, the Aum sound, the Supreme Self.
In the Rig Veda the term 'śiva' is used to refer to Indra. (
2.20.3, 6.45.17, and 8.93.3.)
Indra, like Shiva, is likened to a bull.
In the Rig Veda, Rudra is the father of the Maruts, but he is never associated with their warlike exploits as is Indra.
The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion, and the pre-Islamic Indo-Iranian religion.
The earliest iconic artworks of Shiva may be from Gandhara and northwest parts of ancient India.
There is some uncertainty as the artwork that has survived is damaged and they show some overlap with meditative Buddha-related artwork, but the presence of Shiva's trident and phallic symbolism in this art suggests it was likely Shiva.
Numismatics research suggests that numerous coins of the ancient Kushan Empire that have survived, were images of a god who is probably Shiva.
The Shiva in Kushan coins is referred to as Oesho of unclear etymology and origins, but the simultaneous presence of Indra and Shiva in the Kushan era artwork suggest that they were revered deities by the start of the Kushan Empire.
The texts and artwork of Jainism show Indra as a dancer, although not identical generally resembling the dancing Shiva artwork found in Hinduism, particularly in their respective mudras.
For example, in the Jain caves at Ellora, extensive carvings show dancing Indra next to the images of Tirthankaras in a manner similar to Shiva Nataraja.
The similarities in the dance iconography suggests that there may be a link between ancient Indra and Shiva.
Later literature
Rudra's evolution from a minor Vedic deity to a supreme being is first evidenced in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (400–200 BC), according to Gavin Flood.
Prior to it, the Upanishadic literature is monistic, and the Shvetashvatara text presents the earliest seeds of theistic devotion to Rudra-Shiva.
Here Rudra-Shiva is identified as the creator of the cosmos and liberator of souls from the birth-rebirth cycle.
The period of 200 BC to 100 AD also marks the beginning of the Shaiva tradition focused on the worship of Shiva as evidenced in other literature of this period.
Shaiva devotees and ascetics are mentioned in Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya (2nd-century BC) and in the Mahabharata.
Other scholars such as Robert Hume and Doris Srinivasan state that the Shvetashvatara Upanishad presents pluralism, pantheism, or henotheism, rather than being a text just on Shiva theism.
Self-realization and Shaiva UpanishadsHe who sees himself in all beings,
The Shaiva Upanishads are a group of 14 minor Upanishads of Hinduism variously dated from the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE through the 17th century.
These extol Shiva as the metaphysical unchanging reality Brahman and the Atman (soul, self), and include sections about rites and symbolisms related to Shiva.
A few texts such as Atharvashiras Upanishad mention Rudra, and assert all gods are Rudra, everyone and everything is Rudra, and Rudra is the principle found in all things, their highest goal, the innermost essence of all reality that is visible or invisible.
The Kaivalya Upanishad similarly, states Paul Deussen – a German Indologist and professor of Philosophy, describes the self-realized man as who "feels himself only as the one divine essence that lives in all", who feels identity of his and everyone's consciousness with Shiva (highest Atman), who has found this highest Atman within, in the depths of his heart.
The Shaiva Puranas, particularly the Shiva Purana and the Linga Purana, present the various aspects of Shiva, mythologies, cosmology and pilgrimage (Tirtha) associated with him.
The Shiva-related Tantra literature, composed between the 8th and 11th centuries, are regarded in devotional dualistic Shaivism as Sruti.
Dualistic Shaiva Agamas which consider soul within each living being and Shiva as two separate realities (dualism, dvaita), are the foundational texts for Shaiva Siddhanta.
Other Shaiva Agamas teach that these are one reality (monism, advaita), and that Shiva is the soul, the perfection and truth within each living being.
In Shiva related sub-traditions, there are ten dualistic Agama texts, eighteen qualified monism-cum-dualism Agama texts and sixty-four monism Agama texts.
Shiva-related literature developed extensively across India in the 1st millennium CE and through the 13th century, particularly in Kashmir and Tamil Shaiva traditions.
The monist Shiva literature posit absolute oneness, that is Shiva is within every man and woman, Shiva is within every living being, Shiva is present everywhere in the world including all non-living being, and there is no spiritual difference between life, matter, man and Shiva.
The various dualistic and monist Shiva-related ideas were welcomed in medieval southeast Asia, inspiring numerous Shiva-related temples, artwork and texts in Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, with syncretic integration of local pre-existing theologies.
Assimilation of traditions
The figure of Shiva as we know him today may be an amalgamation of various older deities into a single figure.
How the persona of Shiva converged as a composite deity is not understood, a challenge to trace and has attracted much speculation.
According to Vijay Nath, for example:Vishnu and Siva [...] began to absorb countless local cults and deities within their folds.
The latter were either taken to represent the multiple facets of the same god or else were supposed to denote different forms and appellations by which the god came to be known and worshipped. [...]
Siva became identified with countless local cults by the sheer suffixing of Isa or Isvara to the name of the local deity, e.g., Bhutesvara, Hatakesvara, Chandesvara.
"An example of assimilation took place in Maharashtra, where a regional deity named Khandoba is a patron deity of farming and herding castes.
The foremost center of worship of Khandoba in Maharashtra is in Jejuri.
Khandoba has been assimilated as a form of Shiva himself, in which case he is worshipped in the form of a lingam.
Khandoba's varied associations also include an identification with Surya and Karttikeya.
Position within Hinduism
Shaivism is one of the four major sects of Hinduism, the others being Vaishnavism, Shaktism and the Smarta Tradition.
Followers of Shaivism, called "Shaivas", revere Shiva as the Supreme Being.
Shaivas believe that Shiva is All and in all, the creator, preserver, destroyer, revealer and concealer of all that is.
He is not only the creator in Shaivism, but he is also the creation that results from him, he is everything and everywhere.
Shiva is the primal soul, the pure consciousness and Absolute Reality in the Shaiva traditions.
The Shaivism theology is broadly grouped into two: the popular theology influenced by Shiva-Rudra in the Vedas, Epics and the Puranas; and the esoteric theology influenced by the Shiva and Shakti-related Tantra texts.
The Vedic-Brahmanic Shiva theology includes both monist (Advaita) and devotional traditions (Dvaita) such as Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta and Lingayatism with temples featuring items such as linga, Shiva-Parvati iconography, bull Nandi within the premises, relief artwork showing mythologies and aspects of Shiva.
The Tantric Shiva tradition ignored the mythologies and Puranas related to Shiva, and depending on the sub-school developed a variety of practices.
For example, historical records suggest the tantric Kapalikas (literally, the 'skull-men') co-existed with and shared many Vajrayana Buddhist rituals, engaged in esoteric practices that revered Shiva and Shakti wearing skulls, begged with empty skulls, used meat, alcohol, and sexuality as a part of ritual.
In contrast, the esoteric tradition within Kashmir Shaivism has featured the Krama and Trika sub-traditions.
The Trika sub-tradition developed a theology of triads involving Shiva, combined it with an ascetic lifestyle focusing on personal Shiva in the pursuit of monistic self liberation.
The Vaishnava (Vishnu-oriented) literature acknowledges and discusses Shiva.
Like Shaiva literature that presents Shiva as supreme, the Vaishnava literature presents Vishnu as supreme.
However, both traditions are pluralistic and revere both Shiva and Vishnu (along with Devi), their texts do not show exclusivism, and Vaishnava texts such as the Bhagavata Purana while praising Krishna as the Ultimate Reality, also present Shiva and Shakti as a personalized form an equivalent to the same Ultimate Reality.
The texts of Shaivism tradition similarly praise Vishnu.
The Skanda Purana, for example, states:Vishnu is no one but Shiva, and he who is called Shiva is but identical with Vishnu.
— Mythologies of both traditions include legends about who is superior, about Shiva paying homage to Vishnu, and Vishnu paying homage to Shiva.
However, in texts and artwork of either tradition, the mutual salutes are symbolism for complementarity.
The Mahabharata declares the unchanging Ultimate Reality (Brahman) to be identical to Shiva and to Vishnu, that Vishnu is the highest manifestation of Shiva, and Shiva is the highest manifestation of Vishnu.
Ardhanarishvara sculpture, Khajuraho, depicting Shiva with goddess Parvati as his equal half.
In the Ardhanarisvara concept, the icon is presented as half-man and half woman.
The goddess-oriented Shakti tradition of Hinduism is based on the premise that the Supreme Principle and the Ultimate Reality called Brahman is female (Devi), but it treats the male as her equal and complementary partner.
This partner is Shiva.
The earliest evidence of the tradition of reverence for the feminine with Rudra-Shiva context, is found in the Hindu scripture Rigveda, in a hymn called the Devi Sukta:3.
I am ruler, assembler of goods, observer foremost among those deserving the sacrifice.
Through me he eats food—whoever sees, whoever breathes, whoever hears what is spoken.
Without thinking about it, they live on me.
Listen, o you who are listened to: it’s a trustworthy thing I tell you.
Just I myself say this, savored by gods and men:
I stretch the bow for Rudra, for his arrow to smash the hater of the
I make combat for the people.
I have entered Heaven and Earth.
I give birth to Father (Heaven) on his (own) head [Agni]; my womb is in the waters, in the sea.
I, just like the wind, blow forth, grasping at all worlds,
— The Devi Upanishad in its explanation of the theology of Shaktism, mentions and praises Shiva such as in its verse 19.
Shiva, along with Vishnu, is a revered god in the Devi Mahatmya, a text of Shaktism considered by the tradition to be as important as the Bhagavad Gita.
The Ardhanarisvara concept co-mingles god Shiva and goddess Shakti by presenting an icon that is half-man and half woman, a representation and theme of union found in many Hindu texts and temples.
Smarta Tradition
Oleograph by Raja Ravi Varma depicting a Shiva-centric Panchayatana.
A bearded Shiva sits in the centre with his wife Parvati and their infant son Ganesha; surrounded by (clockwise from left upper corner) Ganesha, Devi, Vishnu, and Surya.
Shiva's mount is the bull Nandi below Shiva.
In the Smarta tradition of Hinduism, Shiva is a part of its Panchayatana puja.
This practice consists of the use of icons or anicons of five deities considered equivalent, set in a quincunx pattern.
Shiva is one of the five deities, others being Vishnu, Devi (such as Parvati), Surya and Ganesha or Skanda or any personal god of devotee's preference (Ishta Devata).
Philosophically, the Smarta tradition emphasizes that all idols (murti) are icons to help focus on and visualize aspects of Brahman, rather than distinct beings.
The ultimate goal in this practice is to transition past the use of icons, recognize the Absolute symbolized by the icons, on the path to realizing the nondual identity of one's Atman (soul, self) and the Brahman.
Popularized by Adi Shankara, many Panchayatana mandalas and temples have been uncovered that are from the Gupta Empire period, and one Panchayatana set from the village of Nand (about 24 kilometers from Ajmer) has been dated to belong to the Kushan Empire era (pre-300 CE).
The Kushan period set includes Shiva, Vishnu, Surya, Brahma and one deity whose identity is unclear.