Siva

or Çiva , the Destroyer in the Hindu trinity, in which Brahma is the Creator and Vishnu the Preserver; Vishnu representing, as it were, death i uing in life, and Siva life i uing in death, the transition point, and Brahma, who, by means of them, "kills that he may make alive." He is worshipped as "Mahâdêva" or the great god, and his worshippers are called Saivas or Çaivas, as distinct from those of Vishnu, which are called Vaishnavas. The linga ( q. v .) is his symbol, in emblem of the creation which follows destruction. See Psalm xc. 3.