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Mythos Atlas

Hindu Pantheonweapon

Trishula

Illustration of Trishula, a weapon of the Hindu Pantheon
Illustrative imageIllustration of Trishula. Generated with an AI image model; not a historical artifact. About our images
  • Cosmic Destruction
  • Triple Aspect
  • Reality Manipulation
  • Third Eye Activation

Shiva's three-pronged trident representing the three aspects of consciousness, the three gunas, and the power to destroy, preserve, and create. It is the symbol of Shiva's supreme authority.

About Trishula

Shiva's three-pointed mark

Puranic Shaivism makes the trishula Shiva's weapon and the mark of his images: three points later read as gunas or as creation, keeping, and ending — scholastic overlay on a spear-shape. The Mahabharata knows Shiva as the giver of terrible weapons; the trident is firmer in sculpture and Puranas than as a single named astra with a long forging scene. Do not collapse it into the Pāśupatāstra, a separate restricted missile. Cult is of Shiva. The bronze and stone trident is his sign, not a quest object with a find-spot.

Origin

Emerged from the primordial essence during the creation of the universe, an extension of Shiva's own cosmic power.

Sources and further reading

Source notes

These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.

  • Mahabharata and Shaiva Puranas (trishula as Shiva's mark)

    Catalog date: epic / Puranic centuries CE

About this entry

By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. . Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.

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