Hindi Dog Names

Like many cultures and religions all over the world, dogs have held many significant positions in both reality and within the belief system, often used as vehicles to provide meaning or symbolize something much greater in the larger narratives. But unlike many others, there is also a much more direct connection. Whereas dogs may have been a manifestation of an idea or role that needed to be maintained within the belief system, in Hinduism, dogs, referred to in Sanskrit as Shvan, are viewed as a vehicle or embodiment of a deity or part of their manifestation directly, known as a vahana, otherwise known as the deity’s “mount”. 

In various sects of Hinduism, the Shvan is directly tied to the religion’s principle deities, Shiva, through another of its kind, Bhairava, who is a fierce manifestation of one of Shiva’s aspects. Although different belief systems hold the deity differently, nearly all of them worship it throughout the region, even including parts of Tibetan Buddhism. 

Although Bhairava is often considered a ferocious and intimidating figure associated with annihilation, there is just as much regard for its benevolence. Proper interpretations of its meaning show it to protect believers from internal enemies such as greed, lust, and anger, which may come as little surprise when it is often depicted with the characteristic weapons: a drum, noose, trident, and skull. Even though the origins of the word means “fearful”, Bhairava is actually one who destroys or is beyond fear and protects its devotees from personal elements that keep them from truly connecting with those of divinity. 

When depicted in Shiva temples, the idols of Bhairava are often seen without dress and paired with the universal vahana, a dog, both of which seem to play to the concept of being a sentinel meant to prevent humankind from allowing their most animalistic elements from manifesting and preventing their connection to their deistic counterparts.

Strangely enough, dogs in the bigger picture of Hindu belief and mythology are often seen as inauspicious and are largely kept away from the holiest sites. Even as protectors in the Rig Veda, they are regarded differently in day-to-day life, more often seen as unclean and bestial than the traits known to those who keep them as companions. Upon closer examination, it could be assumed that they are seen this way because they are sometimes representative of the traits that remind us that we are, at heart, still animals, regardless of what we seem to see separates us.