Siva is the mountain-god of the Himalayas and a moon-deity, and in his character of god of destruction the lightning and cobra are associated with him.

But he is really worshipped in his beneficent form of the phallic emblem as the agent of life, and the bull, the fertiliser of the soil and provider of food.

Devi, the earth, is the great mother goddess.

Sprung from her are Hanuman, the monkey-god, and Ganpati, the elephant-god, and in one of her forms, as the terrible goddess Kali, she is perhaps the deified tiger.

[232] Lachmi, the goddess of wealth, and held to have been evolved from the cow, is the consort of Vishnu.