Editing Ardhanarishvara (section)

==Worship==
[[File:Ardinary.jpg|thumb|right|Ardhanarishvara worshipped at [[Sri Rajarajeswari Peetam]]]]

Ardhanarishvara is one of the most popular iconographic forms of Shiva. It is found in more or less all temples and shrines dedicated to Shiva all over India and South-east Asia.<ref name="britannica"/><ref>Goldberg p. 1</ref><ref name = "Yadav161">Yadav p. 161</ref> There is ample evidence from texts and the multiple depictions of the Ardhanarishvara in stone to suggest that a cult centred around the deity may have existed. The cult may have had occasional followers, but was never aligned to any sect. This cult focusing on the joint worship of Shiva and the Goddess may even have had a high position in Hinduism, but when and how it faded away remains a mystery.<ref>Swami Parmeshwaranand pp. 55, 61</ref> Though a popular iconographic form, temples dedicated to the deity are few.<ref name = "Yadav161"/><ref name = "Tiruchengode"/> A popular one is located in [[Ardhanareeswarar temple, Tiruchengode|Thiruchengode]],<ref name = "Tiruchengode">{{cite book | last= Moorthy| first= K. K.| title= The Temples of Tamilnadu| year = 1991 |place = Tirupathi|chapter = Tiruchengodu - Ardhanareeswarar Tirukovil}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arthanareeswarar.com/English.asp|title=Site about Tiruchengode temple|access-date=2011-03-14|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304000443/http://www.arthanareeswarar.com/English.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref> while five others are located in [[Kallakkurichi taluk]], all of them in the Indian state of [[Tamil Nadu]].<ref>{{cite book | last= Hiltebeitel | first= Alf |author-link=Alf Hiltebeitel | title= The Cult of Draupadi: Mythologies: from Gingee to Kuruksetra| volume=1 | year = 1988 | publisher= University of Chicago Press | isbn = 978-0-226-34046-3| page = 447}}</ref>

The ''Linga Purana'' advocates the worship of Ardhanarishvara by devotees to attain union with Shiva upon dissolution of the world and thus attain [[moksha|salvation]].<ref name = "Srinivasan158">Srinivasan p. 158</ref> The ''Ardhanarinateshvara Stotra'' composed by [[Adi Shankara|Adi Shankaracharya]] is a popular hymn dedicated to the deity.<ref>Goldberg p. 4</ref> The [[Nayanars|Nayanar]] saints of Tamil Nadu exault the deity in hymns. While the 8th-century Nayanar saint [[Sundarar]] says that Shiva is always inseparable from the Mother Goddess,<ref name ="swami57"/> another 7th-century Nayanar saint [[Sambandar]] describes how the "[[eternal feminine]]" is not only his consort, but she is also part of him.<ref name ="swami57"/> The renowned Sanskrit writer [[Kalidasa]] (c. 4th–5th century) alludes Ardhanarishvara in invocations of his [[Raghuvaṃśa|Raghuvamsa]] and [[Mālavikāgnimitram|Malavikagnimitram]], and says that Shiva and Shakti are as inseparable as word and meaning.<ref name = "collins80">Collins p. 80</ref> The 9th-century Nayanar saint [[Manikkavacakar]] casts Parvati in the role of the supreme devotee of Shiva in his hymns. He alludes to Ardhanarishvara several times and regards it the ultimate goal of a devotee to be united with Shiva as Parvati is in the Ardhanarishvara form.<ref name="kinsley"/>