Shula
A lance or pike; one of the characteristic
weapons in Hindu iconography. The
most famous example of this is the tri-
dent (trishul), which has three points,
although the center one may be larger
than the side ones. This weapon is most
intimately associated with Shiva, but it
is also commonly carried by certain
powerful forms of the Goddess. This
may reflect her charter myth, in which
she was formed from the collected radi-
ance of all the gods and received dupli-
cates of their weapons from all of them.
The lance with a single blade is associated
with the god Skanda, particularly in his
southern Indian manifestation as
Murugan. When carried by Skanda-
Murugan, the lance is usually called
shakti(“power”), rather than shula.Shumbha
In Hindu mythology, demon killed by
the goddess Kaliin the Devimahatmya,
the earliest and most important text for
the mythology of the Goddess. Together
with his brother Nishumbha, Shumbha
is a general in the army of a demon
named Mahishasura, the figure whom
the Goddess takes form to destroy. Due
to a divine boon given to Mahishasura,Shula
The god Shiva carrying a shula, or lance, beside his wife Parvati.
The type of shula with which Shiva is associated is the trishul, or trident.