Story of Nandi (bull) the vahana of Lord Shiva. In every Siva temple, one can notice that Nandi is invariably sitting right in front of the sanctum sanctorum facing the image and looking at him all the time. Nandi is Lord Shiva’s vehicle and is the principal gana (follower) of Shiva. He is also known as Nandikesvara, Nadikesa, Nandisvara and Nandiparsva.
There are many versions of Nandi avatar. As per one version, Nandi was the son born to Surabhi from Kasyapa. Surabhi was the cow of the heavenly world. She had given birth to a huge number of cows. All the cows together produced an ocean of milk. The waves of milk reached Kailasa, the abode of Lord Shiva. It irritated Mahadev. He became angry, opened his third eye and looked at the cows. All the cows were pure white up to that. Immediately after the sight of the cows by Shiva with his third eye, the cows became multi-coloured. The cows appealed to the moon to save them with their original colour. It enraged Siva further and he was again about to open his third eye. Daksha Prajapati immediately interfered, pacified Siva and sent his disciple Nandi the Bull as the vehicle of Siva.
Nandi married Suyasa the daughter of the Maruts. Nandi always dwelt at the abode of Siva. After the marriage of Siva with Parvati, both were enjoying honey-moon. Nandi waited at the beck and call of Shiva even then. Siva took pity of Nandi and asked him to retire and take rest. But Nandi would not leave his lord. So Bholenath allotted him a place in front of the Gopura of his fortress and asked him to lie down there leisurely. Siva also asked him to attend to him only when he was called. It was from then that Nandi became the gate keeper of Siva. The chief deity in a Siva temple is Siva and it cannot be worshipped without paying homage first to the Nandi seated in front and looking at Siva.
Later, Nandi also came to be worshipped in India. There are some temples which are exclusively built for Nandi. The famous Nandisvara temple in Karnataka is one such. Nandisvara in his anthromorphic form appears just like Siva, with three eyes and four hands of which two are permanently dedicated to the veneration of Siva while the other two carry his weapons.
Nandi was well versed in all scriptural knowledge. Nandi was the first disciple of Siva and he imparted the teachings of Siva to this world. He was the Guru of the great Tamil saint Thirumular and he imparted the knowledge of devotion to Lord Hanuman. It is a tradition in many parts of rural India to let a Bull roam free in each village as a mark of respect to Nandi.
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