About Five Mantras and Avatars of Lord Shiva

Five mantras:-

The 10th century five headed Shiva, Sadashiva, Cambodia.

Five is a sacred number for Shiva. One of his most important mantras has five syllables (namaḥ śivāya).

Shiva's body is said to consist of five mantras, called the pañcabrahmans. As forms of God, each of these have their own names and distinct iconography:-

· Sadyojata · Vamadeva · Aghora · Tatpurusa · Isana

These are represented as the five faces of Shiva and are associated in various texts with the five elements, the five senses, the five organs of perception, and the five organs of action. Doctrinal differences and, possibly, errors in transmission, have resulted in some differences between texts in details of how these five forms are linked with various attributes. The overall meaning of these associations is summarized by Stella Kramrisch:-

Through these transcendent categories, Śiva, the ultimate reality, becomes the efficient and material cause of all that exists.

According to the Pañcabrahma Upanishad:-

One should know all things of the phenomenal world as of a fivefold character, for the reason that the eternal verity of Śiva is of the character of the fivefold Brahman. (Pañcabrahma Upanishad 31)

Avatars:-

Puranic Scriptures contain occasional references to "ansh"  literally portion, or avatars of Shiva, but the idea of Shiva avatars is not universally accepted in Saivism. The Linga Purana mentions twenty-eight forms of Shiva which are sometimes seen as avatars , however such mention is unusual and the avatars of Shiva is relatively rare in Shaivism compared to the well emphasized concept of Vishnu avatars in Vaishnavism. Some Vaishnava literature reverentially link Shiva to characters in its mythologies. For example, in the Hanuman Chalisa, Hanuman is identified as the eleventh avatar of Shiva. The Bhagvata Purana and the Vishnu Purana claim sage Durvasa to be a portion of Shiva. Some medieval era writers have called the Advaita Vedanta philosopher Adi Shankara an incarnation of Shiva.

Hanuman the11th avatar of Lord Shiva

Rishi Duravasa:- portion of Lord Shiva