concept of Ardhanaareeswara

        The half-man half-woman Ardhanareeswar represents the union of Shiva and Shakti, the basic tenets of creation, the unchanging Consciousness and Drive that gives motility. The cosmic dance of Ardhanareeswar symbolizes the beginningless cycle of origination and dissolution of the world. Traditionally the feminine Shakti is shown to be the left half of the body and the right half is Shiva.

Modern science regarding the atom:

                     The concept of Ardhanaareeswara (the combination of the male and female principles in Easwara).Consider the similarity between the ancient sages concept of Ardhanaareeswara and the ideas of modern science regarding the atom. Every object is composed of atoms and in every atom (Anu in Sanskrit) there is a proton and an electron. The electron is described in Sanskrit as the Vebhaaga (the left half) of the atom and the proton is described as the Dhanabhaaga (the right half) of the atom

. The Vebhaaga represents the female principle and the Dhanabhaaga the male principle. The coming together of these two constitutes the material base of each object. This process of coming together is represented in the concept of Ardhanaareeswara. Ardhanaareeswara means half-feminine and half-masculine. The electron represents the feminine aspect. The proton represents the male aspect. The atom is formed when they come together. Every object in the universe is made up of atoms. Hence, the ancients regarded the entire cosmos as an embodiment of the Ardhanaareeswara principle.

Purana story  of Ardhanareeshwara:

          
              A story in Shiv Purana says that Brahma, the Creator, was not happy with the way the development of human beings was going on. So he prayed to Shiva. Shiva released his Shakti part and instructed her to be born as the daughter of Daksha, thus creating an active role for her in the world. The classical Indian picturization of Ardhanareeswar stops with the body and does not tell anything of the brain in the head.

Awareness of the human anatomy:

     We are now well aware that our brain consists of two distinct units (left and right hemispheres) interconnected by a bundle of 300 million axonal fibers. The right brain controls the left half of the body (including the left part of the face) and the left brain controls the right half of the body.Characteristically the right hemisphere oversees a set of qualities which are typically associated with feminine traits and the left hemisphere oversees the masculine traits.

 The ancient Indians depicted correctly the left half of the human body to show Shakti (female quality) and the right half as Shiva (male)! This does clearly indicate their awareness of the human anatomy.