Hindu deities

Within Hinduism a large number of personal gods, are worshipped as murtis. These beings are either aspects of the supreme Brahman, avatars of the supreme being, or significantly powerful entities known as devas. The exact nature of belief in regards to each deity varies between differing Hindu denominations and philosophies. Often these beings are depicted in humanoid, or partially-humanoid forms, complete with a set of unique and complex iconography in each case. In total, there are 330,000 of these supernatural beings in various Hindu traditions.
The origin of the name Shiva means "the supreme one". Adi Sankara, in his interpretation of the name Shiva, the 27th and 600th name of Vishnu sahasranama, interprets Shiva to mean either "The Pure One", "the One who is not affected by three Gunas of Prakrti, Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas" or "the One who purifies everyone by the very utterance of His name." Swami Chinmayananda, in his translation of Vishnu sahasranama, further elaborates on that verse: Shiva means "the One who is eternally pure" or "the One who can never have any contamination of the imperfection of Rajas and Tamas".