SITTING BULL (c. 1837-1890), a chief and medicine man of the Dakota Sioux, was born on Willow Creek, in what is now North Dakota, about 1837, son of a chief, Jumping Bull. He gained great influence among the reckless and unruly young In dians, and during the Civil War led attacks on white settlements in Iowa and Minnesota. Though he had pretended to make peace in 1866, from 1869 to 1876 he frequently attacked whites or Indians friendly to whites. His refusal to return to the reservation in 1876 led to the campaign in which Gen. George A. Custer (q.v.) and his command were massacred. Fearing punishment for his participation in the massacre, Sitting Bull with a large band moved over into Canada.
He returned to the United States in 1881, and after 1883 made his home at the Standing Rock Agency. Rumours of a coming Indian Messiah who should sweep away the whites, and Indian dissatisfaction at the sale of their lands, created such great unrest in Dakota in 1889-90 that it was determined to arrest Sitting Bull as a precaution. He was surprised and captured by Indian police and soldiers on Grand river Dec. 15, 189o, and was killed while his companions were attempting to rescue him.
SIVA (Shiva), in post-Vedic mythology the destroyer-god who with Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver forms the Indian trinity. In the Vedas shiva ("auspicious") was the epithet applied to any god, even euphemistically to the baleful Rudra (q.v.). In the Epic literature Siva has many attributes and vari ous functions. He is lord of spirits (bhfits), protector of cattle (as Pasupati) and god of letters, music and dancing. As Nata raja ("dance-king"), however, his worship is confined to southern India; and there, too, is to be found one of his peculiar sects, the Ling5.yats (q.v.). His spouse is essentially Devi ("the goddess")
under the various names, Urna, Parvati, Durga (q.v.), K5,1i (q.v.), or Karaii.
SIVAJI (1627-168o), founder of the Mahratta power in India, was born in May 1627. He was the son of Shahji Bhonsla, a Mahratta soldier of fortune who held a jagir under the Bijapur government, and regarded himself as appointed to free the Hindus from the Mohammedan yoke. Forming a national party among the Hindus of the Deccan, he opposed in turn the vassal power of Bijapur and the imperial armies of the Mogul of Delhi. By intrigue and hard fighting, Sivaji won for the Mahrattas prac tical supremacy in western India. In 1659 he lured Afzul Khan, the Bijapur general, into a personal conference, and killed him with his own hand, while his men attacked and routed the Bijapur army. In 1666 he visited the Mogul emperor, Aurangzeb, at Delhi, but on his expressing dissatisfaction at not being treated with sufficient dignity, he was placed under arrest. Having effected his escape in a sweetmeat basket, he raised the standard of revolt, assumed the title of raja, and the prerogative of coining money in his own name. He died on April 5, 1680. Savaji had a genius both for war and for peaceful administration ; but he always preferred to attain his ends by fraud rather than by force. He is the national hero of the Mahrattas.