Rudra is an ancient god of storms and winds in early Hinduism, known as the Terrible, Howler, and Savage. He fathered the Maruts and was both feared and praised for his power. In later Hinduism, Rudra became synonymous with a form of Shiva.
Rudra is an ancient god of storms and winds in early Hinduism. Rudra is given many names and is generally seen as a terrifying god, befitting his status as a storm god. He is known as the Terrible, the Howler and the Savage. Although in early Hinduism Rudra was an independent deity, in later Hinduism the god became synonymous with a form of Shiva.
The earliest Rudra was seen as an unclean god, the very embodiment of nature in its wildest and most uncivilized form. He was seen as the god of death even in the early Hindu cycles, shooting arrows that caused disease and pestilence to humans and gods alike. Rudra is associated with hunting and the bow from this early on, and as he evolved he would become the god of the hunt.
Rudra is said to have fathered the Maruts from the goddess Miti. Wishing to have a son as powerful as Indra, the king of the gods, Miti vowed to keep her pregnancy for a hundred years, letting the child grow more and more powerful. Indra heard about it and decided to put an end to it. In one version of the myth he throws his thunderbolt into Miti’s womb, which opens and sends out the Maruts. In another version of the myth Indra travels to Miti’s womb and cuts the child into many different pieces, but each one is so powerful that they transform into individual Maruts.
The different myths place the number of Maruts from a handful to as many as sixty. The sons of Rudra became the lesser storm gods, and it was their action that caused the worst destruction of a storm. The Maruts were seen as the force that felled trees during the worst storms, causing avalanches, and the force behind the winds themselves.
Rudra is a complex figure, with two very different faces presented in various myths. On the one hand, he was the most feared of the gods, and was often ranked with the demons of the world rather than the gods, because he was the god who killed. On the other hand, he was sometimes praised as a healer, a beautiful singer and a generous god, giving gifts to people, gods and animals alike. He was the giver of diseases, but also the god who cured diseases. In many ways, Rudra was viewed with the same coy respect as the wild side of the natural world. When he was benevolent, he was good and kind, but in an instant he could become mean and angry, and often without apparent provocation.
As Hinduism developed, Rudra’s darker sides diminished more and more and he became seen as a benevolent god. Eventually he was no longer seen as a separate deity and the name Rudra was used to describe the aspect of Shiva who ruled over animals and presided over the winds.
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