This is the fifth of a series of short articles on various deities. As I am not a Hindu myself, I would appreciate any feedback from Hindus. I would also be grateful for any images of Rudra that I can use or are in the public domain.
Rudra’s illicit birth
Prajapati wanted a child and so, through a strict ascetic regime, he became inflamed, producing five children: Agni (fire), Vayu (wind), Aditya (sun), Candramus (moon) and Usas (dawn). The story about what happened next differs depending on the tradition.
In one tale, Usas becomes a nymph who then exposes herself to her brothers. In their excitement, the brothers scatter their seeds. Prajapati gathers them up and forms a beast with a thousand eyes and a thousand feet. This is Rudra, ‘The Howler’.
Other sources claim that Rudra was a punishment from the gods after Prajapati committed incest with his daughter, Usas. In this example, Rudra was composed from the worst parts of every god. In yet another story, Rudra is said to have been born of the Fury, Manyu.
The terror from the mountains
Rudra lived on earth, in the mountains from which he occasionally made forays to terrorise small communities. And truly terrible he was too, in both appearance and behaviour. ‘The Red One’ wore his hair plaited, wore animal skins and carried a bow and arrows. His belly was black and his back red, his face and limbs faced in every direction and he was wild and aggressive. He was a hunter and master of the forest beasts. a friend of criminals and all abnormality and the patron of those who killed. He was associated with illness and death, poison and lightning.
If the above were not enough, Rudra (also known as ‘The Noisy’,'The Hissing’, ‘The Flesh-Eating’ and ‘The Destructive’) created thousand of eminations (Rudras) in the roads, rivers and seas.
The new gods: Rudra becomes Shiva
Nevertheless, Rudra was the only truly creative god and he held the heaven and earth together between his two arms and wings. However, as new deities began to supplant the ancient Vedic pantheon, he almost faded from Indian religion.
Then he resurfaced in the most unexpected fashion, becoming intertwined with none other than one of the trimurti, Shiva.
Rudra: An isolated god
Unsurprisingly, Rudra was not a popular deity and even the other gods shunned him. When he married Rudrani the gods requested that they did not reproduce. Rudra agreed but his wife was so furious that she condemned all of the other gods, apart from the absent Agni, to be childless too.
On the way to Swarg (Heaven), Rudri is once again shunned by the gods and receives no sacrifices. In fear, the gods agree he can claim the remaining sacrifices, though there is little left. This is why Rudra is sometimes known as Vastavya, God of the Remnants.
This is just a brief introduction to the attributes and stories of Rudra and I may add more detail at a later stage.
Shiva became intertwined with the vedic god Rudra
Do you have any personal experience of or interest in Rudra or Hinduism that you would like to share? If so, please leave a comment below.
References/Sources used (please use my bookstore if you want to order the books):
Comte, F. (1991) ‘The Wordsworth Dictionary of Mythology’, Wordsworth, Kent
Image attributions
Shiva image licensed under Creative Commons Sharealike 2.0 Generic license by Thejas Panarkandy
Are you a Dream Spirit? Sign up for free!
In 2009 I launched a members site for those of you who are interested in dreams. It’s called Dream Spirit and has lots of free content, including a searchable dream dictionary and forum. To join, please click
here. There are options to upgrade at a reasonable cost to access extra benefits, and even an affiliate program giving 50% instant pay commission.
Read your stars with Earthpulse
Click here to read your weekly stars.
Please note that my stars (as with all horoscopes of this nature) make use of limited, widely applicable astrological factors and can be interpreted in many ways. This does not reflect the full scope of the art and science of astrology.
NB. The rights to my horoscopes are currently for sale to other online or offline publications. Please contact me for more information.
Now on radio!
Finally, I am now on radio, once a month, here in the UK. The radio station is ‘Magic 999′,part of the ‘Rock FM’ group and I take calls for about 40 minutes from 0830 on Jude’s Breakfast Show. The show broadcasts to Lancashire but non-Lancastrians can listen online on www.magic999.co.uk. My next show is likely to be in June 2010.
Coming next: The Hindu Deities: Durga
Add your comment