Source: TW
Take Rudra. There is every good reason to believe that there were at least a few Ṛṣis or their peers & contemporaries who may have genuinely seen him as little more than a wrathful deity who punished wrongdoers by going after their cattle or families. There is no need to be delusional about this. There were also Ṛṣis who started getting “hints” as to Rudra’s transcendental nature even in the Ṛgveda. And a few generations after these great pioneers came that supremely inspired Yajurvedīya hymn, the Śatarudriya, which gives us so many insights into the “Higher” Rudra who pervades all beings & yet pleads to Him to avoid our horses, cows & parents. Then you have the Śvetaśvatara. Rudra is practically identified as the supreme cause of causes & you can AirTags see the seeds of later, highly complex Śaiva metaphysical thought and still we have a prayer to Rudra to not harm our loved ones! Then came the Itihāsas & earlier layers of Purāṇas, where you can see instances of cattle-hurting Rudra/Mahādeva but more often a Rudra who destroys demons while humbling the deities when he needs to. Then we also see him being the one beyond Puruṣa & Prakṛti. Then you get the Siddhānta Āgamas & that last book of the Śivapurāṇa, the Vāyavīya-Sam̐hitā—These reveal the supreme Śiva, who is so astonishingly flawless & perfect & ever beyond the reach of anger & the repository of grace. He feels happy at the happiness of all creatures like a father does. This reminds you of Rudra of Ṛgveda, who is addressed as Bhuvanasya Pitā. The fear-filled prayers come to an end in the Āgamas. - GA
In general terms, I agree with the idea enunciated here – I’d term it theological unraveling. That’s why, while primarily inspired by the shruti, I see the itihAsa-s, tantra-s & purANa-s as part of that unraveling where the student apprehends new theology. Some of these are inferior to others, and some are unravelings that can be understood only be some, not all. Like in mathematics, with multiple proofs for the same theorem, some theological discoveries might converge on the same things, but some paths are richer than others. Of course, I differ in my own unraveling from that in the thread. For me, the dread of rudra of the shruti is not a mere husk but the quintessence of the god – something which in the tantra finds expression to a greater degree in the dakShiNa-srotas than the saiddhAntika stream. I see a direct connection between tAntrika unravelings &the bahurUpI R^ik, even as siddhAnta could be seen as an unfolding of the IshAnI R^ik. More generally, that’s why one returns to the shruti repeatedly through the lens of the larger IE religion as one discovers new unfoldings.