rudra

RUDRA IN THE VEDA

It has been pointed out by me in another paperi that one of the very intriguing problems of Indian mythology pertains to the elevation of the god Viṣṇu from a more or less minor and obscure position which he occupies in Vedic mythology to the position of supreme preeminence in the later Hindu pantheon I have presented in that paper a complete picture of the various VICISSI tudes which occurred in the personality and character of that god from the point of view of what I have called evolutionary mythology, and have thereby offered a solution of that problem A similar problem can be posed in respect of another Vedic god, namely, Rudra It must be added, in this connection, that, as a matter of fact, the importance of the problem relating to Rudra is not limited only to the study of Indian religion and mythology For, in more senses than one, the Rudra problem touches several significant aspects of the entire cultural history of ancient India As a consequence of this, the Rudra problem naturally tends to become far more complex and comprehensive than the Visau problem A study of the Vedic literature as a whole brings out a very striking fact about the god Rudra It will appear, from that study, that there are, as it were, two distinct Rudras represented in that literature - one in the Rgieda (RV) and the other in the post-RV Vedic literature? The Rudra of the RV, for instance, is a heavenly god, while in the post-RV literature he is regarded as being essentially earthly In the RV, Rudra’s hosts are generally represented to be the Maruts, while in the post-RV literature Rudra is accompanied by various kinds of evil spirits and dreadful beings As a matter of fact, the post-RV Rudra seems to have

1. Viṣnų įa the Veda , publısbed elsewhere in thug Volume 2 As will be made clear later on, it is, indiced not possible to accept OLDENBERG S Suggestion that Rudra s character is unilorm throughout the Vedic literature (RII, 216 ) 200 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS derived several features of his character from cannibalism and bloodthirstiness There are, however, unmistakable indications that these so called two Rudras actually constitute one and the same god A consideration of the pame, the outward appearance, and certain special features of these two Rudras would leave no doubt about their basic identity Indeed, all tbat is intended to be suggested by the foregoing statement is that the traits of Rudra’s character which are emphasized in the RP are essentially diffcrent from those which are emphasized in the post RI’ Vedic literature A critical study of the Rudra-problem may well begin with the recountiog of what may be called the most distinctive characte tistics of that god Weak characterisation of gods is generally mentioned as a peculiar feature of the Vedic mythology It is, for instance, suggested that the concreteness, the life fulness’, and the peculiar plastic mould, which distinguish the Greek gods, are almost absent so far as the Vedic gods are concerned There is a sort of paleness about them Colourless epithets and stered typed descriptions tend to make them purely conventional mythological figures Without attempting to examinc this criticism at any length, one may only point out in this context that, even assuming that this criticism is generally justifiable, it does not become applicable at least in the case of Rudra A study on the Vedic literature will show that Rudra possesses a distibct individuality of his own, which clearly bears the stamp of concre teness about it Indeed, for a god who cannot be said to have played any siga ficant role in the herarchical Vedic mytbology and ritual there are given in the Veda perhaps more particulars about Rudra’s personality and character than would be aorminy expected Just as the Rgvedic Rudra and the post-RV Rudra may be said to constitute two distinct personalities, the Rgvedic Kuc 3 If the number of hymns in which Rudra 13 celebrated in the R utasco into account, he must be said to occupy a very subordinate position in that v Ile is the subject of three entire liyann: (1 114 II 33, and VII 46) and part of a fourth (1 43 1-6) and is mentioned not more than 75 times in .. RUDRA IN THE VEDA 201 himself is represented as possessing, so to say, a ‘double’ perso nality He is said to be a particularly fierce god (II 33 9, 11; X 120 5), destructive like a terrible beast (II 33 11 ), unassai lable and unsurpassed in might (1 114 4, II 33 3, 10, VII, 46 1, X 92 5) The Tarttırıya Samhita says (VI 1 7 8, 2 3 2) rudro var krūro deranam (also of MS III 8 1 ) Rudra is called the ruddy boar of the heaven (I 114 5) or the great asura of the heaven (II16) A reference is frequently made to Rudra s death bringing missiles (II 33 10) As a matter of fact, fear of Rudra’s terrible shafts and the deprecation of his wrath and ill will may be said to be the ruling sentiments of a large pumber of passages in the RV referring to Rudra (II 33 4-6, 15) He is often implored not to slay or injure men and cattle (I 114 78, VI 28 7, VII 46 2-4) but to preserve the worsłuppers and their property unharmed (II 33 3 6) Rudra’s very name is frightening (II 33 8) A usual prayer addressed to Rudra is that he may prostrate others with bis malevolent bolt but not bring all luck in our family’ (VII 46 2-4) In the post-RV Vedic literature, Rudra’s malevolencc and wrathful ness are more frequently referred to and deprecated (VS 3 61, AV XI 2) According to the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (III 33), Rudra is the compound of the tercible forms of the gods, while the Satapatha Brāhmaṇa tells us (IX 1 1 1,6) that even the gods are afraid of hun It is suggested in the Sankhayanass (IV 19 7 8 ) that Rudra’s hosts attack men and beasts with disease and death But Rudra is not exclusively malevolent and maleficent He is also represented as possessing certain positively beneficent traits Hcs said to bestow blessings on his worshippers (1 114 1, 2, II 33 6 ) and generally look after the welfare of man and beast (1 436) He is a mighty helper and a liberal giver He sees to it that the inhabitants of a village are well fed and free from disease (I 114 1) But by far the most significant 4 Rudra s pame is never to be dirccuy mentioned According to the Atle Dr III 34 a particular Rgvedc mantra must be recited to avoid the evil consequences of such a mention 26 202 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS reference in this connection is the one to Rudra’s great healing powers He is the physician of physicians (II 33 4), whose remarkable remedies are often praised by the Rgvedic poets (I 114 5, II 33 7, 12, V 42 11, VII 46 3) It is in view of this aspect of Rudra’s character that the epithet, jalasabhesaja is exclusively bestowed on him (VIJI 29 5) Rudra’s healing powers are referred to also in the post RV Vedic literature (AV II 27 6, VS 3 59, 16 S, 49), but less frequently than hus fright ful and destructive nature This double personality’ of Rudra - as a maleficent demon and a beneficent physician at the same time - seems to have been regarded by the Rgvedic poets as the special distinguishing feature of that god The author of a well known hymn in the RV, namely, VIJI 29, has mentioned, in the right brahmody a fashion, in each stanza of that hymn only the most distinctive characteristics of a particular god without men tioning the name of that god He has thus left the reader to inter the identity of the god from those distinctive characteristics The fifth stanza in that hymn characterizes a god who is at once ferocious ( ugra) and bright and holy ( fucı), and who wields in his hand a sharp weapon (tigma ajudha) and at the same time possesses marvellous healing powers (jalasabhesaja) Obviously this is the description of Rudra, the god with double personality It must, however, be pointed out in this connection that there is Do self contradiction whatsoever in such character On the contrary, it emphasizes the fact that Rudra is not a stereotyped of conventionalised niythical figure Indeed, he is not at all ethically conceived either as an exclusively benevolent god or as an ex clusively malevolent demon It further shous that, fortunately for us, the personality of Rudra is not affected particularly vitally by the deconcretising influence of the hierarchical mythology A reference must also be made at this stage to what may be regarded as an essentially unconventional manner in which Rudra is celebrated in the famous Satarudrija (VS 16 1 ff = TS IV 5 1 1 fr ) There he is glorified as the lord of thieves (W 16 21 ) of pulserers (22), and of plunderers (22) Not only this He is himself characterised as robber and prowler, cheater and RUDRA IN THE VEDA 203 deceiver (21, 22) Rudra is further associated, in that hymn, with various kinds of people and places It may be difficult now to realise the true significance of some of the epithets, employed 10 the Satarudriya with reference to Rudra But one cannot on that account regard those epithets as being purely fantastico or suggest that they relate to the character and personality of Rudra 10 a loose, superficial, and artificial manner 8 On the contrary, it 15 necessary to empliasize that no theory regarding the Vedic Rudra can be acceptable which does not rationally account for the various epithets of Rudra recounted in the Satarudriya It has been already suggested that the Vedic Rudra possesses a distinct individuality One important indication of this is to be seen in the remarkably life like description of his appearance and dress given in the Vedic literature Rudra is brown (babhru Il 33 5 ) or red (VS 16 7) in complexion He is blue necked (VS 16 7) and blue-tufted ( AV II 27 6), his belly is black and his back red ( AV XV 1 7-8) He arranges his hair in a peculiar manner (kapardm | 114 1,5) and wears a multiform necklace (nisha) as his special omament (II 33 10) He is also descri bed as being clothed ja a skin (VS 3 61, 16 51) These descriptions of Rudra’s distinctive physical features and dress no doubt tend sharply to isolate him from the other Vedic gods But there are in the Vedic literature certain other indica tions, of a far more essential nature, which emphasize Rudra’s distinctness from the other gods For instance, Rudra can be clearly marked out from the other Vedic gods on account of his peculiar position in the Vedic ritual Generally speaking one cannot say that Rudra plays any significant role in any of the important srauta sacritices Especially he fias no place in the Soma sacrifices in which all other important Vedic gods partake, TUIR OS p 229 430 5 MUIR OST IV,331 G ARDMAN Rudra p 229 7 CF OLDENBERO RUV, 450 ( 2, 455 r n 4 OLDENDERO bowever, Wonders (RAV, 216 in 1) whether RV I 122 1 does not suggest that Rodra did balca share ia Soma-sacrifices 122 1 204 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS In the agnihotra sacrifice, after the second oblation for Prajapats, the Adhvaryu is supposed actually to drive Rudra back to his home by means of a peculiar movement of the sacrificial ladle" It has been pointed out that there is no saman sung in praise of Rudra Apart from Rudra’s more or less incidental connection with the rajasuyalo and the agnicayana, 11 only one rite 10 a śraufa sacrifice can be said to be properly dedicated to Rudra, namely, traiyambaka homa in the sākamedha 12 It is laid down that, in certain sacrifices, after the offerings are duly made to the relevant gods, the remnants of the oblations may be offered to Rudra." This is, however, neither compulsory nor common to all schools Besides, even the ucclusta offerings must be made over to Rudra not through fire but upon coals 14 Rudra is accordingly often characterised as ucchesanabhaga 15 Attention may be drawn, in this context, also to the fact that the verb which is specifically used in connection with the offerings made to Rudra is nir ava da, which implies that the sacrificer should give Rudra hıs due so that he might go away,16 The Satapatha-Brāhmaṇa (1 7 3 1) nafta. BASS VI 11 3 9 HILLEERANDT, VAII, 181 It may be noted that, for this paper, the first edition of HILLEBRANDT Vedusche Afythologue, Breslau, 1891 1902, has been taken into account ] 10 In the rajasaya at one of the twelve ratnahavis, wild corn is brough forth for Rudra from the aksuvapa and govikarta (HILLEDRANDT, VIII 190 11 The first great ceremony to be performed on the newly constructed altar is the salaruriya I oma (HILLEBRANDT, VAL II, 197) It must be added that Rudra has a share in the agni sostakrt offerings (TSII 6 6 5) and that phal"karanas are assigned to him (Gobkla I 4 31 ) 12 Even in the traiyambaka homa Rudra s character is represented as beidz distinct from that of the other gods (ApSS VIII 171-1810) 15 The ucchusta waters in the rajasuya abh seka are, for intance, offered to Rudra (TBI 785) Also cf Gobh GS I 8 23 ADS JI 4 23 14 CALAND, L dgnsfoma, 210 15 TBI 785, TS I 8 14 (comma) On the strength of the fact that Rudra is characterised as ucchesapabhaga at is suggested that the ucchista sukla u the AV (XI 7), which is a sort of a philosophical hymn pertains to Rudra Through that hymn, Rudra is said to have been mystically glorificd ( CHARPEN TIER, IZKM 23, 151-179) 16 CF RV 11 33 5, TS II 6 6 6 OLDENBERC, Opat, 217, 308, PO! Also cf J GONDA, " L emploi du verbe simple , 40 20,172-73 RUDRA IN THE VEDA 205 tes how all gods attained heaven while Rudra was left behind Though Rudra is thus normally depicd any honourable position in the hierarchical Brahmanical ritual,17 it is of particular interest from the point of view of the essential character of that god that, in certain kinds of grhya or popular rites such as the Sulagavat and the aśvajuji and prsataka ceremonjes, he does play a very prominent role 19 The entire position in this respect can be best summarised by saying that Rudra is excluded from homas offered in the hierarchical ritual, but he is very positively entitled to balis offered in the folk cult rites A distinction is further sought to be made between Rudra and the other Vcdic gods by emphasizing the fact that while the abode of gods in general is in the east. Rudra resides in the north Moreover, even the usual henotheistic tendencies of the Vedic poets have not led them to characterise Rudra, even once, as the crertor of the heaven and the earth It should thus become clear that, though the Veda cannot be said to exhibit any open opposition to Rudra worship as such, there are several clear indications in it which show that the Rudra worship was alien to the genuine religious ideology of the Vedic Aryans and that it was introduced in the Vedic religion perhaps under the pressure of certain peculiar circumstances Among all the gods so the RV Rudra is most closely associa ted with the Maruts 20 A critical study of the character of the Maruts and their association with the other Vedic gods would, however, clearly produce the impression that their association with Rudra must have been but short lived 21 This fact is, indeed, of particular significance so far as Rudra’s character in the RV is concerned Besides the Maruts, Rudra seems to have some 17 It may be inc dentally pointed out that certain other minor divostics, Lke Nuṣtu also were excluded from a stoula ritual 18 Accord ng to the SS and the Afogs the ulagaca also is a frauta riic 19 Accord ng to certa o Jutras Rudra is somet mes glorificd in the daily maharajsa Cr Cobl CS III 6 20 It is suggested that on account of his formidable nature Rudra is not assoc aled with another Ved god to form a dual d vin ly recept once with Soms (VI 74) 21 Sce Vstrahi Indra pubLshed elsewhere in this Volume, 206 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS affinity to Agni In one passage of the RV (IL 1 6) for instance Rudra is included among the several deities identified with Agni Rudra seems to be identified with Ago also in the AV (VII 87 1) the Tanttiriya Samhita (V 4 3 1 574) and the Satapaiha Brāhmaṇa (VI 1 3 10) In the Taittırıy: Samhita (1 2 2 3) Rudra is called the terrific form (ghora tanuh) of Agni 2 But in several such passages it appears as if the word, rudra, is used rather as an adjective 29 But surely of a far more insic nature is Rudra’s relationship with Sarya and Bhava It is, indeed significant that these latter gods are referred to exclusi vely in the post RV literature In some passages in the AV-like va though more or less similar, are represented as being distinct from each other and from Rudra But in the same Veda there are clear indications (X1 2) of Rudra’s identity with them in the Vi jasaneyi Samuta (16 18, 28 ) Sarva and Bhava are actually mentioned as the names ol Rudra, while in the SanklayanaśS (IV 20 1) they are said to be Rudra’s (Mahadeva’s) sons Attention must be drawn), in this connection, to the very significant passage in the Satapatha-Bran mana (1 7 38) according to which Sarva was specially worshipp ed by the eastern people and Bhava by the Vahikas who are per* haps the same as the people of Bahlika in the North West It is suggested that like Sarva and Bhava Pasupati also was originally an independent god But owing to the essential similarity of the characters of the gods Pasupati and Rudra the word, pasupali, Was either used as a frequent epithet of Rudra in the post R literature or the two gods were represented as being actually identical The identity between Rudra on the one hand, and Sarva, Bhava, and Pasupati, on the other, seems to be further suggested by such references as those ja which Sarva Bhavs, Rudra, and Pasupati are said to be the different names of Agni or these four with four others are said to represent the eight forms of Agni 26 It is further suggested that Tryambaka also was 22 Also cf commentary on TAB XII 4 24 agnir rai raro rud a no 23 CE TS I 2 11 24 SPB 1 7 3 8 25 Namely UgrAfint Mahideva and Agnt 26 SPBVI 1.3, SB VI IRUDRA IN THE VEDA 207 originally a god who was distinct from Rudra but who was later identificd with him Finally, there can be no doubt whatever about the essential similarity of the Vedic Rudra to Siva As a matter of fact, even a casual comparison of the characterisation of Rudra in the Salarudrna with the normal descriptions of Siva occurring in the post-Vedic literature would seem to suggest that these two gods must have been basically one and the same A particularly distinctive characteristic of Rudra is his peculiar relation with what appear to have been distinct religious cults in ancient times In this connection a reference must first be made to RY X 136 This hymn clearly relates to the specific orgiastic cult of the munis These munis seem to have worn long hair and indulged in a sort of ecstasy-producing medicament (X 136 ) There are also indications that they attained certain miraculous or mystic powers which are comparable to the powers which are believed to be attained through yoga Rudra is represented in this niuni suhla almost as the leader of that cult (X 136 7) Further, there is in the AV a remarkable hymn (XI 5), which is known as the bralimacāri sukta It is generally assumed that this hymn extols the Vedic student 17 Some of the descrip tions of the brahmacarın given in this hymn, such as that the bralımacārın was long bearded (XI 5 6), would, however, seem to go against such an assumption The various claims made in this hymn on behalf of the brahmacarın (XI S 8, 9, 16-19) would also seem rather incongruous so far as the normal Vedic. Studentship is concerned 28 Nor can this hymo be understood to refer to the concept of bralman as such 24 BLOOMFIELD’s. suggestions that “the sun who contributes elsewhere many of his qualities to the speculations regarding the primeval principle of 27 JITAEY, Atharvaneda Sathita English Translation Vol 2, p 636 28 Even WHUTNEY (rond) fcels that thc rendering Ved - Studentship 11 too rigid to fit every wire 29 DEUSSEN (Geschichte I, I 277) entities the inymn as “The Brahman pupil as incarnation of Brahman’ 30 Flymns of the AV, p 626 208 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS the universe, is here for the nonce imagined as a brahmacarin, a Brahmanical disciple, engaged in the practice of his holy vows “, will also, on further scrutiny, be found to be quite unacceptable A critical study of the bralimacārı sükta would seem to indicate that its central theme was the glorification of a specific religious cult called the brahmacārm cult The followers of this religious cult seem to have lived a life of rigorous discipline wluch is clearly indicated by such words as samidh, mekhala, śrama, tapas, gharma, bliksa, etc (XI 5 4 8,9). With the full fledged deve lopment of the concept of the aśramadharma, at a later stage many features of the disciplined life of penance, which characterised the religious cult of the braliniacarins, seem to have been transferreo to the life of studentship or brahmacarya In the AV, the members of the religious cult of the brahmacarins are described as “cloth ing themselves with heat gharma) and standing up with fervour (tapas)” (XI 55) As the result of their severe penance this were believed to be endowed with special virile powers (XI $12) Not only this As is usual in such cases, they were surther sald to be responsible for several cosmic functions (XI 5 8,11,19-22) What is, however, perhaps more significant for our present pur pose is that this hymn contains certain indications regarding & more essential aspect of this cult On tlie basis of these foule tions it may be presumed that the brahmacarın cult was very closely related to the Rudra worship As a matter of fact, certain descriptions of the typical brahmacärin, occurring in this by tend to remind one of Rudra Siva For instance, the brahmid carın is described as being followed by the gandharyas (XIS). The close connection between Rudra Sıva and such classes beings as the gandharvas is quite well known the reference to a girl winding a husband through brahmacarya (XI 5 18 ) 15 pera haps suggestive of a fertility rite in which Rudra played an portant role Without some such assumption that stanza wo lose almost its entire significance But by far the most striking 31 Bloouplelo s further suggestion ( 1011 ) that thus hymn offered a fou opportunity for the apothcosis of Brahmanım and the Brahmanic castc » Aga foo farfetched RUDRA IN THE VED 4 209 evidence in this connection is the characterization of the brahma carin as the possessor of grcat penis (brlacchepa) and the spriokler of the seed (rerah sincan) (XI 5 12) There can be hardly any doubt that it must have been the concept of Rudra Siva which was intended to be indicated by these descriptions It may, therefore, be assumed that Rudra was associated, in a special manner, with the ancient religious cults of the munis (RV X. 136) and the bralımacārins (AV XI 5) 3* There is a third, and perhaps much more important, ancient religious cult with which Rudra was vitally connected - namely, the cult of the var, as From a critical study of the Vedic sources relating to tlus cult33 - particularly of the AV and the Pancavimśa Bralunana — it becomes quite eyident that the yrätyas had developed their own distinctive religious ideology, social order, and general way of life They seem to have called the Supreme Being by the name of chavratya Certain features of the physical appearance of the ekavratza such as blue belly and red back ( AV XV 1 7), unmistakably remind one of Rudra The same can be said about the peculiar apparel worn by the vrātyas Particularly the niska mentioned in that connection ( PancaBr XVII 1) is reminiscent of Rudra’s niska (II 33 10 The vratias seem to have become distinguished on account of their peculiar asceticism and yogic practices (XV 31, 15 1-9) Among their principal tutelary gods are mentioned Bhava, Sarva, Pasupali, Ugra, Rudra, Mahudeva and Iśāda (XY 5 Sometimes the chavratya is actually identified with Mahādeva (XV I. 4) It is further suggested in the AV that the 32 It may be po nted out in this connection that BLOOMFIELD believes (JAOS 15, 167 ff that RV X 136 also contains the glarification of the qua 13 A munt * sol tary ascetic It will be easly seen that this vicw of BLOOMFIELD 15 not warranted by the text of that hymn Itu however interesting to note that BLOOMFIELD considers RV X. 136 and AV XI 5 to be referring to a common theme It has already been shown that these two hymns actually refer to two separate rel gious cults, both of which however, regarded Rudra Siva as their special god It is only to this extent that the two bymns can be sa d to have mutually related themes 33 A XV. IS 30 B TB III 451, Pancacıhsa By XVII 1-4, Apss XXII S 4-14, Kalydrana $S VII 1, II 4, Latywana SS VIII 6 210 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS yrāt, as did not approve of Brahmanic sacrifices (XV 12 1-4) It may also be mentioned that the râty as used to partake of a kind of intoxicating drink ( sura ) presumably as a part of their orgiastic religious practice and that their whole life was governed by a number of solemn vows (XV 3) 35 All these facts would lead to two irresistible conclusions namely that the vrātjas formed a distinct and an independent religious cult in ancient times and that their religious ideology had very close affinity to the persona lity and the worship of Rudra According to the Pancavimsa Br, the vratya community was broadly divided into two classes - the arhars and the Jaudhas 34 The same Brāhmana further says that the vratyas were divided into four classes, namely, hind, garagır, samanıcamedhra, and nındıra Out of these four classes, the garagır (= swallowers of poison) and the Samanıcamedhra (=one whose penis hangs low through control of passion) are of particular interest from our point of view in so far as they very emphatically underline the close relationship which must have subsisted between Rudra and the religious cult of the vraty as it may be recalled that like the garagır, the munis also are described as drinking poison (visa in the company of Rudra (X 136 1 Similarly, the same samanicamedhra given to a class of the valjas would remind one of the rigorous penances and yogic practices observed by the munis and the brahmacarins *7 One would, there fore, be justified, in presuming that the three religious CUIS namely, those of the vratyas, the munis, and the brahmacarins though perhaps originally distinct from and independent of one another, had considerable basic similarity in point of ideo and practice It may be further emphasized that, as pointed out nother etymolog, wordenata in depozitare 34 CAP KARMARKAR, The Vidya Systems of Rel gian, p 23 35 It is indecd, muggested that the word orada u derived from 1.4 (=vow) According to another etymology that word u connected with a ( tribes hosts) 36 These two are obviously comparable with the brahma and the ksalyd the Vedic community “The fact that the tratra term arhat was later adopted by the non cd c sects of the Buddbists and the jainas is indeed very significant 37 Presumably, the primary purpose of those practices was to curb passions RUDRA IN THE VEDA 211 above, Rudra’s close connection with these cults constitutes a particularly distinctive feature of the personality and character of that god This enumeration of Rudra’s distinctive characteristics will sot be complete without a mention of that god’s inherent associa tion with what may be broadly called the demon world Rudra is thereby clearly isolated from other major Vedic gods It will be seen that three distinct classes of beings are principally men. tioned as being the followers of Rudra, namely, the Rudras, the Maruts and the Rudraganas As a matter of fact, these three classes of beings associated with Rudra can be said to corres pond with the three distinct stages in the evolution of Rudra’s character and personality The Maruts are often characterised in the RV as rudral or rudrāsah ( I 39 4, 7, 64 3, 85 2, 100 5, 101 7, 166 2. II 34 9. 13. VIIL 7 12. X 64 8,92 6) They are Rudra’s sons (I 64 12, VI 66 11 ) or Rudra’s marjas (I 64 2, VII 56 1) Rudra is correspondingly represented as marunon (1 114 11, II 33 6 ) or as the father of the Maruts (1 114 6, V 60 5) An impression is, therefore, likely to be produced that the Rudrns and the Maruts are essentially identical This would not, however, constitute a correct estimate of the character of these two classes of beings For one thing, it should be remembered that the Maruts are not invariably called Rudras HILLEBRANDT, for instance, has drawn attention to the very significant fact that in the fourth and the sixth mandalas of the RV, the Maruts do not at all appear as Rudras $ In some passages, the Maruts are no doubt almost completely identified With the Rudras But there are also other passages in the RY (II 31 1, 3, VIII 13 28, 54 3, X 664) wherein the Maruts and the Rudras arc mentioned as tho distinct classes of beings The characterisation of the Maruts as Rudras, therefore, sccms to have been only incidental and perhaps intended to serve some specific purpose Secondly, the Maruts appear, in the RV, and, indeed, more frequently than otherwise, as the followers of 33 BADII1, 303 212 SEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS Indra " lind the Maruts constituted a rcally vital and organic part of the Rudra mythology the Rudra Marut combination should not have tended to become farer in course of time Actually, howCuct what happens is that the Maruts are soon Isolated from Rudra so much so that they later begin to appear as if they belonged to a milicu different from Rudra’s The Maruts arc for instance, often represented as being bright and freedly as against Rudrn who is dark and frightful The Maruts art, indccd, the divinities who are generally loved by the people But what is perhaps more striking in this connection is that the a prominent place in the hıcrarchical Vedic ntual, a position which is denied to Rudra Thc müdhjühnasorana 18 a Soma sacrifice is offered to Indra and the Maruts, and the sajamsa ana to Agni and the Maruts In RI’ I 19, Agni is specifically implored to comc to the sacrifice in the compoy ol the Maruts One would consequcntly be justified in drawing the following conclusions from the facts stated above The Rodris and the Maruts were originally distinct classes of beings As the name rudras, clearly points out, it must have been that class of beings which was originally associated with Rudra as the follo wers of that god It, hou cicr, seems that, in the RV, the ongios relationship between Rudra and the Rudras was more or less suppressed As will be shonn later, this must have been the result of a tendentious activity on the part of the poct priests of the RV When they conceded to Rudra a place in what nay of called the official pantheon of Vedic gods they thought it fit su stantially to change the original and essential character of that god 6 Naturally enough they represented the relations between Rudra and the Rudras, which constituted a vital feature of the basic Rudra mythology, in a purely formal and conya 39 See “Vr̥trahá Indra The Naruts are associated in the mi wth Viru (1 156 4 ) Agos (119) Váyu (1 1314 ) and Soma (1) 26) Why they should be character sad as bhsratasya sunatal (II 36.2 clear Were the Waruts as the bosts of the war god Indra special des insir the warlle or be of the Bharata? 40 As showa elsewhere they had done the same thing also in respect Viṣnu Sec uṣou in the Ved1, publ shed clsewhere in ths Volume RUDRA IN THE VEDA 213 tional manner On the other hand, in consonance with the new character in which Rudra mainly came to be represented in the RY, he was associated with the Maruts $1 And, consequently, the name of the original Rudras- but not their essential character - came to be traasferred to the Maruts This would explain why, in the RV, the Maruts are characterised as Rudras but are, at the same time, represented as being definitely distinct from them Later, in the course of the evolution of the Yedic my. thology, the mythology relatiog to Rudra and the Maruts took a different tum altogetherRudra tended to regain his pristiac character and, conscquently, the allegiance of the Maruts came to be transferred from Rudra to Indra In this process the origi nal character of the Maruts was almost unrecognizably transfor med and the relationship between Rudra and the Rudras regained its old vitality in the later Vedic literature The Rudras are there represented as being eleven in number (TSI I 9, III 4 97, VII 1 18, ŚPB IV 5 72, AB I 10 S, TUB VI 2S) and possessing a demoniac strain in their character (TAI 12) lo coonection with the Sulasara they are actually shown as demo. Diac beings, frightful and eager to kill They wear their hair long and are said frequently to sbout and cry? In the post-Vedic literature Rudra Siva is represented as beiog followed by various classes of spirits and demoniac beings often referred to as Rudraganas, Bhutas, or Sivaganas - most of whom show ap cssen tial affinity with the original Rudras It would thus seen that the relationship betwcen Rudra and the Rudras was original and organic, that it was temporanly suppressed in the RV and the Naruts took the place of thc Rudras, that in the later Veda the ancient Rudra Rudras combination was revived, and that, snally, in the post-Vedic literature the ancient Rudras assumed the form of the Rudra ganas or the Sivaganas 11 It mut be remembxred in this connccuon that, so far as the gredic mythology la concerned the association of the laruts with Rudra certainly carlier and more original dl so that with any other goud (See " Viraha Indra’) There is, indeed, vufliccat ground to asume that the pronary character of the Slarvu must have been excatally diferent from what the majonty of pasugo in the RI tend to indicate 12 Cr Arpin, Rudra, p 863. 214 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS While speaking of the followers of Rudra reference must necessarily be made to the fact that, besides the Rudras serpents are associated with Rudra in a more or less special manner The relation between Rudra and the serpents cannot be regarded merely as an offshoot of that god s character as paśupati It is certainly of a more intrinsic nature According to the Anukra mani, AV III 26 and 27 pertain to Rudra Out of these two hymns III 26 is a magical incantation against demons of all sorts, while III 27 1$ specially characterised as constituting 2 serpent charm Similarly the devata of the two stanzas, namely, AV VI 56 2-3, is said to be Rudra, and they are directed against serpents Conversely, AV XII 1 46, which is obviously 30 Incantation against the serpents, accompanies an oblation to be made by the Brahman priest in the satarudrıyahoma Further, in the AśvGS IV 8 28, serpents are mentioned among the mani fold and more or less curiously named followers of Rudra who share an offering made to him, 43 and, according to the Hiranja GS (I 5 16 10 ), in a place infested with serpents, offering is made to Rudra ‘wbo sits among the serpents. It will be tous seen that just as among the followers of the Rudra cult are mentioned several classes of what may be called ’non social, “uncıvılısed’, and barbarous people, 4. so also among that god s paraphernalia are included several classes of what may be called ’non godly’, demoniac beings An attempt has been made above to lay bare the complex personality of Rudra by clearly setting forth the most distinctive and exclusive features of that god as represented in the Vedic literature It is needless to add that any theory pertaining " Rudra must needs take into account all these aspects of character Not only that, it must also rationally accommodate within itsell all those characteristics of that god Obviously enough, this will be possible only on the assumption of the evold tionary character of the Vedic mythology Before, however, 43 WINTERNITZ, De Satpabals, p 41 The serpents take out ole ofering the portions containing blood and intcstinc 44 Cf the Satarudnya RUDRA IN THE VEDA 215 uadertaking to reconstruct the entire picture of the ‘becoraing’ of Rudra, in the light of evolutionary mythology, it would be help ful critically to examine some of the important theories regarding Rudra’s character put forth by scholars One of the most common views regarding Rudra is that he is a storm-god in the Veda 45 Attempt is made by scholars first to establish the heavenly character of Rudra Rudra is divah asurah (II 16. VIII 20 17) or the red hog of the heaven (1 114 5) He sends down his arrows from the heaven (VII 46 3) In X 92 9, Rudra is said to come down to the earth from heaven It is further pointed out that this god of the heaven wields a thunderbolt in his hand (II 33 3) Elsewhere Rudra’s weapon 15 said to have been duyut (VII 46 3), which word is understood in the sense of vidyut, gleaming boit or lightning The character of Rudra as a god of tempest would thus become quite obvious even from these few references How ever, according to HOPKINS,46 nothing could be plainer and more convincing in this connection than the prayer addressed to Rudra that his lightning, which, hurled down from the sky, passes along the carth, might avoid the worsbipper (VII 46 3)’ In equally clear terms is Rudra invoked in the AV not to assail the worshipper with celestial fire and * to cause the lightping to descend elsewhere’ (XI 2 26 There can, therefore, be hardly any doubt as to the essential fulgurent nature of Rudra Accord ing to the naturalistic interpretation of the Vedic mythology, the Maruts are represented to be the divinities connected with the phenomenon of storm Rudra is the father of the Maruts (I. 114 6, 9, II 33 1) and must, therefore, also be assumed to be more definitely connected with storm In this connection HOPKINS suggests 47 that the Maruts, who are quite unadultera ted nature gods, are the original ruddy ones (rudrah), their female 45 KUIN, KZ III, 335, WHITNEY JAOS III, 318 ff, KAEGI DO RV, 55, BLOOMELD, AJPh XII, 429, HARDY, Ved-Br Per , 83, HOPRINS, JAOS 16, cl-clu, MACDOYELL VAI, 76 ff, JRAS 1895,956. 46 JAOS 16, cl-chi, 47. Religions of India, pp 97-98. 216 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS companion is rodası ( the ruddy one), and their father is Rudra, the ruddy one par excellence This recurring reference to ruddiness’ 1 plies that Rudra and the Maruts represent more particularly the fury of the tempest Rudra is indeed, te presented in the RV as a god of red lightning Besides thus being organically copnected with the heaven, the lightning and the Maruts, who are the storm gods, Rudra is described as making the streams flow over the earth (X 92 5) In another context (V 58 7), the sons of Rudra are said to make rain of their sweat The epithet, midhvas, which is derived from the root, mith (=to shower), and which is usually applied in the RV to a rain bringing storm god, is applied also to Rudra (1 114 3) thus confirming his character as such a god The double character of Rudra, namely, frightful and destructive on the one hand and kindly and beneficent on the other, can be best explained on the assumption that he is a storm god For, while Rudra s gleaming bolt (didyur) might spell distress and destruc tion, the rains which he brings prove to be a veritable boon to humanity Apart from the obvious efficacy of waters in condec tion with fertilization, etc, special emphasis seems to have been put on their peculiar medicinal properties, particularly in so far as these waters are produced by Rudra Rudra is the physician 01 physicians (II 33 4) and possesses remarkable healing powers (II 33 4,7) He is the master of numerous choice remedies (1 114 5, II 33 12, V 42 11, VII 46 3) Rudra s healing powers are also referred to in the AV (11 27 6) and the (3 59, 16 5,49 ) The medicinal potency of waters is fully recognised in the RV In I 23 20, for instance, we are told that medical remedies subsist within waters (apsu antar visi bhesaja) 48 The epithet jalasabhesaja is exclusively attributed Rudra (1 43 4, VIII 29 5, AV II 276) Most of the scholars who sponsor the storm god theory understand the word jalasa, bhesaja to mean ‘one whose medicinal remedies consist of 48 Also cf VI 50 7 X 137 6 The curat ve character of the waters Day have also been de ived from the purifying and cleansing activity of the tau which freshen up the awosphereRUDRA IN THE VEDA 217 waters. The close connection between the waters and Rudra is thus well established Rudra, as the leader of the Maruts, is the water causing god and, therefore, medicinally very potent It is very significant to note, in this connection, that, in other passages, waters as medicines are associated with the Maruts (V 53 14) and the medicinal remedies are said to come down from the sky (X 599) With a view to supporting the storm god theory reference is further made to the facts that the wind is described as Rudra’s arrow,” and that, in the Satarudnya, Rudra is characterised as the lord of rains, clouds, lightning, and winds 50 HOPKINS thinks that Rudra’s description as a god of blue neck and red belly is also suggestive of cloud and lightning 51 Some of the sponsors of the storm god theory have sought to derive the word, rudra from the root rud ( = to roar Rudra is therefore, accordiog to them, the roaring or thundering storm god A critical examination of the storm god theory as set forth above will clearly reveal its many serious deficiencies To begin with, it may be pointed out that that theory is based more or less exclusively on the evidence derived from the RV, when, as a matter of fact, a fuller and a more living picture of that god is presented in the post RV Vedic literature Even in the RV itself there are no unambiguous and convincing references to Rudra as the god of tempest. For instance, against the overwhelming evidence pertaining to Rudra’s essentially earthly character, the only three passages which connect him directly with the heaven 49 OLDENBERG RAV, 222 50 It is also suggested, in this connection that Rudra is the presiding deity of drdrå which ys the rain br nging constellation TB III 14.30 describes the offering to add the constellar on of the most fresh tender maid, whoc ruling dcity is Rudra Opposed to Rudra is the constellation mulabathan ruled over by the destroying goddess, Nurft. In TB I 51, Rudra is associated with bula ( Ardra constellat on) Sce Giron, The Ved c Nakṣatras and the Zodiac’, Popper Comm Vol. 149–165 51 Ral v Ind a pp 461 # The Incula of Syn whom HOPKINS regards as a historical descendant of Rudra is according to that scholar, representatave of lightning 28 218 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS (I 114 5, II 16, VIII 20 17 ) can be said to possess but little probative value On the other hand, those passages seem to in dicate that attempts were made by the Rgvedic poet priests arti ficially - and even tendentiously - to thrust the heavenly character on that god Again much credence is given by the sponsors of the storm god theory to Rudra’s characterisation as vajrabahu (11 33 3) wielder of the thunderbolt As has been pointed out elsewhere,62 in the RV, the word, iara, does not unequivocally denote the thunderbolt That sense seems to have come to be attached to that word, if at all, only at a latter stage Further, it should be remembered that this characteristic, namely, the wield ing of the vajra, is not at all original to the concept of Rudra It seems that the vajra, which had an essential and organic connection with the Indra mythology, lost its original significance in the course of the evolution of the Vedic mythology and even. tually came to be regarded as a conventional adjunct of a Vedic god - more or less as a poctic device employed to glorify a Vedic god Consequently even such gods as Agni and Varuṇa, who are most obviously, not storm gods, are described as bearing the vajra (1 109 7, IV 41 4) As for the word, didyut, it can be stated, perbaps more definitely, that that word, which is used in connection with Rudra (VII 463) and on which HOPKINS uch of his evidence in support of the storm god theory, can hardly be regarded as possessing the sense of lighin ing Jo sone passages of the RV that word is used in a very general sense (VI 66 10, VIII 6 7), while elsewhere (1 661, VII 34 13) it is used in connection with the gods who are obvio usly not storm gods It is also significant that in some Rgvedic passages, the word, didyu, is used to denote weapons of human warriors (IV 41 11, VIL 85 2, X 38 1). The celestial fire referred to in AV XI 2 26 cannot be understood to mean ligh. ing, and, though the word, vidyut, is actually used in that context, the fact that it occurs together with such words as takman (fever) and visa (poison) seems to suggest that it is used not in the definitive sense of lightning but in a general and more or less 52 Scc “Vr̥trahi ladra” RUDRA IN THE VEDA 219 rhetorical sense of something frightful and destructive. Whilc speaking of vajra and didyut, which are claimed to have been the special weapons of Rudra, it is necessary to add that, from the references in the RV, it rather appears that the bow and the arrows were actually more natural to Rudra (II. 33. 10,11; Y. 42, 11; X. 125.6; ŚPB IX. 1.1.6). In X. 64.8, Rudra is very significantly associated with archers.63 The facts that the Maruts are called rudrijāh and that Rudra is described as the father of the Maruts cannot also be claimed to prove Rudra’s character as storm-god. It may be, first of all, poin ted out that the Maruts were not originally the storm-gods. They came to be regarded as such only after certain naturalistic elements were superimposed upon the original heroic personality and charac ter of Indra. As a matter of fact, the association of the Maruts with lodra is itself secondary. As indicated above, even their asso ciation with Rudra, though earlier than that with Indra and, there fore, more original so far as the RV is concerned, must have been the result of the emphasis put by the Rgvedic poet-priests on some specific aspect of Rudra’s character. That is why the relationship between Rudra and the Maruts does not produce the impression of being a living relationship. And even assuming, as HILLEBRANDT does, that the Maruts are the storm-gods, has not that scholar himself pointed out5t that, in the Vedic mytho logy, the fathers may have outward resemblance with their child ren, but there does not necessarily exist any similarity so far as their essential characters are concerned 56

• It is true that the waters are often said to possess remarkable healing powers and that Rudra is characterised as the physician

53. It may not be out of place to mention in this connection that Siva in the later Hindu mythology is also represented as a master archer. In the RV, Indra’s special weapon, Dajra, seems to have been transferred to Rudra perhaps with a view to thereby inducctly making the lattcr cligible for a placc u the official Vedic pandicon.
54. VAL II, 198.
55. HILLEBRANDT refers in this connection 10 Dyaub, the father of Uas and Asyinau; Tvads the father of Visvarupa; and Vivasvat, the father of Yama, 220 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS among physicians But it is, indeed, difficult to understand how such references can be construed as indicating that Rudra is the rain bringing storm god There is hardly any cvidence to show that Rudra’s medicinal remedies consisted mainly of waters To interpret 1hc word, Jalása, occurring in Rudra’s exclusive cpithet, jalaṣabhesaja in the sense of ordinary waters is certainly un convincing in the RV, one bardly comes across any clear referencc to Rudra as the water-giving god BLOOYFIELD refers in this connection to the two possages,” I 64 6 and 85 5, where, according to that scholar, the words, 1ājinam and arusasja are indicative of Rudra A closer study of those passages would, however, show that BLOOMFICLD’s assertion is certainly loo farfetched Further, nothing very significant can be proved by Rudra’s cpithet, midhos As a matter of fact, the derivation of that word from the root mih ( to shower) 13 itself very doubtful Moreover, it will be seen that that epithet is attributed not only to the so called rain gods, for, besides Indra, Agai, Mitra, Varuṇa, Viṣṇu and Soma, among others, arc also characterised as midhas it would appear that the word generally everywhere meant “liberal’ So far as the characterisation of Rudra in the Satarudrua as the lord of rains, etc, is concerned it may be pointed out that, in that important Rudra-hymo, ove has carefully to sift thc esscotial from the conventiopal One thus feels inclined to agree with OLDENBERG when he says that Rudra’s very physiognomy’ is different from that of the normal storm-gods of the Veda Thc features which are usually associated in the Veda with the storm god mythology are conspicuously absent in Rudra 5: The few that one may discover are quite incidental and irrelevant A Vedic passage can hardly be quoted which unmistakably characterises Rudra as a raid 56 AJP, XII (1891), 425 ff 57 Both the passages occur in the hymns whose decald is the Narut 58 RAY, 221 59 According to OLDENBERC, in the Vedic descriptions of Rudra, light ings do not flash, rains do not pour down, winds do not rush forth (320S 19, cl) He, therefore, concludes that, at least in the consciousoess of Vedic poet, Rudra was not a god of tempest. RUDRA IN THE VEDA 221 bringing storm god Moreover, it mav be asked When such a prominent god as Indra was, at a certain stage in the evolution of his personality, represented as a storm god, why should a more or less minor god like Rudra also have been represented as a storm god? The suggestion that Rudra must have ‘originally represented not the storm pure and simple, but rather its baleful side in the destructive agency of lightning 60 — implying thereby that Iadra represented the beneficent rain bringing aspect of the storm god — 15 definitely vitiated by the frequent Vedic references to Rudra’s medicines and healing powers Finally, it is needless to add that the distinctive features of Rudra’s personality and character detailed above, such as his characteristic appearance and dress.81 his connection with the demon world and the unsocial’ classes of the community, his special relationship with the religious cults of the yrālyas, the brahmacarins, and the munis bis isolation from other Vedic gods, and his essential similarity to Pasupatı, Sarva Bhava, and Siva, who are definitely not storm gods do not fit in well with the storm god theory A reference may be incidentally made, in this context, to the view of certain scholars who, while accepting the celestial character of Rudra, do not regard him as a storm god BERGAIGNE, for instance, says that Rudra possesses few, if any, features of a normal storm god in the Veda in the opinion of that scholar, Rudra is rather the celestial father 63 KUHN, on the other hand, suggests that Rudra is more akin to Greek 60 ALACDONELL VA, 77, also TRAS 27, 97 HOPKINS 70S 16, cli On the other hand it may be pointed out in this context, that according to certain other scholars, the deification of lightning was not accepted by the Indians 6! It is difficult to accept the Vicy that Rudra > blue peck and red belly are to be understood as symbolically indicating dark clouds and ghtning HOPKINS ebewberc suggests (Rel of Ind a 463 ) that Pasan offers the original of Rudra s appearance and character L ke P an Rudra also Is the guardian of cattle it is therefore, pot unl Lely that Rudra 1’kc Pasan was originally a popular tribal god Otherwise the sum larity between the two gods Rudra and Puran is superficial. 62 LRV 111 31, 36 63 LUDWC ( RI 3, 320 ff ) also seeks to denufy Rudra with Dyaub 222 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS Apollo et According to SIECKE,& the Rgvedic evidence shows that Rudra, like scieral other gods, is a god of light, with the moon as the physical substratum It is hardly necessary to point out that these and similar other theories do not at all account for the distinctive characteristics of Rudra’s persopality men tioned above The same thing must be said about the attempts made to identify Vedic Rudra with Aeni Io the Veda, the word, rudra is sometimes used more or less as an epithet of Agni ( TSI 211, II 2 2 3) while in some other passages there are indications that that god is actually identified with Agni (II 16, common TMB XII 4 24) Again, references such as rudro vai esa jad agnih ( TS V 4 3 1) occur frequently in the Vedic literature The Taillirija Samhita (ISI) narrates a legend to explain why Agoi came to be called Rudra At the time of the war between the gods and the demons, the gods, before going to the battle field appointed Agnt as the custodian of their property Agni became greedy and, while the war was still going on, he abscondeu with the property of the gods After their victorious return from the battlefield the gods were surprised to find that Agai was missing They, therefore, sent out parties to find him out Eventually the gods found out Agni and forced him to return their property On that occasion, Agni wept (arodit) and there fore, came to be known as rudra (from the root rud == to weep) It is also suggested that Rudra is called irj ambala, that is, obe having three mothers in the same way as Agni is said to have three mothers Attention is drawn in this connection also to a passage in the Taittirija Samhita (IJ 2 10), which recommends that a sick person should offer an oblation jointly to Soma and Rudra For, as the text proceeds to say a sick person is in te of the replenishment of rasa ( =liquid elements ) and sarira (solid elements) in his body By offering an oblation to Somarudrau 64 CE MAECE The Rguda 134 According to N VENKATARAJLANAN (Rudra-S100 27) Rudra is an Aryan deity of solar ongin 65 Arch / Rel I 113ff 66 gad arod” rad rudrasya rudrafoam. RUDRA IN THE VEDA 223 such person will acquire rasa from Soma and sarira from Agni The identification of Rudra with Agni, it is averted, thus becomes quite obvious in this passage Similarly, whule introducing the Satarudrija, it is said that the hymn is intended for the purpose of pacifying the fearful aspect of Agni 67 According to WEBER 68 the name Rudra (from the root rud) denotes both the roaring of the storm and the crackling of the fire The storm nature of Rudra and the fire nature of Rudra, which were originally distinct came to be merged together, and this resulted in the conception of the personality of Siva WEBER adds that this blending toge ther of Rudra’s two patures had already been accomplished at the time of the Satarudrija 69 It is not at all necessary to examine in detail this hypothesis regarding Rudra’s identity with Agdi Let it be at once pointed out that the Rgvedic hymns give no foundation for such an identification - On the contrary the distinctive descriptions in the RV of Rudra’s character and personality clearly go to show that, in the minds of the authors of the Veda, Rudra and Agni were quite distinct concepts It is true that, in RVI 1 6, Rudra is identified with Agoi, but it must be remembered that, in that hymn, several other gods also are identified with Agni Such references must, therefore, be regarded as purely conventional It is also likely that Rudra’s fury was symbolically represented by the Vedic poets as fire Later on such representation presumably led to some kind of theological speculation in this connection apd eventually resulted in the ephemeral identification of the two gods Were Rudra actually identical with Agni, his emphatic 67 y agner ghora tanus to this ima fangjati It may be pointcd out, in thu connection, that the word, sara, in Satarudrija actually appears to have been derived from the root fam cf Satanudnyan devenant rudrafamanom (Arsadhraya of Kathaka 11 17 ), alo, atarudryarh santarudnyant 68 Omina und Porlenda 341 09 Ind Stud 11, 19 ff Jacodi and, to a certain extent WINITNEY (JAOS 3, 318 ft) seem to agree with WERER WILSON (Translation of the Rigveda vol I, XXVI) thinks that, in the Veda, Rudra is evidently a form of either Agai or Indra
56. Lucr, The Rigveda, P 13+ 224 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS exclusion from hierarchical Vedic ritual would become utterly un understandable And, further if Rudra were identical with Agor there was no reason why he should have been connected with robbers, thieves hupters etc On account of his peculiar origin and character Rudra’s name was taboo imong the classes of the Vedic poet priests At the same time that god could not be altogether ignored and banished by them It is therefore not improbable that Rudra was often represented as concealing under the names of Agn: 71 At any rate, there can be hardly any doubt that Agni and Rudra stand for two distinct religious ideologies – the one prjestly ritualistic and the other popular and folkcultish HILLEBRANDT is a confirmed believer in the naturalistic interpretation of Vedic mythology But his analysis of Rudras character from the naturalistic point of view, leads him to enun ciate quite a novel theory 72 He starts by pointing out that the Rgvedic evidence is definite enough to show that Rudra was neither a mountain god73 nor a demon of the nether world later elevated to godhead 74 On the strength of several references 10 the Vedic literature - particularly post RV Vedic literature - 10 then tries to establish that Rodra is really a form of Agni ( AV VII 87 1, XIX 55 5) He is, indeed fire in its terrible form But HILLEBRANDT does not stop here He seeks to correlato this character of Rudra with three other principal features of the Rudra mythology as represented in the Veda, ed in the Veda, pamely, Rudras two fold character as creator and destroyer, his close association with autumn and his redness’ as indicated by the name, Rudra The final conclusion wbich one may thereby arrive at is, accord ing to that scholar, that Rudra does not represent normal domes tic or ritualistic fire, but that he is the god of the tropical beat before raids He represents the result of an apotheosis of 71 In ths connect on CARPENTIER has suggested ( 1 ZKAT XA 153 ) that the legend in SPD VI 1 3 that Rudra dd not orginally bans any name may be act olog cal in nature 72 VIII 179-209 73 As suggested by OLDENBERG Sec infra 74 As suggested by ARDMAN See in a RUDRA IN THE VEDA 225 transition from the hot to the rainy season, which is the most dangerous time of the year Rudra’s weapons are, indeed, the diseases which that season brings about (AV XL 2 26) When ever, therefore, there is an outbreak of epidemic among men or cattle a sacrifice is offered to Rudra 76 The season, śarad, parti cularly its beginning, being the period when the incidence of disease is the highest, is, therefore, regarded as Rudra’s season " It is round about this scason that the sākamedha with the traiyam baka homa is performed to indicate the termination of Rudra’s fearful activity That activity magifests itself in the form of epidemics which arise at the beginning of the rains From a certain point of view, this period is the most creative period of the year But, as indicated above, it is also the most destructive one It is preceded by the summer when the heat and the burn ing wind scorch the earth and torture men and cattle 77 At this 75 SSS III 4 8, SGS V 6 1, AscGS IV 8 40 76 AS I 10 20 farad dai rudrasa youth / stasa ‘mbuka / elan på eso ‘arabhyatacarak tasa saradı ok syisshash hanh tathan ‘par’narh saha nitacadayate Algo comm on VS 1057 Sarud za asya mita spasu / tayo pa esa hinash / tathar vai ’nai saha samaratı Further, comm on TS, Vol II, 86 saraikala hi pinasajoara dyulpadanena himsakah / taduad fan ambikas haristka talah Sarad by uyate / osa nudras tayar ‘ca sahryabhalaya panna hvast Is this connection HSLEBRANDT quotes (VAIII, 193-94 ) the following extract from the report of the Agricul tural Department in India (HUNTER, India 3, 616) “Over a great portion of the Empire the mass of the cattle are starved for six weeks every year, The hot winda roar, cvery green thing has disappeared no hot weather Torage is grown, the last years fodder has generally beca consumed in keeping the well bullocks on their legs during the intigation of the spring crops, and all that the bus bandman can do is just to keep his poor brutes alive. Within the week, as though by magic, the burning sands are carpeted with rank, luscious herbage the cattle uill eat and over eat, and millions die of one form or other of caitle disease, springing out of this starvation followed by sudden Tcpletion with rank, juicy, immature herhage’ He further quotes the lollowing passage about Panjab from BLANFORD’S A Proctical Gu de to the Climates and Feather of Ind 2, p 129 « The period which usmediately follows the ralos un to October is the most unbcaltby season in the year Decaying vegeta tion under an ardent un generates quasma, the conscqences being fever, dyruntry, and not unfrequently cholara It is further suggested that, owing to climatic differences, the seasons of Rudra atso vary in the various parts ol the Indian Subcontinent 77 CE TA I 33 fuklavasa rudragano mend Dartate saha mdahan prth101177 saruum 1yot sa ‘Irprathyena sah // also TS VII 1 18 ent sun e notare is to sways in the 226 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS time the sun is in the tropic of cancer, and, therefore, Rudra’s quarter is said to be the north 78 The theory put forth by HILLEBRANDT is, indeed, more in genious than convincing It must be pointed out at the outset that such an apotheosis of climatic conditions, as suggested by that scholar, is perfectly discordant with the usual mode of thou ght of the Vedic poets Moreover, Rudra’s appearance, apparel, and associations as described in the Veda, are far too concrete and life like to warrant the suggestion that the concept of that god is the result of a tendency to defy the more or less abstract natural phenomenon of the tropical heat before the advent of rains One may also quite justifiably doubt whether the Vedic Indian did really entertain such great fright about the transition from the hot to the rainy season Several passages can, indeed, be found in classical Sanskrit literature wherein such change is actually regarded as quite welcome Rudra’s isolation from the other Vedic gods is a characteristic feature of that god Why the god of tropical heat should have been so isolated from the other gods, who also, according to HILLEBRANDT, represent the deification of various natural phenomena, is ununderstandable To suggest that Rudra is excluded from the Vedic ritual on acco 78 According to HILLEBRANDT, this does not, however, imply that Ruoka 13 the solar aspect of fire can it be, he asks, that Rudra also represents specific constellation which indicates the beginning of this particular season In RV X 64 8, Rudra 15 mentioned together with Krśanu and ! In TS II 2 10 and MS II 1 5. Rudra is actually identified with 14%* which latter is certainly a constellation In this connection it 13 baru pointed out that Rudra 15 somncumes represented as the constellation (mrgavyadha ) HA, SHAH for instance characterises Rudra PATOG 41ff ) as star Sirius and Sanku According to TILAK Rudra is the presiones dcity of the ardra constellation and is represented by the star in the shoulder of the Orion (The Orion 102 ) He further points out that by placing Rudra just below the milky way several attributes of that god in the laws mythology, such as bu bearing the Ganga in his matted hair, his fondness of burning ground his appearance as kirala ctc can be adequately explai On the assumption that Rudra as Sirius 13 the lord of the adre, KULKARNI dates the RI at 7000 years ago (Astronomical Clues for Chords in RV, pp 24-29) It is also suggested that str( star) may have word occurring in the original form of the name, Iryambaka Sec alsoRUDRA IN THE VEDA 227 unt of his frightful nature is certainly not convincing Further, HILLEBRANDT does not seem to have properly realised that in Rudra’s character the main emphasis is placed on his devastating activity as such and not on any specific season in which that activity may appear to culminate It also does not become clear why such an artificial mythological creation, as HILLEBRANDT considers Rudra to have been, should have in later times become so prominent a god As a matter of fact, none of the naturalistic theories about Rudra’s personality and character can account satisfactorily for Rudra’s elevation from the position of a god, who is accepted by the hierarchical poet priests of the Veda almost on sufferance and with suspicion, to a position of great importance and significance in later Hindu religious thought and practice 19 In his characterization of Rudra OLDENBERG has laido special emphasis on that god’s connection with forests and moun tains Arcording to him, that connection is far more vital and essential than Rudra’s connection with storm and Lightning Rudra is frequently called giriṣanta, girira, gırısa, etc (TS IV 51) He is further characterized 10 that Vedic text as vanānām pati, vrk sänām pati, aranyānai pati, etc In the Maitriyanı. Samhita (I 10 20), the mountain is specifically said to be the abode of Rudra si Rudra tives among the mountains with his wife Rudran $ It is further very significant that Rudra is nor 79 Indeed, the same as the case with certain other theories about Rudra FATEH SINGH, for instance, trics (JHQ XVI 783 ff) to interpret the Rudra mythology in terms of thc astronomical phenomenon of OUTOA borealis According to him Rudra us the god of the arctic nocturnal sky of the winter combined with the phenomenon of storms Another scholar suggests that Rudra represents Pong Varolli on the cerebro spinal nervous system (VG RELE in The Mysterious Kundalini ) SATAVALEKAR (PAIOG 1, mm) regards Rudra mainly as a divine physician Maoy gks rclating to that god are interpreted by hun (Rgreda men Rudradereta) in terms of curing dustascs and Preserving health According to him, thc epithet, jalasable saja, implics dat Rudra was a hydropatbist 80 RAV, 215-225 81 Eris vai rudrasa yonih 8? It may be incidentally pointed out that Rudrani plays a more vital role in the cult of Rudra than what the wives of other gods, such as Indrāni, do in respect of the cults of theur husbands 228 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS mally worshipped outside the village Offerings to be made to Rudra must be such as are not derived from the village; they must be derived from the forest So also nothing connected with the Salagava rite, which is offered to Rudra, may be brought back in the village or the house 83 Rudra is, jodeed, asked to go far away from the human habitations to Mujavat mountain after bav ing received his portion 81 It may also be pointed out, in this con nection, that, according to the Kausika Sutra 51 7-8, in the stas• tyayana ceremony, offerings are generally made to mountains and specifically to Bbava, Sarva, Pasupatı, Ugra, Rudra, Mahadeva, and Iśāna, respectively with the hymns, AV V 6 and AV XI 2 In one passage of the AV, Rudra is actually referred to as the prince of mountains,85 while Bhava and Sarva, who may be regarded, for all practical purposes as Rudra’s doubles, are characterized as mountain dividities (parvatadevarā) by Kesaya, the commentator of the Kausika Sutra Rudra’s essentially sylvan character and mountain nature seem to be indicated also by the instructions given in connection with certain Vedic rites $6 The animals to be offered at a sacrifice are to be carefully guarded by a watch man during the course of the sacrifice IF, however, any of these animals is drowned it is to be dedicated to Varuṇa, and if it is bitten by a serpent or killed by a lion it is to be dedicated to Rudra 87 OLDENBERG further believes that Rudra’s peculiar association with robbers and other wild and barbarous people, Datarudriya, can be properly explained only on the assumption that that god was the god of mountainous regions which are the usual haunts of such people Rudra is, thereros, naturally connected also with several wild animals (AV X1 224) Rudra’s particularly close connection with serpents is quite w koown and must, again, be regarded as being indicative of character as a god of mountains It is further significant that, the Vedic literature, Rudra is sometimes represented as a " 03 AfLGS IV B 12, ParGS III 8 3. AfanGS II 5 2 B4 VS 3 62 HILLCBRANDT, VAI II 200 B5 C IIILLEDRANDT, VAR II, 200 BG Cf the d’ksa ridh in the Soma sacrifice 87. CE CALAND ITENRY, L’Agnistoma, 2 ff RUDRA IN THE VEDA 229 hunter ( AV XI 2 12, AB II 33, ŚPB IX 1 1)88 While the abode of all the gods is in the east, Rudra’s quarter is the north. This is very suggestive For, in the northern region of India there are the Himalayan mountain ranges, with which Rudra is, with great propriety, associated The reference in the Taittirija-Samlıtā (IV 5 10 4) that Rudra keeps his weapons on the tops of tall trees would, again, seer to confirm Rudra’s character as a god of the wilds and mountains From his mountain recesses and from among the forests Rudra visits men and cattle, from time to time, with sick ness, disease, and death, which are his weapons On the other band, he also possesses miraculous healing powers and, if properly propitiated, would bring wonderful remedies to his worshippers. The hymns addressed to Rudra are characterized on the one hand by a fear of his arrows and on the other by a prayer that he do guard men and cattic and make his wonderful medicines available to his worshippers On the strength of all this evidence, OLDENBERG concludes that Rudra is essentially " the Old Man of the Mountains” with out any celestial attributes-‘a demon of discase coming from forest and mountain, like Mars Silvanus ‘89 He regards Rudra as * a relation of those European types whose nature MANNHARDI has developed in so masterly a way, Fauni and Silvanı, wood men, wild people from the desert, from mountain and wood, come the sickness spirits or darts of sickness to human abodes These are the hosts or the shafts of Rudra, who dwells in the mountain. 21 This is Rudra’s true character B2 But, according derived HOPKINSOR this B8 It may be pointed out, ta thu connection that one of Rudra » clfinus is called miguuyadha (HOPKINS, Epic Mythology, 173) The names of Rudra’s followers are derived from Rudra s own names Siva, in later mythology, is also byadha or ku#ta, and is sometimes pictorially represented with a miga by bus Bide According to WIJC9EKERA (Un Ceylon Rev VII, 160), Rudra is just the primitive hunter deified He seems to connect the word, rudra with Palt Ludda ko ( hunter) 89 MACDONELL, JRAS 1895, 956 90 MLANYIARDT, IVald und Feldkull I, 14 22 ff 91 HOPKINS, JAOS 16, cl. 92 WINTERNITZ (Anz. ISAK) and to a certain cxtent, AREMAN Rudra ) sccm to agree with OLDENBERG 3 hypothesis 230 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS to OLDENBERG, the poet priests of the RV have considerably subordinated this character by mixing up different types of ele ments in the Rudra-concept For instance, Rudra’s association with the Maruts is the result of such mingling together of ideo logies The mountain god’ type and the spirit’ type of my. thologies have, in the present case, reacted on each other In the later Vedic and post-Vedic literature. On the other hand, Rudra has been represented mostly in his true colours The character of Siva as the Old Man of the Mountain is, for instance, unmistakable o OLDENBERG has certainly very rightly emphasized one very important characteristic of Rudra’s personality, namely that Rudra is essentially a god belonging to the earth and that his so called celestial attributes are quite superficial and conventional " OLDENBERG’s theory further implies that the concept of Rudra is not the result of any poetic attempt to defy a phenomenon of nature 95 By means of this, what may be called anthropological, approach to the Rudra problem OLDENBERG, who normally adheres to the naturalistic interpretation of the Vedic mythology, 93 A rcference may be made here to the view that Rudra is a Dravidia god and essuntially a mountain deity The concept of such a god as Rudra It is averred, can have been evolved only among the wild mountam dweuch (as the Dravidians must have been?) and not among the dwellers on the plains like the Aryans (SAKHARE, History and Philosophy of the Lingayal Rangol, p 133) In later timcs Rudra Sıva is actually called Mallayyś Tus latid name 15 to be connected with the Dravidian word, male ( =mountain Incidentally it may be pointed out that QUARITCH WALES has recenoy expressed the view (JRAS, 1953, 23-30 ) that a cult of the sacred mountain of its derivatives regarded as representing the concentration of the care energies, was formerly widespread in Asia He refers, in this context, to v tas the mountain lord 94 It is significant, in this context, that Siya 18 never said to be takes avalara 95 Rudolf OTTO also emphatically asserts (Gottheit und Gottheiten der Art pp 16-50 ) that Rudra does not represent any fearful natural phenomenon According to him, the concept of Rudra is derived from the duminos’ Ice That god is the result of the objectivisation of strasterncss’ Rudra " sinister presence among the mountains and forests OTTO further po out that, though Rudra appears as a stranger in the circle of orthodox gods, it is not on that account necessary to assume that he is not of Asia (Continued on the next page) RUDRA IN THE VEDA 231 may be said to have substantially cleared the ground for a correct appraisal of the character and personality of Rudra in the Veda This should not, however, be understood to mean that OLDEN BERG’s entire theory is by itself acceptable It must be pointed out at the outset that OLDENBERG has based his hypothesis mostly on the post-RV evidence He has accordingly not taken into account some very distinctive features of Rudra’s character, which are indicated in the RV It will be seen that, in the few hymns of the RV, which are addressed to Rudra, the emphasis is put not so much on Rudra’s abode in the mountains, as OLDEN BERG’s theory would seem to suggest, as on his fearful attack on men and beasts with his death bringing weapons Again, OLDEN BERG has not been able satisfactorily to account for Rudra’s close association with the Maruts His suggestion that it may have been the result of the mingling together of two distinct types of mythologies fails to carry conviction Further, Rudra cannot be said to have been associated exclusively with the mountains. As a matter of fact, he is closely connected with several other regions and localities while, in the Safarudriya, he is charac terized as girisant, girisa, giritra, etc, he is also referred to in that hymn as kūpya, kulya, nadya, etc On the other hand, some other gods like Viṣṇu (1 154 2, 3) and Indra (X 180 2) are described as mountain dwelling (giriksit, giristhā). These facts CODsiderably weaken the force of OLDENBERG’s hypothesis 38 It 18 Only with a view to emphasizing the fact that Rudra’s essential character is not in conformity with the normal life of the home and the village that he is described as belonging to wild mountain (Cont nued from the last page) origin. Like every other primitive religion, the Vedic Aryan religion also must have had it owa Rudra or ṣnuier presence’ (OTTO con phasizcs Rueiras close relationship with European Wuotan) Against Orto, it may bc pointed out, firstly, that the concept of Rudra i far too concrete and, econdly, that the attitude of aversion with which Rudra 13 generally regarded in the Veda seems to go against the Aryan origin of that god 96 At the same tune it is difficult to accept MACDONELL : view (JRAS 1900, 383) that Rudra s apecial connccuon with mountains a result of 152: later mythological tendency to localization which appears, for example, in the case of the Gandharvas and Apsarases 232 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS regions When, for instance, Rudra is asked to go away to the Mujavat mountain it is certainly not implied that Rudra’s abode 15 in the Mujayat mountain 97 " Go away to the Mujavat” - this had almost become an imprecatory formula which implied a sort of banishment to a place as far away as possible from the Aryan habitation 98 It may be further added that OLDENBERG has almost com pletely overlooked many distinctive characteristics of Rudra’s personality and character mentioned above He does not, for instance, care to say anything about Rudra’s association with the religious cults of the yraryas, the brahmacārins, and the munis Nor has he anything to say about Rudra’s being denied any place in the hierarchical Vedic ritual Rudra’s is obviously a complex personality What OLDENBERG has done is to lay stress or just one aspect of it and present only that aspect as representing the whole character of that god Though, therefore, it has to be conceded that OLDENBERG has proceeded in the right direction and has thus prepared the ground for a correct understanding of the Rudra problem, his theory as a whole cannot be regarded as acceptable In bis comprehensive monograph on Rudra, ARDMAN seems to follow the lead given by OLDENBERG # Like the German scholar, ARBMAN also believes - and, as pointed out above, quite tightly-that Rudra is not the god of thunderstorm as suggested by a majority of Western Vedists Nor for the matter of that 15 he a god connected with any phenomenon of nature ARDMAN regards Rudra as an unbeavenly product of lower mythology bis original character Rudra is according to that scholar, au earthly, dedooniacal, fearful godloo who has originated from the 97 As BENDER has tightly po nted out (140S 43, 60), one would hesitate to accept the defin te local zat on by ARDHAV (who apparently 100 OLDENDERO in this respect of Rudra on the Midjavat 98 Cr 43 V 22 7 where lakman ( fever) is asked to go to Myjava 99 ARDMAN Redra Untersuchungen un altınduschen Glauben und WIP, Uppsala, 1912 100 Inc denially it may be poated out that, according to ARBY, word dece includes butk gods and demons (Op. al, 149-155) RUDRA IN THE VEDA 233 primitive concepts of death and its fears This ancient god, who had presumably been in existence already in the pre Vedic times, continued, throughout the ancient cultural history, to influence – Indeed, to dominate the popular religion of ancient India and was, according to ARDMAN, adopted in the later Vedic tradition, almost in his onginal character Out of the two Rudras, who are supposed to have been represented in the Veda, the Rudra of the later Vedic tradition is not, as is generally assumed, a direct descendant of the Rgvedic Rudra, implying, so to say, the decline of deterioration of the latter Actually he is more akin to the original primitive non Vedic Rudra and must be presumed to belong to the unbroken line of development of that concept in popular religion culminating in the figure of the epic Siva The Rgvedic Rudra, on the other hand, represents What may be characterised as an artificial side. growth of that continuous line of development It will be thus seen that, by drawing pointed attention to Rudra’s original non Vedic character and to the unbroken continuity of the Rudra concept in popular religion, ARBMAN has made a distinct advance over OLDENBERG’s hypothesis But, by characterising Rudra essentially as a god of death, be too must be said to have made the same mistake as OLDENBERG, Damely, to emphasize only one of the aspects – though, in this case perhaps a major aspect of Rudra’s complex personality and character ARB MAN has, for instance, not been able satisfactorily to correlate the various distinctive features of Rudra’s personality, mentioned above, with his character as the god of death He has also not succeeded in explaining the significance of the apparent contradic tion in Rudra’s character Why should a death god, as such, be regarded as both benevolent and malevolent? Further, ARB MAN’S suggestion that the popular god, sıva, represents the culmination of the origual Rudra concept cannot be substantiated from the culture historical point of view Again, Siva also can. not be regarded exclusively as a god of death One thing, however, cannot be gainsaid, namely, that, in the Vedic literature, particularly in the RV, greater emphasis is put

234 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS on Rudra’s association with death and its horror than on any other aspect of his complex personality and character This has, indeed, been done to such an extent that a casual study of that Veda would make one feel inclined to regard Rudra as the Vedic death god It would, for instance, appear from the Rgvedic references that Rudra’s bolt (IT 33 3) is certainly not the thunderbolt, as HOPKINS and others believe, 101 but must be understood merely as the imagery of sickness and death HOP KINS also thinks that Rudra’s sarakas, referred to in II 33 10, actually represent the gleaming bolt, regarded as an arrow of his bow” 102 This is, indeed, unnecessary For, a critical study of this reference taken in conjunction with several others, would make it amply clear that these sāyakas are just the death bringing arrows shot by Rudra, the sender of disease and death To I 114 10, Rudra’s missiles are openly characterised as “cowslaying and manslaying The commonest prayer to Rudra is that he should not slay or injure the worshippers, and their parents, chuldren, nien, cattle, horses, etc (I 114 7-8) Rudra is often implored to spare the worshipper, his family, and his property (II 331, VI 28 7, VII 462-4). On the otlier hand, Rudra is invoked to prostrate others’ with his fatal shafts ( II 33 11, 14) In IV 36, Rudra himself is directly called nrhan, the slayer of men Rudra s character as the god of death is further concretised, so to say, in later Veda In the AV, for instance, Rudra is very signin cantly described as assailing his victims with diseases like fever, cough, etc (XI 2 22, 26, also VI 90, 93) His doubles, Bhava and Sarva, also are addressed in that Veda as gods of death They are implored not to leave the bodies to be eaten up by wolves etc (XI 2 2) In still later Vedic literature also Rudra’s passion for killing men and animals becomes equally evident Rudra is characterised as seeking to slay men, 103 and his hosts are described as attacking men and beasts with disease and death *** 101 Sec supra 1 02 JAOS 16, c. 103 AsoGS IV 8 32 10+ SSS IV 19 8 It is interesting to note that in the Garaka-Santa (140), fever is said to have originated from the anger of Mabesvara ( Rudra) of poaras tu kholu mahestarakopaprabhavah Also krodhagnir uklard (Continued on the next page ) RUDRA IN THE VEDA 235 Special sacnficial rites are prescribed to be dedicated to Rudra 105 so that he might remove and prevent disease and death 106 The paraphernalia of Rudra also is indicative of his character as the god of death The carrion birds are, for instance, referred to as Rudra’s bırds 207 In this context, it may also be noted that incantations against such birds are accompanied by the formula, rudrāja sraha 106 A mention is similarly made of Rudra’s side mouthed, howling dogs, which swallow their prey unchewed, 10* and also of his jackals 110 As is well known, in primitive thought, these beasts were often looked upon as messengers of death it Again, in primitive thought, serpents also are regarded as the animals of the spirits of the dead Therefore, the peculiar connection of Rudra-Sıva with serpents must be construed as hve lateresentations and cha (Continued from the last page) dr’am alat At karar791 lelam undet raro) krodhan praro Loke bhorus yasa // -Caraka (IIT 24-2) In the Kalyan-Sanhita ( Kalpasthana, Sanhitakalpa 14), discases are said to bave becn produced out of the agony of mind and body of the gods, who ran in fear or Rudra at the sacrifice of Daksa 105 , SCGS IV 8 40, Kauskas V 17 106 Though Rudra 19 thus prom acntly represented as a death-god both in the RV and the later Vedic literature, some difference is sought to be made in those two representations It 13, for instance, pointed out that the Rgvedic Rudra sends death froa afar and that his exteraal appearance 15 Dot peccesaruly indicative of the fearfulness of a death god Rudra in the laler Vedic literature, on the contrary sccus to belong to a raw, brutal, prurative type 107 AV XI 2 2, TĀ IV 29, also of AVIV 28, I 2 11 108. Kortas, 129 109 4V XI 2 2,30 TILAK thinks, in this connection, of the astronomical dogs’ ncar the star of Rudra (The Onon, 96-128) Ipadentally a reference may be made to the superstition that dogs observe fast on the fourteenth day of the dark half of each month – the day which is sacred to Siva Sivarain) Is this perhaps due to the linguistic confusion caused between $ivarain and farain? 110 AV XL 22 Also cr VS 16 28 It is suggested that a jackal 13 called (wa perhaps because it is the beast of Siva who is also connected with death In HoGS I 16 19 a jackal I actually called mrou In SGS IV. 20 1, Dhava and Sarva are compared to hunting bloodthirsty wolves 111 CE TA IV 29 In AV I 2 31 Rudra’s armies are referred to as sathbhujanti, perhaps implying that they together consumed the dead bodics ctc 236 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS confirming that god’s character as god of death 212 In course of time, Rudra, indeed, came to be connected with several objects which were believed to bring ill luck and death 113 But by far the most significant point in this connection 19 Rudra’s association with the Maruts In view of what has been said about the Maruts elsewherellt it is now hardly necessary to dilate upon the character of these dividities As indicated above, it is possible to mark out certain distinct stages in the evolution of the mythology relating to the Maruts It may be presumed that the Maruts originally belonged to what may be called the popular’ order of gods In RV VII 58 I. we have a clear reference to the fact that the Maruts were originally associated with Nirrti and were only later raised to heaven from the region of death They are accordingly not infrequently represented as evil, dark beings (1 39 8, 171 1, 172 2, VII 56 9, 17, 58 5) The popular character of the Maruts seems to be suggested also by their peculiarly close association with the asiattha tree and is further reflected in some aspects of the Vedic ritual In the prausthapada rite, for instance, a sacrificial offering is first made to Indra, and then, quite separated from it, a bali is offered to the Maruts 110 In that connection, the Grhyasūtra refers to a śrul text, according to which the Maruts, among the gods, are the eaters of son sacrificial offerings 117 According to the SI (IV 52 16 ), the raw foetus of the cow of Mitrāvarunau is offered to the Maryts 118 While recommending this, the Kānva re 112 It has been suggested by TR V SASTRI (70RAI XVII, 233-37) on the strength of a reference in the TMB, that the sarpas were a duunit class of buman beings 113 WERER Omina und Porlanda. 341 ARDYAN has pointed out (up at, 267) that, in the ep cs va is more often than not represented $ frightful death god and that, in connection with his nocturnal raid, Asyatthapas 13, significantly enough compared to Rudra 114 Sce Vetraba Indra Also sec supra 115 SPB IV 3 3 6 116 ParGS II 15 117 ahuindo ta dronom morulak at SPB IV 5 2 16 118 It may be pointed out that garbha is always regarded as dangerous and as therefore, not normally offered in sacrifice C ayang TORS KASS XXV, 11 18.RUDRA IN THE VEDA 237 of the Brāhmana says “Common people are eaters of raw flesh and the Maruts are common people” 118 It is further significant that one of the offerings in connection with the cujana is to be made to the Maruts in the forest 120 Indeed, in some passa ges,121 the Maruts are actually represented as being anti ritual They are also said to be capable of blocking the sacrficcr’s passage to the heaven 19 The original, popular, non divine character of the Maruts can thus be clearly established Not only this It is also possible to represent that character more specifically It has been already pointed out that the offerings to the Maruts, like those to the Pitars, are not accompanied by the sacred siala utterance Again, the Maruts are sometimes characterised as being antagonistic to progeny 128 But perhaps the most suggestive pojot in this context is that the Maruts are often represented as birds It may be recalled that according to the primitive mythological thought, the spirits of the dead often wander about in the form of birds 1:4 The popular divinities, the Maruts, must therefore, have originally been connected in a special manner, with the ideology relating to death and the spirits of the dead The derivation of the word, marut, from the root mar (== to die ) suggested by KUHN” would confirm this hypothesis 136 When in the course of the evolution of the Vedic mythology, it became necessary for the Vedic 119 Cf EGCELING SBE XXVI 396 SPB IV 5 2 17 goes on to say na svahäkaroly ahutado cai derin sth maruto vid ahutam ivot tad jad asrahakytarh devanan do! marulas tad mam marutisa wa pralisthapas af 120 cimukhena ronje Rucram A ISS XVIII 4 231 121 Cf TB I 3 4 4 122 AB I 10 2 123 145 praja gold maruta ghnon TB 1 6 27 124 CE RV I 87 2 88 I V 59 7, VII 56 3 59 7 125 Idg Afythen I 218 126 In this connect on GRASMANN thinks (KZ VVI 190 ) of Umbr Cerfo Marto be Toptrar is taken to can to shine It is also suggested that the word marut may Lc ph lolog cally connected wih the Dravidian marutta (magician medicine man) SCHROEDER (12411 IX, 233-53 ) identifies the Maruts with the ancient Germanic Maren (Nabren, Madrien) YELMI VLOGICAL TRACIS poet priests to include the popular pre-Aryan god, Rudra, in the Vedic pantheon, they seem to have cmphasised, for obvious rea sons only one of the many aspects of the complex personality of that god And the fact that, at this stage in the evolution of the Vedic mythology, the Maruts came to be associated with Rudra in a particularly close relationship clearly implies that the aspect of Rudra’s character emphasized by the Vedic poet priests must have been akın to the original character of the Maruts In other words, Rudra came to be regarded principally as the god of death and the Maruts, who originally represented the spirits of the dead, came to be associated with him as his hosts 137 There are also certain other points which would further con firm the bypothesis that, in the Veda, it is Rudra’s character as a god of death that is particularly empbasızed The Taittirija. Samhita (II 1 7 1 ff narrates the legend of vasarkära breaking open the head of gayatri On that occasion, we are told, the gods took the various juices 15suing out of that head But Rudra chose only the blood Indeed, blood seems to have been a favou drink of Rudra It is sometimes actually described as constituting the waters of Rudra According to the ApS (X 13 11 ), 1f, in the course of a sacrifice the sacrificer happens 127 It has been shown elsewhere (“Vr̥traha Indra’, that the associa tion of the Maruts with Rudra must be earlier than that with Indra principal stages in the cvolution of the mythology relating to the Maruts may be bricfly stated as follows ( Originally, the Maruts socm to bale bed independent divin ties and were regarded as the hosts of the spirits of tbc acad (2) The Maruts were later associated with Rudra after the latter god was included in the Icdic pantheon mainly as the god of death (3) later, account of their disciplined military formations, the Maruts came to be se ciated with Indra the national war god of the Vedic Indians (4) When in course of time, Indra came to be looked upon as a rain god, the Maruts becanic, naturally enough, the storm gods It is not unhkely that another factor hp to consolidate this last stage In the primitve thought the spirits of the de are tisually beleved to bc wandering about through winds. The connection between the Maruts and the winds may thus be reflecting also this ancia belief Inc dentally it may be pointed out that H IKANDER regards the Maruu as represent ny the cult of a league of soldiers ( Maennerbund) Rudra was the head of this ancient league and was, therefore at one time regarded a the all-god (Toyu, p 126 ) RUDRA IN THE VEDA 239 to see blood he should murmur the formula, rudrijabhyo adbliyah stähā Similarly if blood comes out of the udder of the agnihotra cow, that cow has to be sacrificed in the ashes of the daksina fire with the formula, rudrāja gaha 133 Offerings of blood are made to Rudra on several occasions In the afvamedha, for instance, the blood of the horse is assigned to Rudra 19 Similarly in the Sūlagava sacrifice, blood is offered as bali to Rudra and his hosts This peculiar fondaess of Rudra for blood is obviously related to that god’s character as god of death Of a similar import is the reference in the SPB (V 3 1 10), where, in connection with the twelve ratnohavimsi at the rājasuja, it is said that Rudra longs for the cows which are slaughtered in the royal palace The word, rudra, suggests that Rudra was essentially a red god 130 He is described as being arusa (1 114 5), babhn (11 335), babhlusa, làmra, aruna, vilohita, and milaloluita (TS IV 5 1 ) In the primitive thinking, the red colour is closely associated with deatlı 131 It may be pointed out in this connection that Śiva also is connected with death - perhaps 10 a more marked manner Śiva lives in the smasana, wears a garland of skulls, and is fond of bloody sacnfices The association of that god with serpents is quite well known In view of the fact, therefore that Siva is just a double of Rudra, all the above mentioned characteristics of the former go to confirin the latter’s character as a god of death Incidentally it may be here pointed out that the word, $na, also originally meant’red’ Attention has already been drawn by scholars132 to the very significant fact that Rudra has several points of similarity with the Germanic god, Odin-Wodan Like Rudra, the latter is a wild 128 KAUSS XXV 2 2 129 TS I 4 36, TAMII 21 According to $PB XIII 34 the blood is to be divided into three portions, which latter are then offered at the tra oblations to Agui serstakri But, then there are several inilications to mwen that Aga stistakst is only a round about way of referring to Rura 130 For a detailed consideration of the word rudra, ker fra 131 ZACILARIAE, Zum alondiscben Hochzeitaritual’, SVAN U . 211-231 13? Eg SCIROEDER (Op 6 ) and Omo Od ), 240 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS hunter and an indefatigable vanderer among mountains and forests He is simultaneously a bringer of fright as well as of blessings. He has hus wild army and is usually accompanied by wild wolves Like Rudra, again Odın assumes different forms at different times These points of similarity are, however, to be Tegarded only as incidental upon the one essential characteristic which both these gods share, namely, close connection with death 133 Odin is the leader of the departed souls He is descri. bed as receiving human sacrifices, and is frequently associated with the Walhall (that is, the hall of the dead) Rudra has many points in common also with the Greek death god, Hecate A frequent reference is made to Hecate’s demonic, deathly traits. Like Rudra, the Greek death god also moves about at the cross roads and during the night 194 It must, however, be emphasized at this stage that these points of agreement cannot be construed, as they are by SCHROEDER, 135 to indicate that the concepts of Rudra, Odin Wodan, Hecate, etc, are all derived from a common Indo European prototype of a death god 136 As has been already pointed out, Rudra cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be 133 It must be pointed out here that Odin of the nordic por lo represents a diferent and quite a peculiar development of the original son 13 SCHROEDER (OM cut ) also points to the similarity between Rudra 1 Greck Dionysos It is further significant that Dionysos and Hermes 11 worshipped at a ‘feast of the ancestors’, which is something like the pusmedha 135 Opal 136 Among a number of Indo European peoples there casted, accor to SCHROEDER (Opa) a particularly important type of gods, who was regarded as the leaders of the troops of the spirits of the dead At certa penods of the year they came through the air with their troops to hunt upon carth At these periods the rate of mortality among mea and cattle fost quite appreciably A close relationsh p between these hosts of the spirits of dead whose forms were frightful and the winds secrns to have been constantly present in the mnds of the primitive people Since these spirits were bclicto to be moving among the winds they subsequently catoe to be identified with the storm and wind gods (or demons) The Vedic Maruts about whose ongiz. and cssential storm naturc SCHROEDER cotertain’s no doubt at all, are sic wind gods-cum sists of the dead (tee foot note 127) Odia the anco Germanic god of death also a wiad god SCHROEDER indeed conne the name od n, ph lologically with the Vedic rela Hermes, another ancieel Wind-god, 13 also regarded as the leader of the spirit of the dead. RUDRA IN THE VEDA 241 regarded as a god of Aryan (or Todo European) origin His oogipal character is essentially non-Aryan In primitive think ing, certain peculiar features must have been universally attributed to a death god It is to this common primitive heritage that the points of similarity shown by Rudra, Odin Vodan, Hecate, etc, are to be traced back 137 As a matter of fact, Rudra, more than any other god, has retained in his character the essential features of a death god of the primitive, ruder type He is, indeed, more akin to the primitive corpse eating demons of death A reference may again be made, in this context, to OLDENBERG’s hypothc $1$’*’ that Rudra represents the Old Man of the Mountains As has been pointed out above, this hypothesis takes into account only one of the many aspects of that god s complex personality But it certainly confirms the character of Rudra as a death god For, the close connection between the Old Man of the Moun tains and the spirits of the dead is a well established concept in primitive ideology Attention needs to be drawn, in this context, to one very significant feature of the primitive gods connected with death and the spirits of the dead These gods were, no doubt, greatly feared on account of their main activity of causing death and disease among men and cattle But there was also a distinctly beneficent side to their activity Those gods could overpower humanity by means of disease and death but they also possessed the power to cure diseases and prevent death According to the primitive way of thinking, one, who possesses the power to do evil, necessarily possesses the power also to ward off evil 139 This way of thinking is reflected also in the character and activity of the primitive priest magician medicineman This primitive worthy commanded the power as much to bless as to curse, as much to cure as to victimise There is, again, ample evidence available in the primi 137 The red colour seems to be one such feature Like Rudra, the death gods of several peoples are red 138 See supra 139 BENDER (740S 43, 56-60 ) thinks in this connection, of similia Silibus curantur 31 242 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS tive religions to show that, in the course of their wild hosting cxpcditions, the god of death and his hosts, which consisted of the spirits of the dead, bestowed fertility on land, animals, and human beings “10 One need not, therefore, be surprised at the chasm 11 the two sides of the character of Rudra, who is represented both as a malevolent demon and a benci olent god It is necessary to refor, at this stage, to one more im. portant point relating to Rudra’s character as a god of death It is usually beliesed that Yama is the proper and original god of death in the Veda But this view has elsewhere been shown to be quite unwarranted 111 It seems that, in the early Vedic pantheon, there had not been cs olycd any one single god of death, as such, though several minor divinities might haie been connected with death When, as will be shown in the sequel, the Vedic poet priests were required, under pressure of circumstances, to icclude the foreign Rudra in their hieratic pantheon, they emphasized that cod’s character as a dcath-god and officially began to view him as such It is, indeed, from this point of view that Rudra may be regarded as the first regular god In the Vedic pantheon But, since the entire concept relating to Rudra was foreign to Vedic ideology, the character of Rudra did not come to be clearly defined and the emphasis appeared to be continuously shifting from one aspect of his character to another. That is why Rudra cannot be said to have been represented in the Veda as a god of death either exclusively or consistently the same reason would account for the fact that certain potions, which are conventionally associated with the concept of the death-god in Vedic religious thought and practice, are not found connected with Rudra For instance, Rudra described as belonging to the north, though the south is the quarter which is traditionally believed to be presided over by the god of death Similarly, offerings are made to Rudra with le sacred utterance, si aha, and not siadha Again, Rudra is in 10 140 Odun, Dionysos and Hermes, who are essentially gods of dan are, according to SCHROEDER (OPC) also regarded as divertics of teru” 141 Sec ’lama in the Veda’, published ciscwhere in this volume RUDRA IN THE VEDA 243 way directly connected with the Pitars, nor is he anywhere described as showing the departing souls the way to immortality As against this, when, in the course of the peculiar evolution of the Yama mythology 112 Yama came to be regarded as a full fledged god of death, these conventional features of the character of a god of death were connected with him From the foregoing discussion it would now become clear that Rudra was essentially different from the normal hieratic Vedic gods that he obviously belonged to a milieu which was foreign to the Vedic poet priests, that the Vedic poet priests must have included him in the Vedic pantheon under pressure of circumstances and, therefore, reluctantly and almost under protest, and that, as the result of the peculiar way in which the Vedic poet priests reacted to this forcign influence, Rudra came to be represented in the Veda mainly, though not exclusively, as a god of death this latter being indeed but one aspect of his origi nal complex character One, however, gets a few glimpses of the Original complex personality and character of that god from a few stray and incidental references to him in the early Veda Not only this It is actually seen that the origioal character of that god reasserted itself in the later Vedic and post Vedic age and that Rudra in the form of Rudra Śiva began to receive increasing recognition as the great god (Mahadeva ) in later times On the strength of all the evidence which is available in this connection and which will be produced below, one would be certainly justified in presuming that Rudra represents but the Vedic version of a popular proto Indian god whose cult must have spread far and wide in this country As a matter of fact this proto Indian god seems to have been represented in different forms among different proto Indian peoples in different localities Each of these forms may have perhaps emphasized some specific characteristic of that god, but all the forms can be shown to have been derived from one and the same common concept so that one Torm shows unmistakable essential similarity to another When 142 See the paper referred to in the foregoing foot note RUDRA IN THE VEDA 245 tunately we do not possess any such sources in respect of the proto Indian religion We shall have to depend, in that connec tion, on the evidence which is neither ample nor direct It may, however, be safely assumed that several essential elements of the proto Indian religion have been still preserved in the religion of the people who may be convcnicntly referred to as the speakers of the Austric and the proto Dravidian languages As a matter of fact, it can be established on fairly sound grounds that even the present Hindu religion shows more distinct traces of this proto Indian religion than of the Vedic Aryan religion 144 It is well known that the religion of the Vedic Indians, as represented in the Vedic literature, is essentially unicoDIC Similarly, the Vedic people do not seem to have been familiar with public places of worshup like temples They may be assumed to have normally offered prayers and offerings to their gods in their own houses 145 As against this, on the strength of the evidence available in respect of ancient Dravidiap- and Austric-speaking people, we may assume that the proto Indians worshipped their god mostly in the form of concrete symbols, such as crude stumps of trees, or stones, or some make-shift images established either in the open or inside some temple like structures which were usually erected away from the main settlements 146 The character of their gods also was 144 CISK CHATTERJI, Indo Aryan and Hindi, pp 31 fl , also S K DAS, “A study of the urala rites of Bengal Alan in Indix 32, 207–45 [See more particularly the relevant contexts in DANDEKAR, Some Aspects of the History of Hinduism Poon, 1967 ] 145 ARBXAN (Op at, 82 ft), however, thinks that the Vedic Indians Were familiar with temples and idol worship But hardly any evideace is available to support such a supposition It may be pointed out that the earliest literary reference to adols is to be found in Panim o karthe capanya 399) Idol worship coust, therefore, have come into vogue arrong the Lollowers of Brahmanism not very long before Papini s times It may be auggested that, with the beginning of the movement for popularizing Brahman In several clcmcnts of the popular proto Indian rcligion came to be assimilated to the Brahmanic religion - idol worship being perhaps one of such clements 146 Considerable material relating to this and allıcd matters is to be und in the following works WIHTELIEAD), Village Gods of South India, LLMORE, Dravidian Gods in Alodera Hinduts, CROOKE, Folklore XXX, (Continued on the next page) Gallere d that we this op die 244 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS the hieratic Vedic religion came into contact with this popular proto Indian religious cult it could not resist the overpowerug influence of the latter The Vedic poet priests, however, reacted to the pressure of this indigenous religious cult in the same way as they did to other popular influences They did, accordingly, adopt this foreign element into the mechanised and ntualised religious pattern which they had evolved, but, whule doing so, they suppressed such aspects of that cuit as were particularly revoltug to what may be characterised as their sophisticated hieratic out look and emphasized only that feature of the character of the god presiding over that cult, which they regarded as the least uo Vedic and which they could somehow fit into their religio-mythological ideology without having fundamentally to disturb its basic pattern and character As there does not seem to have been evolved any regular death god in the Vedic pantheon, thc Vedic poet priests officially began to look upon Rudra as their god of death. Of course, as has been pointed out above, Rudra did pot, for obvious reasons, continue to be represented as a death-god either exclosi vely or consistently throughout the Veda One of the strik og features of this popular proto Indian gou seems to be that he was regarded, at least by some proto-Indian peoples, as a ‘red’ god This fact is, indeed, very significant so far as the essential character of that god and the religious pracht ces associated with him are concerned As will be pointed out ia the sequel, it is possible to presume that this proto-Indian god was regarded as a red god because he was actually represented as being red in colour In order to make this point clear it w be very helpful, at thus stage, to draw attention to one of tho essential points of difference between the Vedic religion on the one hand and the pre-Vedic proto Indian religion on the other As is well known, the Vedic literature reflects the religious ided logy and practices of the Vedic people fairly faithfully “13 Unlot 143 Of course it will be more correct to say ‘of certain sectio Vedic peopleIt may also be incidentally do nted out that the Caici religion contains certain elements which are not found in other Indo-Lurer religions RUDRA IN THE VEDA 245 tunately we do not possess any such sources in respect of the proto Indian religion We shall have to depend, in that connec. tion, on the evidence which is neither ample nor direct It may, however, be safely assumed that several essential elements of the proto Indian religion have been still preserved in the religion of the people who may be conveniently referred to as the speakers of the Austric and the proto Dravidian languages As a matter of fact, it can be established on fairly sound grounds that even the present Hindu religion shows more distinct traces of this proto. Indian religion than of the Vedic Aryan religion 144 It is well known that the religion of the Vedic Indians, as represented in the Vedic literature, is essentially uniconic Similarly, the Vedic people do not seem to have been familiar with public places of worship like temples They may be assumed to have normally offered prayers and offerings to their gods in their own houses 143 As against this, on the strength of the evidence available in respect of ancient Dravidian and Austric speaking people, we may assume that the proto Indians worshipped their god mostly in the form of concrete symbols, such as crude stumps of trees, or stones, or some make shuft images established either in the open or inside some temple like structures which were usually erected away from the main settlements 146 The character of their gods also was 144 CFSK CILATTERJI, Indo Aryai and Hindi, pp 31 f, also S I Das, “A study of the prata fites of Beogal Alan in India 92, 207-45 (Sec more particularly the relevant contexts in DANDEKAR Some Aspects of the History of Hundiasm Poon, 1967 ] 145 ARPAN (op a1,82 f) however, thinks that the Vedic Indians were familiar wth temples and idol worship But hardly any evidence available to support such a supposioon It may be pouled out that the earliest literary reference to idols us to be found in Panin-Jitkarthe capanje 3 99) Idol worsh p must therefore have come into yogue among the OBDwers of Brahmanıṣm not very long before Panins time. It may be Juggested that, with the beginning of the movement for popularizog Brahman LIU several elements of the popular proto Indian religion came to he asimulated to the Brabrganic religion — Idol worship being perhaps one of such elements 116 Considerable material relating to this and allied matters 13 to be ound 10 the following works WRITEHEAD, Village Gods of South India, URE, Drandian Gods in Modem H nduism, CROOKE, Folklore XXX, (Comissued on the next pups)246 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS essentially different from that of the normal Vedic Aryan gods. For, it was determined by the peculiar religious concepts of those people According to these latter, man was supposed to be ever in danger of being victimised by fearful evil spirits, which were believed to be mainly the spirits of the dead who were buried 147 The presence of these spirits was felt by men mainly through epidemucs and similar other disasters affecting men and their belongings 148 Propitiation of these spirits – and particularly of the leader of these spirits - by means of worship and offerings, which would be in conformity with the character of these gods, constituted the main basis of their religious practices 149 (Continued from the last page) THURSTOV, Gastes and Tribes of South India , DUBOE, Hindu Alamuts, etc, STEVENSON, Rutes of the Twice born, JACQUET, Religion des Malabars, RUSSELL, Trbes and Castes of the Central Propinces, DIESHITAR, Prehistoric South India 147 Bunal seems to have been a more common method of the disposal of the dead amoog the proto-Ipdians It should be further casily understand able that, according to the primitive way of thinking, bunal of the dead was more conducive to the origin of the idea of the spints of the dead rising from ther graves 148 It is hardly necessary to point, in this context, to the remarkable similanty between these concepts and the concepts relating to the Vedic Rudra and Rudras 149 A refertocc may be incidentally made to two uportant points Firstly, it is poteworthy that femalc di vinitses played a particularly significant role in the proto Indian religious thought and pracuces This is in conspicuous contrast with the Vedic pantheon, in wbich Uqas is the only important female dividity Other genuinely female divinities have no indepcpdcat itatus of thou own They are goddesses because tiey are the wives of the gods A refercncc bay alrcady been made elcwhere to the fact that the case of Rudrant (Bhavini, Sıvanl), however, is quite different from that of Indrāpi, Varuninl, etc Thusu so bccausc Rudra and Rudrani arc not originally Aryan divities but are the result of the aryanisation of brahmanisation of proto. Indian divinitics As for the concept of Adiu also, there is sufficient ground to suppose that that concept, in its original form, was borrowed by the Vedic poct priests frota some non Vedic sources. The general promincoce of females 19 Dravidian famlıcs 1193 been pointed out as a significant point in ibus connccuon Secondly, thc propituation of the spirits must not be confused with what we underland by the term, ancestor worship’. It was not ancestor worship as such, but rather thic worsbip of the malignant spirit of the dead RUDRA IN THB VEDA 1 247 Sufficient evidence has been produced in respect of the religious practices of the ancient Dravidians to enable us to assume that one of the commonest forms of the proto-Indian worship must have consisted of communal offerings of animals, such as buffalos, lambs, etc., to their gods.":1 Raw flesh of these animals was usually offered to those demon-divinities. Attention may be drawn, in this context, to the Sīlagara rite dedicated to the Vedic Rudra - a rite which stands more or less isolated from the other frauta rites. The points of similarity between the proto-Indian animal sacrifice 67 and the Vedic Sūlagara are such as to make the conclusion irresistible that both Rudra and the Sūlagara rite must have originally belonged to the proto-Indians and must have forced their way into the Vedic religious complex.153 But far more significant, from our point of view, than the offering of the flesh of the animals to the demon.divinities is another aspect of the proto-lodian form of worship, namely, pouring out of the blood of the animals, which are sacrificed, upon the crude icons which are supposed to be infused with the prescace’ of the gods, It is this aspect which must have been responsible for the proto-Indian god being regarded as a red god. The name of the ancient Dravidian god, namely, Śiva, which means ‘red’, can thus be very well linked up with the form of 150. See particularly the works of WHITEHEAD and ELORE mentioned in f. n. 146, 151. Human facrifice also cannot hare been cither unknown or raro, It may be pointed out that an effigy of man is sacrificed annually before Mahadeva by the tribes living Acar Lohardaga; similar offering is made by thc Gonds to Baradco ( = Mahadeva ). These practices undoubtedly represcat a modification of ancient human sacrifices, 152. Cf. the hanging of sacrificial animals on pointed posts referred to by ELLORE ( Op. cit., 25). 153. Reference has already been made above to the distinction between koma, which normally consisted of cooked offerings made through fire, and balı, which denoted raw offerings without the agency of fire. The latter, which is more common so far as Rudra is concerned, is vadoubtedly the result of thc proto-Indian influence. It may also be recallcd, in this connec tion, that the Maruts, who were originally the hosts of Rudra, are referred to as the caters of raw flesh (see supra). 246 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS essentially different from that of the normal Vedic Aryan gods For, it was determined by the peculiar religious concepts of those people According to these latter, man was supposed to be ever in danger of being victimised by fearful evil spirits, which were believed to be mainly the spirits of the dead who were buried 147 The presence of these spirits was felt by men mainly tbrough epidemics and similar other disasters affecting men and their belongings 148 Propitiation of these spirits - and particularly of the leader of these spirits – by means of worship and offerings, which would be in conformity with the character of these gods, constituted the main basis of their religious practices 249 (Continued from the last page) THURSTON, Castes and Tribes of South India, Dubois, Hindu Alanners, etc, STEVENSON, Rttes of the Twice born, JACQUET, Religion des Malobars, RUSSELL, Tribes and Castes of the Central Prouinces, DIXSHITAR, Prehistoric South India 147 Burial seems to have been a more common method of the disposal of the dead among the proto lodians It should be further casily understand able that, according to the primitive way of thinking, bunal of the dead was more conducive to the origin of the idea of the spirits of the dead rising from their graves 148 It is hardly necessary to point, in this context, to the remarkable similarity between thesc concepts and the concepts relating to the Vedic Rudra aud Rudras 149 A reference may be incidentally made to two important points Firstly, it is poteworthy that female divimutics played a particularly significant role in thc proto Indian religious thought and practices This is in conspicuous contrast with the Vedic panthcon, in which Uras is the only important fcmalc divinity Other genuinely female divinities have no indepcadent status of their own They are goddesses because they are the wives of the gods A reference has already been made elsewhere to the fact that the case of Rudrapi (Bhavani, Sıvanl), however, is quite different from that of Ipdral, Varunānl, etc This is so becausc Rudra and Rudrāni are not originally Aryan divinities but are the result of the aryanisation or brahmanisation of proto. Iadian divinities As for the concept of Adiu also, there is sufficient ground to suppose that that concept, in its original form, was borrowed by the Vedic poet priests from some non Vedic sources The general promicace of females in Dravidian famılıcs has been pointed out as a significant point in thus connection Secondly, the propitiation of the spirits must not be confused with what we understand by the term, ancestor worship’. It was not ancestor worship as such, but rather the worship of the malignant spirit of the dead RUDRA IN THE VED4 247 Sufficient evidence has been produced in respect of the religious practices of the ancient Dravidians to enable us to assume that one of the commonest forms of the proto ladian worship must have consisted of communal offenugs of animals, such as buffalos, lambs, etc, to their gods 181 Raw flesh of these animals was usually offered to those demon dividities Attention may be drawn, in this context, to the sulagaia rite dedicated to the Vedic Rudia - a rite which stands more or less isolated from the other Srauta rites The points of similarity between the proto Indian apimal sacrificell? and the Vedic Sulagava are such as to make the conclusion irresistible that both Rudra and the Sulagasa rite must have originally belonged to the proto Indians and must have forced their way into the Vedic religious complex 153 But far more significant, from our point of view, than the offering of the flesh of the animals to the demon divities is angther aspect of the proto-lodian form of worshup, namely, pouring out of the blood of the animals, which are sacrificed, upon the crude icons which are supposed to be infused with the presence of the gods It is this aspect which must have been responsible for the proto-Indian god being regarded as a red god The game of the ancient Dravidian god, namely, Siva, which means ‘red’, can thus be very well loked up with the form of 150 Sec particularly the works of WHITEHEAD and ELUORE mentioned in fr 146 151 Human sacrifice also cannot have been either unknown or rare It may be pointed out that an effigy of man is sacrificed apaually before Mahadeva by the tribes living near Lohardaga, ilar offering is made by the Gonds to Baradeo ( = Mahadeva ) These practices undoubtedly rcpracni a modification of ancicut human facrificca 152 Cf thc hanguag of sacrificial animal on pointed posts referred to by ELMORE (Op 611, 25 ) 153 Reference has already been made above to the distinction between homa which normally consisted of cooked offerings made through fire and balt, which denoted raw offerings without the agesty of fise The latter, which is more common so far as Rudra is concerned, uundoubtedly the result of the proto Indian influence It may also be recalled, in this connec tion, that the Manuts, who were originally the hosts of Rudra are referred to as the caters of raw flesh (sce supra) 248 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS worship which must have been most common in respect of that god The Vedic version of this ancient god, namely, Rudra, also bears a name, which means ‘red’, though, in his case, attempts seem to have been made to suppress the original association of his redness with blood offerings and to emphasize quite a different kind of association 154 While we are on the subject of the blood offering 6 we may refer to one or two other incidental but closely connected matters Just as, by way of one of the main features of the proto Indian worship, the worshippers besmeared the icon of the divinity with the blood of the sacrificed animal, they also sometimes besmeared their own bodies with that ritual blood in the belief that, by dong so, they, on the one hand, protected themselves against the attack of the evil spirits and, on the other, won for themselves ever new magic power 158 Besides this, there is enough evidence available, on the strength of which we may assume that ’the proto-Indian worshippers also partook of the blood offerings, in one form or another, as a part of a communal sacramental feast This peculiar feature of the proto Indian worship, namely, besmearing the icon of the demon divinity with blood (and there by concretely making that divinity look ‘red’) has survived in the Hindu worship also, albeit in a very much modified form Broadly speaking, one may characterise homa (that is to say, the offering of oblations to gods through fire and in the accompaniment of ritual formulas – those gods not being actually present in the form of idols and it being believed that the oblations are conveyed to them by fire) as the most essential feature of the Vedic Aryan worship This Vedic way of worship must be clearly distin 154 Sec infra All the game ay painted out above, we do come to quite a number of Vedic references to Rudra a fondness of blood 155 It may be pointed out that, cven today, rice mixed with some red substance (perhaps as a substitute for blood) is offered as balt to the spirits 156 Other modifications of this practice of actually besmearing ones body with the ritual blood, perhaps werc painting oncs body red, or putting red marks on oncs body Itu significant that the bratas, who constituted an important Rudra cuit, used to paint their bodies red or to wear Fed robes. RUDRA IN THE VEDA 249 guished from the popular Hindu way of worship, called püja. A critical consideration of the word, nūjā, would be particularly illuminating at this stage. In an excellent paper, published a few years ago, CHARPENTIER bas dealt with the etymology of that word and the concept denoted by at 157 It has been pointed out that neither the noun, pūjā, nor the verb, pūjay ati, which latter is clearly a secondary form, occurs in the RV or any other early Vedic text. At the same time, these words are not infrequently used by Yaska and Panini. The natural conclusion, therefore, which one is inclined to draw from these facts is that the word, půjā, which must have originally belonged to some proto-Indian language, was adopted in Sanskrit about the time of the rise of the Vedāngas. At the time of Yasha, that word seems to have already come into vogue in Brahmanic speech. Attempts have been made, though not at all successfully, to demonstrate the Jado-European character of the word, pūjā, by connecting it linguistically with some word in an IE language, BARTHO LOMAE, for instance, has suggested158 that that word may be connected with ap baxśūdan (=to show favour; to forgive ), pr. baxśajad, these two latter being derived from an ancient *pukśia— As indicated by CHARPENTIER, this suggestion of BARTHOLOMAE’s is neither phonetically nor semasiologically convincing,159 One is, therefore, irresistibly led to conclude that pūjā is a word of non-IE origin.160 So far as the etymology of that word is concerned, GUNDERT261 and KITTELIC seem to have hit 157. J CHARPENTIER, “Uber den Begriff und die Etymologie voo paja,” Festgabe Hermann Jacoby, 276-297. 158. GI Pk I, 1, 81; ZDAG 50, 701. 159, CHARPENTER has rcferred also to other similar attempts HORN Es , 34 Y.), Wod was Ine Tirst scholar to have dealt with inc above mentioned op. and pr. words which formed the basis of BARTHOLOMAE’S hypothesis, hissell connects the word guy with op 25213 =Tomorse). ACRELL, on the other hand, connects (Daltoslastsche Lautstudien, P46 ff.) puja with Tuss pugal ( to frighten). Obviously neither of these attempts can be said 10 be free from objections 160. The word, Pojd, seems to stand almost completely isolated to Sausknt 161. ZDAG 23, 528. 162. Kannada English Dictionary, p. XII. 34 250 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS the mark when they suggested that it has to be derived from a proto Dravidian root, which occurs as pūçu ja Tamil and pūsu in Kan nada The original proto-Dravidian root means “to besmear”,” to paste on “, " to paint over " 163 It would now become clear that, in the procedure of worship called pūjā, the most essential consti tuent was the besmearing of the icon The pūjā as it is commonly practised, consists of fifteen 164 or sixteen 16 items. A critical examination of all these items would seem to show that the item which could be said to be the most primitive, the most basic, and the most peculiar was the besmearing of the idol with coloured salves It is, therefore, not surprising that this entire form of worship should have derived its name from its most primitive, most basic, and most peculiar feature, 186 On the strength of the evidence produced above we may now conclude that both the word pijā and the peculiar form of worship denoted by that word were essentially proto-Indian in character. We may further assume that, already in the pre-Vedic times, 163. It u an interesting linguistic phenomenon that the Sanskrit word, paja (= worship), which is connected with the ancient Tamil word, pacu (to besznear ), reappears in Tamil - of course, secondarily - as prece (=worship). It may further be incidentally powoted out that GUNDERT and KITTEL regard the proto-Dravidian root (from which Sanskrit pa is to be derived ) also as the basis of the Sanskrit word, pusta (=model, image) It is well know that, in the preparation of a model or an image, besmcaring and pasting play an important rolc. [THIEME, JORM 27, 1-16, has recently suggested that the Aryan origin of 978 is highly probable Hc connects the word with the root prc (cf parka in madhuparka). According to THIEME, paja originally mant hospitable reception’. BAILEY, ALB 25, 1-12, sces in pij one more relic of the depleted vocabulary of ancient Indo Aryan RRADHAKRESHINAN, IL 26, 225-28, controverts the Tamil origin of the word pd and suggests that it was borrowed into Tamil ] 16+ according to DUBOIS 165, according to STEVENSON 166 In coursc of tunc, various modificd forms of the besmearing of the idols with coloured substances must have come into yogue Thc practice of bestcaring sacred stumps, stones, and images with red Icad mixed with oil u cvidenced all over India. This fact would show that the basic forta of proto Indian worship had become almost universal throughout this country. In daly domestic worship thus pracuce has taken the form of applying sandal pasie to the idols of gods or Covering them with coloured substances, such as, kunkuma ( saffron) and handrd ( turmeric). RUDRA IN THE VEDA 251 pājā, in its basic form, had spread over almost all parts of India, though it was only at a much later stage in the cultural history of ancient India that Brahmanism adopted both the word, pūjā, and the peculiar form of worship denoted by it into its culture complex This must have happened at a time when serious efforts were required to be made to consolidate, popularize, and revitalize the Vedic way of life and thought, which was in the danger of becoming more or less completely extinct as the result of the ever-growing strength and appeal of certain non-Vedic religious cults The Vedāngas, among other texts, constitutc the literary monuments of this great movement wluch had been laun ched for the purpose of the resuscitation of Vedic culture Presumably one of the features of that great movement was the assimilation of several proto Indian elements into the Vedic way of life and thoughtSome kind of iconism and pūja — both essential aspects of the prota Indian religion - seem to have been adopted into the Brahmanic religion about this time, obviously in very much modified forms 267 This would explain why the word pūjà occurs and idols arc mentioned, for the first time, in the Jiterary works of Yáska and Panini, which, broadly speaking, belong to the Vedanga period What, however, is most significant from our point of view is the truc implication of the besmearing of the icon, which is 100. cated by the word pūjā From what has been said above about the offerings made to the proto-Indian gods there should be little doubt that the besmearing of the icon, usually with red sub stances, is only a substitute for actually besmearing it with blood The offering of blood, which was poured over the icon, propitiated the demon divinity and protected the worshipper against its malevolent designs It is suggested that, according to the primitive way of thinking, when the worsbipper further applied a portion of that blood to some part or parts of his own body, he thereby established a kind of blood relationship with the divinity The proto Indian root form, from which the 167 With the rise of Hudum, para quperseded Vedic koma almost completely. 282 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS Sanskrit word nūjā was derived, must have thus denoted the besmearing with blood of the proto-lodian god As the result of this blood besmcariog the proto-Indian god must have actually looked red and must have, therefore, been called Siva, the red god Presumably, in course of time, some proto Indian peoplc either developed a kind of abhorrence for the actual offering of blood and the besmearing of the idol with it or found those things increasingly impracticable They could not, however, entirely give up this basic feature of their worship They, therefore, employed some substitute (pratınıdhı) for blood 10: The word pújā accordingly came to denote the be smearing in general of the idols as an essential item in worship, then the procedure of worship as a whole, and then the idea underlying worship as such It was, perhaps, in this last stage of its semasiological development that the word was adopted in Sanskrit There is another point to be noted in connection with the siggificance of the redness of the popular proto-Indian god In the primitive way of thought the red colour is often associated with the concepts relating to death, magic, evil omen, swearing, cursing, misfortune, etc This is, indeed, an almost universally accepted association To restrict ourselves, however, to ancient Indian conditions we may refer, in this context, to a rite inten ded for the destruction of enemy, wherein priests, dressed in red robes and wearing red turbans are required to make an offer ing of a blue-red animal 169 This peculiarly detailed procedure is certainly not to be understood as being the result of the usual tendency on the part of the Vedic priests to make even simple thungs elaborate and complicated It has on it an unmistakable imprint of the primitive magical ideology Elsewhere it is enjoia ed that one, who intends practising magic, should offer a 168 It may be pointed out that substitutes were used also in the Brahmapuc sacrifices 169 Kauss XXII 3 13-14 Ia this connection, OLDENBERG rightly remarks (RAY, 357 fa 4) that here we have to do with the colour of Rudra cf also AV Parisista No 31 raltof niṣi raktavasah krsnõmbaradharo po sa juhu ad pamahasiana RUDRA IN THE VEDA 253 red cow to Rudra 10 There are, indeed, quite a number of references in Indian literature in general to the popular belief that a red object seen in a dream portends rnisfortune and death 171 According to a Vedic text,172 a calamity is bound to occur if the sky looks red Just another aspect of this belief, tinged with priestly tendencies, is that, if, in the course of a sacrifice, red lines appear on the sacrificial post, running from right to left, ut is a sure sign that the desired daksınã will not be paid in that sacrifice 173 It is hardly necessary to dilate upon the fact that the popular proto-Indian god and his Vedic version, Rudra, are intrinsically associated with all these concepts implied by the red colour It was, therefore, but natural that the primitive people should have thought of such god as the sed god In this connection it may be pointed out that the red colour derived some other significance also in the primitive way of think ing On account of its magical associations the red colour was believed to possess the power of warding off evil spirits It may, indeed, be presumed that some followers of the original Rudra cult accordingly painted their bodies red, or put red marks on different parts of their bodies, or put on red robes In the Veda also we come across references such as the one where the use of red thread is prescribed by way of a talisman to guard oneself against evil spirits 174 Incidentally it may be pointed out, in this context, that the blue colour also possesses the same sinister, “apotropaeisch” character is the red colour We are, for in stance, told in a Vedic text1o5 that blue famcs 15suing out of fire portend death Naturally enough, therefore, the blue colour also 170 TS IT 1 7 7 GELDNER. Ied Stud IIT, 118, HILLEERANDT, Rituallateratur, 172, 176 That the cow is to be offored to Rudra is all the more significant from our present point of view 171 For thu and allied topics sce ZACHARIAE, OD cul , PISCKEL, 20MG 40, 120, Ved Stud 1,57 ff HILLEDRANDT, Rrualliteratur JOLLY, Medizin 172 AUA, III 24 Cf 2DIG 52, 573 173 AAS 12 20 9 HILLEBRANDYS, Rtuallı, 183 174 AV III 9 3 175 AA. III 24254 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS is closely associated with Rudra Siva, though much less commonly than the red colour 176 A critical study of the name of the god Rudra would prove particularly illuminating at this stage The word rudra, is usually derived from the root rud, which means to howl” or “to cry” It is, indeed, on the strength of this etymology that Rudra 15 generally regarded as the roaring god of tempest However, as indicated above, there is very little evidence in the Veda which would support the hypothesis that Rudra is a storm god The same can be said as regards the hypothesis also referred to above, that the concept of Rudra is the outcome of the minglog to gether of the two concepts of the roaring’ storm and the * crackling’ fire The derivation of the word rudra from the root rud, indeed, seems to be as old as the Tailtırıya Samhitā, though, in that text as well as in the Maitrājani Samhita and the Satapatha Bralimana, the epithet, rudra, derived from the root rud (=to cry) is applied specifically to Agni 177 Yaska has adopted this old etymology for explaining the character of god Rudra 178 Following his usual practice Yasha further connects the word, rudra etymologically with the two roots, tu (= roar) and dru (= speed forth) 179 Sayana, in his commentary on RV I 114 1, derives the word in as many as six different ways 180 176 Sec supra A rcference may be made here to the belief that, like thc red colour, the blue colour also grants protection against ’ev I sight’ Among sont primive people the watches are beheved to wear bule coibes 177 See su, sa 178 Nir .5 179 The derivation of the word rudra from the root nu (=to shatter). impled in the ha haka YYY 1, 19 obviously too farfetched 180 rodaya! Sarcam antakale il rudrah/rut satsarathyam dubthanh tad dropayatı apaga mayah rind safett itt mdra/ rud ar sabdarudd upanıtadah labhr driyate gamyate prat dyate th rud ah / rut sabdalmıkd con’ talpral pedya dlmandja Drī sam uporakebhyo ra dadafi 11 rudrah rumaddh d molt ut rut ondhakaadi lad dinått vidarajali ili n drah / sad arod I lad rudrassa rud alram ( TS 1.5 l 1) All these etymolog as except perhaps the last arc linguist cally unsound The first is obviously suggested by the JLB (IV 26) and the ChU (III 16 3), where the primas are called Rudras becau.c they make all this cry. Incidentally at may be pointed out that the name of Rurira s doublet Srva, is derived from the root so (= to attenuate) Syalı zapalı duhkham 11 sirah. Another ctymology us sete Sarist in ftrah RUDRA IN THE VEDA 255 None of these etymologies can, however, be regarded as ade quately bringing out the essential character of Rudra 111 GRASSMANN, assuming that Rudra represents the lightning storm rather than the howling storm, derives the name of that god from the root rud (=to shinc 182 But that too is not the true character of Rudra In this connection PISCHEL must be said to have hit the mark by proposing that the word, rudra, is to be derived from a hypothetical lost root, rud, which must have meant “to be ruddy or red ” 183 As has been pointed out above, one aspect of Rudra’s original complex personality, namely his character as a god of death, seems to have been particularly emphasized in the Veda It has also been pointed out that, according to the primitive way of thought, death is always associated with the red colour The name ‘red one’, would, therefore, appear to be most appropriate for the Vedic god of death, Rudra Thc redness of Rudra is further confirmed by 181 The frightful nature of Rudra may be said to have been implied by the first ctymology mentioned by Sayans, but the causal rodayali, would create difficulty 182 IbER 183 2DMG 40 120 OLDENBERG (Rdv, 216 ) who does not seem to accept this ctythology, points out that the form of the word should, in that case, have been rudhra But he goes on to suggest that the original rudhra may have been transformed into rudra perhaps 10 malc the name of that god resemble the Dame Indra Does this represent a conscous effort on the part of the protagonists of the popular Rudra-cult to clevate they god, indirectly and in a round about manner, by somehow connecung him with Indra and thus cosurc his place in the official Vedic rel gron? Is this a device similar to the more common onc wliereby a pon bicratic god is elevated by artificially associating him with Indra to form a dual diyipity? According to APTE (JCJRI V, 85-92), the original Toot to be thought of in this connection may have actually been a hypothetical rudh (to flow ), some of whose derilatses such as ndhra (blood), lohita ( red), loha ( red pietal), arc mct with in Sanskrit Arte suril er suggests that rudh was deaspirated into rud from which later the word, rudra, can be directly derived [Incidentally it may be pointed out that in Arte’s article under reference (P 90 in 6), the present writer seems to be represented as holding the view that Rudra is the Vedic god of death on the strength of the assumption that the word rudra is derned from the root, rud (=to howl) The present writer does beleve that the death god aspect of Rudra s original complex personality is emphasized in the Veda but, as well bave now become clear his belucl is not certaialy based on the etymology mentioned above) 156 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS everal other epithets employed with reference to that god both in he RV and the post-RV literature 181 We have seen above that there already existed, in the pre Vedic times, a popular proto Indian god, whose cult had spread far and wide in this country We have further seen that the Vedic Rudra is but an aryanized or brahmanized version of that proto Indian god As has been pointed out above, on account of the peculiar religious practices associated with him, this proto Indian god was, at least among some proto Indian people, regarded as a red god He was actually known as Siva, the red one, among the proto Dravidians There was also another ancient Dravidian god, called Rudhra, whose name also emphasizes his redness 195 It would app-ar that, when, owing to the pressure of circumstances, the Vedic poet priests were required to adopt this proto Indian god into their religious complex, they retained his name, albeit in another form, and called him Rudra, the red one 184 Attention has already been drawn to the essential simi larity in the characters of the Vedic Rudra and the proto Iadian Siva It will now become clear that, as a matter of fact, even the names, Rudra and Siva, are synonymous 187 A very interest ing linguistic phenomenon, however, seems to have occurred in connection with the word, fa, so far as the Vedic Isterature is concerned As has been shown above, the god Rudra was re presented in the Veda mainly as a fearful god of death the other essential features of the complex personality and character 184 Scc supra 185 S C HATTERJI, " Buddhist Survivals a 1 ngal,” BC Laro t’ol, Part I, pp 75-87 186 Mention has already been made of the various other cpithets of Rudra, which diearly and cate his rednesu It shouta, however, be rememberca that so far as the Vedc Kudra a concerned, attempts must have been made whereby the original asociations of redness (with blood offering and blood bosincaring) were suppressed and our associations specifically emphaguzcd But, as indicated above cven in the case of Rudra we come across certain references which unmistakably betray these orginal associations of redness. 187 SI GHATTERJI ( Op cit ) suggests that even tho name, Sambhu, by which Rudra Sıva is known in later umes may be philologically connected with the old Tamil word compu (= copper, red) RUDRA IN THE VEDA 257 of the proto-Indian god, from whom he is derived, having been, perhaps purposefully, suppressed by the hieratic Vedic poct. priests. This character of Rudra seems to have rendered his namnc almost a taboo. This is clcarly indicated by, among other things, the facts that the direct mention of his name is to be avoided, that his name is not included in the list of formal in vocations at a sacrifice, and that the formulas containing his name are usually employed only at expiatory rites.188 There must have, thereforc, naturally arisen, in course of time, a tendency to refer to Rudra in a euphemistic manner - indeed, with a word, which implicd just the opposite of what the name, Rudra, originally implied 119 Such a word was $110, which in Sanskrit, meant “gracious,” “benevolent.” The later Brahmanic thinkers must have hit upon this specific word as the result of the operation of what may be callcd folk-etymology. The Vedic word, riidra, and the ancient Dravidian word, sna, were actually synonymous, both meaning ‘red’, and, in a sense, denoted one and the same popular proto-indian god The word, sna, seems to have been latcr adopted in Brahmaaic literature, again as an epithet or as another name of Rudra, but now in another sense – that is to say, by way of euphemism 1. In other words, the ancient the one vollots of the me, en coute C of shieste. CLIOR O , 180, IITLIEBRANDT, MAI II, 181. 189 Another way of getting over this taboo wis, as indicated above, to represent Rudra as concealing under the names of Agni. 190 BARVETT (BSOS II, 807-10) regards this cuphemism au umilar to the one which gave rise to Greek * Eumenidos” From the point of view of the crolation of the Indian religious thought and practice, in general, it u Interesting to note tluat, un court of ame, I lindu writer became so much Brat oa suppressing the connection of the popular god, Rudra-Seva, with the prato Indian popular god, Siva, particularly so far as the rednes’ of the gods turittmatd, that they attuty went to the extent oi characteuing lucu God. Eira, (not arou, but) w karragove ( whine as camphor). Tu tcodency, on their part, also may, in a rase, Bor regarled u euphemistic, The bowly-des closed religious practice prohibitiog the offering of ‘red’ lowen to Rudra-Siva sms to have been directed more or less towards tho name purpose. It may be incidentally pointed out, in thu connection, that the planet Mfan, which looks red and which 19, perhap therefore, trguided inimicron ( gala) from the astrological point of view, is actually called Afecals through cuphenim. The rustetton that redocu’ itself may have (Continued on the next page) sont enthed, umc purpose. which looks red and lical point of vier e ll bay ha 258 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS Dravidian siva ( red) now came to be understood in the sense of Sanskrit śnia (= gracious, benevolent) 191 The name Siva as such seems to be unknown to Vedic, Brahmanic, and even old Buddhistic literature in the Rgveda, for instance, the word, Śiva, is employed exclusively as an adjective, and, only in one passage, as an epithet of Rudra 192 It is only in the Svetaśvatara Upanı sad that the word seems to have been first used as a proper noun Thereafter, however, the word, śrva, began to be regarded as as much a proper name as Rudra 183 Another aspect of the popular pre Vedic proto-Indian god, whose impact on the Vedic Aryan religion gave rise to the concept of Rudra, is represented in the Indus Valley religion In view of the fact that extensive literature relating to this subject has already been published,194 not much need be said about it here Atten tion may, however, be drawn to certain points which are parti cularly pertinent to the line of thought indicated above To begin with, it should be noted that, unlike the Vedic religion, but like the proto Dravidian Siva religion described above, the Indus religion is essentially iconic The gods, goddesses, and other divine objects in the Indus religion are concretely represented through pictorial and plastic art The large number of seals, sealings, and statuettes, unearthed in the Indus Valley, testify unmistakably to the high level of plastic anthropomorphism which bertham - Sath skrati pa to JOHANSSON ( bisere name for kipahia Indra bade elsewhere for RudeCrisand,p. (Continued from the last page) been indicative of auspiciousness among the proto-Dravidians (S B JOSHI, Marhak-Sarhskrit p 121 ) is not supported by the evidence of other primitive cultures According to JOHANSSON ( Du altındsche Gottun Dhisand, p 87), Uma ( protection giving ) is the euphemistic name for Rudrapi 191 A reference has been made elsewhere (“Vstraha Indra’) to similar working of folk-etymology in connection with the word, asura 192 X 92 9 193 Pacini (IV 1 112 ) refers to Siva as a proper poun It us however, interesting to note that, in IV 149 he does not mention Sıva by the side of Indra, Varuṇa, Bhava ctc 194 E 8 MARSHALL, Afohenjodaro and the Indus Crilization MACKAY, Further Excavations at Mohenjodaro, The Indus Cwrlızalson M S VATS Excavations of Harappa R P CHANDA Survival of the Preh storic Conilization of the Indus Valley NM CHAUDHURI “Indus People and Indus Religion,’ CR 123, 124 A Goll, “Sıva - His pre Aryan Origins,’ IG II, 763-71, RUDRA IN THE VEDA 259 those people must have developed Tbis idolatrous character of the Indus religion at once establishes its affinity to the proto Dravidian Siva religion (in which pūjā played an important role ) as against the Vedic Aryan religion and confirms the assumption of a more or less uniform proto-Indian rcligious cult having spread far and wide in this country in the pre-Vedic tunes Com ing now to more specific things, we must first take into considera tion the famous Mohenjodaro scal,195 which represents a figure, IR yogic posture. With some animals roaming by its side, and cxaminc its implications from our point of view MARSHALL describes the seal as follows 196 The God, who is three faced, 15 scated on a low Indian throne in a typical attitude of yoga with legs bent double beneath him, heel to heel, and toes turned down wards His arms are outstretched, his hands, with thumbs to front, resting on his knecs The lover limbs are bare and the phallus seemingly exposed Crowning his head is a pair of horns meeting in a tall head dress To either side of the God are four animals, an elephaat and tiger on his proper right, a rhino. ceros and buffalo on his left Beneath the throne are two decr standing with heads regardant and horns turned to the centre MARSHALL rightly recognises in the figure a pre Vedic proto. Indian representation of Siva 107 195 NICI, pl w fig 17 196 Op at, 52 ft 197 It has been subscated (SALLTORE, NR 10 July 1939, 28-35) though not at all convincingly, that the figure on this seals that of Agnt Jyatırmayet Bose (CR 76, 75-81 ) points out that the figure lacks many characteristics of the post Vedic Siva It should however, be remembered that some new characteristio might have been developed in the course of the evolution of the Indus Vallcy Siva into the epic Eva JAYABJIACALAN’s assumpuon (Anekants , 431-56) that the gut represented on the real must be • Jaina oha! 1 olmiously far fetched While admitting that the cults of Siva and the Mother Godden may have been prevalcat in the Indus religon MALLADT AN (JGJRI TV, 1-3) docs not find the evidence of this scal conclusive enough NIORALS ( 17 10, Nov 1939 138-18) characterises the figure as that of Cura, who According to him was or groally a phall c deity of the proto-Dravidian tribes of the Indu, Valley, who in their turn, had probably horrowed it from the hevals, who were Molarian ar Austric in ongn FOSCURRANZR ( 2DIG 1934 185 1T) draws attention to the airling am larity between the fgure represented on the Vohen, dato rralard that of the Celuc god Critiurnos, #dep cted on pilver cauldron uncarthed as Gun lestrup u Domuache 260 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS There can be hardly any doubt that the posture in which the figure on the Mohenjodaro seal is represented, is connected with Joga We have already shown above that the Vedic Rudra also shows distinct affinities to yoga and the cults allied to it 198 As a matter of fact this feature of Rudras personality completely isolates him from the other Vedic gods A study of the early Veda would make it abundantly clear that the concepts relating to yoga are quite foreign to it It has been pointed out above that homa must be said to be the most distinctive characteristic of the Vedic religious practice It has been further pointed out that as against the Vedic homa the pre Vedic proto Indian religious practice was mainly characterised by balı on the one hand and her We may now point to joga as the third feature of the pre Vedic proto Indian religious cult and practice, which distioguishes it from the Vedic homa cult The close affinity between the three cults with which Rudra is shown above to have been closely associated namely, the vraty a-cult the brahmacarın cult and the muni-cult on the one hand and the yoga cult of the Iodus religion on the other is too patent to need any elaboration This affinity then necessarily establishes the affinity between the Vedic Rudra and the god of the Indus religion represented in the yogic posture There is sufficient evidence to show that like several other features of the original Rudra cult the joga and the allsed practices also were viewed with disfavour by the protagonists of the hieratic Vedic religion In a Vedic passage, 198 One cannot therefore argue as CHAUDHURI (Op 6 ) has done that the Ved c Rudra is not an ascet c god that Sivas associat on with yoga dates only from the cpc age and that the yog - posture of the figure represented on the scal e indicat ve of d vin ly in general and pot of any specific god CHAUDHURI would rather conacct this mode of representation with the later representation of thr Buddha. Again the argument that apart from tbe zbres braded figur af the yogin several male figures on the Indus Valley scals though one headed arc represented in yoge posture capnot go against the dent fication of the three headed yoga tha It is not unl kely that one and the same god 13 represented - somet mes v h three heads sometimes with one Or as CHANDA (Ope! 33 ) has suggested ihesc one headed male figures are the figures of falls intended for worsh por as yot yc offerings lac dentally it may be pointed out that HERAS (Sa adesa Comm Tol 234) thinks that the proto Ind ans were bas cally monotheistic RUDRA IN THE VEDA 261 for instance, Indra, the chicf god of the oficial Vedic religion, 19 represented as being antagonistic to the jails 187 in another passage that god is said to have actually killed the jails and fed the wolies with them 100 Asindicated above, the followers of the vralya , the brohniacārın, and the muni-cults did not adhere to the way of life and thought prescribed by the mechanised and ritua Jised religion of the Vedic post-priests Toronc thing they were essentially niragni, that is to say, they had no faith in the clicacy of the Vedic ritual of which fire was the centre As against 10, they had developed, on the onc hand, peculiar practics of joga which helped them to attain magical and miraculous powers and, on the other, certain orgiastic practices, which facilitated what may be called scligious ecstacy Again, those jogins and jails seem to hasc rcgarded isolation from normal social life as a sine qua non of truly spiritual life This becomes clear from the peculiar ways of the rat, as, the bralımacarins, and the munis, which arc hinted at in the AV and the RV and which are chiracterised by tendencies towards rcnunciation, austerities, and wandering mendicancy Thesc thcir ways further confirm the distinction between the Rudra cult and the Vedic religion, which latter is cssentially a householder s religion ? It has been mentioned aboic that the acceptance of Rudra in the hicratic Vedic panthcon- in howsoever haltıng a fashion - is the result of the impact of thic proto-Indian religion on the Vedic Aryan religious idcology But so far as these peculiar yogic and allicu practics of the formar arc concerned, the results of this impact arc more promiocntly visible, in the later Todic period, in the form of the desclopment of the scheme of abamas and the great significanoc which came to be atta ched to austerity and renuncation in the Upanicadic thought 107 in 7511 275 200 1 -9 Alm TSV ? 73 20: It is plement to rote that, even in Laler ume, che tendency toWith the u twarly indeni mx0; ucham Incidrotally it may also be pettuned dat de robes d de Cana rater leat are red V! la vay, 11 *}w oibre, the technic Ux Uraidx, uix, a juca multxxun tir traced bad to the Indt Valky (Camului: A) C 262 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS The fact that the phallus of the figure on the Indus Valley seal is prominently exposed connects the Indus Valley god not only with the epic Siva, who is often represented with the raised phallus,203 but, as indicated above, also with the Vedic Rudra, though, in this latter case, indirectly, that is to say, through the vālyas (some of whom are described as samanica medhra) and the brahmacārın (who is clearly characterised as brhacchepa) An almost unbroken continuity is thus established from the proto Indian Sıva to the epic Sıva - the Vedic Rudra being, as it were, an offshoot in the direct line of development but, at the same time, representing a significant intermediate stage It is well known that a large number of objects resem bling phallus as also of ringstones, which are rightly supposed to represent the yoni, have been discovered in the Indus Valley Existence of phallus worship as an important religious cult in the Indus Valley is hereby clearly indicated Now if the two facts, namely, that the phallus of the yogin is prominently ex posed on the Indus Valley seal and that the phallus worship as a religious cult is evidenced to have spread extensively in the Indus Valley, are properly coordinated, one would be naturally led to the conclusion that, even in the proto Indian religion of the Indus Valley, the worship of the yogin Siva and the linga worship were closely associated with each other it may, indeed, be presumed that, even in those early times, the principal Indus Valley god, Siva, was actually represented in two forms that of the human male with raised phallus and that of the detached phallus by (Continued from the last page) period It is also not unlikely that the thcory of the Samkhyas regarding the two cternal principles - one male (Purusa) and the other female prakpl) - Was influenced by the coexistence, in the Indus religion, of the Mother Goddess cult and the Civa cult Incidentally it may be added that the connection ! Rudra Siva with joga is specifically emphasized in later Upanigads such as the Kreta fuatara and the Atharvafiras 203 Cf the following instructions regarding the preparation of the image of Siva Lıng ardham ardhuagarh kuryat (Matsya P 260 7), urdhval igast mahesar dl am (G Rao, Clenients of Hindu Icon graphy II. 2. 167). med hranilo n baisimetido (ibid 180) RUDRA IN THE VEDA 263 itself.394 Among some of the essential features of the original Rudra-Siva, which the hieratic Vedic poet-priests must have tendentiously suppressed while adopting that god into their offi cial pantheon, was this intrinsic association of that god with thc phallus-cult As in the case of the yarıs, the attitude of the Vedic poet priests vis-a-vis the proto-Indian phallus-vorshippers also was positively antagonistic This 15 clearly evidenced by the fact that, in two passages of the RV (VII 21 S, X 99 3), the enemies of the Vedic Aryans are openly dubbed as seśna derāh (= worshippers of the phallus) At this stage, attention may be drawn to one more point It is a well established ni Siva, in humorisava images inc Siva image 204 That, in historical times, Siva is represented in these two forms us too well known to nccd emphasis It Is, however, interesting to notc, in this connec tion, that VATS kes in an oblong terracotta saling discovered in the Indus Valley (Op al, 129-30 p! xcull, 303 ) the figure of Siva represented with the three symbols with which he must have been, cren then, very closely associated, namely, the bull, the trident, and the phallus So far as the representation of Sıva, in hurdan form, is concerned, A Grosir ( Opal) points out that not all varieties of Sıva images, in historical times, have the ordhoa luriga fcaturc At the same time almost all the Sıva images found in Eastern India ( Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, etc.) show this characteristic without exception Can it, therefore, be asumcd, on the strength of this evidence, that the influence of the Indus Valley Sıva worshippers was felt mort direcly in Lastem India? Is it possible to suggest that the Rudra-Siva cult (and lic cults of the tydlyas and the brahmatarins) prevailed more particularly among the Pricyas ? N M CLAUDIILAT (Opct, 177-78) also suggests, of course on quite differcot grounds, that the traditions of the Indus religion were more directly represented among the people among whom Buddhist later flour whed (that 1 to say among the people of Eastern India) So fy as the relation of Buddhism to the Siva-cult is concerned, CILARTEXTIER (H ZKU XXIII, 151-79) completely discountenances the possibility of the early Buddhists haviag been the direct inheritors of the Indus Valley religious tradition According to that scholar, the region which was superseded in Magadha by Duddhism must have been the Sıva religion Inold Buddhist literaturo there is no direct mention of Rudra. Ein On the strength of considerable curcumstantial evidence, however, CHARPEXTIER concludes that dra is the Buddhist representatise of Rudra. Sira Aa against thu, at e suggested that the idea of the Buddha overpowering Nana e very closely connected with the idea of Siya burding Madana It is further suggested that the later Saisin, as a Hindu bhakti-cut, was modelled on Duddhism. In the Cullore and the Safarulla Mikays, Sua urcated to as Deva or Devaputta It us, therefore, tot unlikely that the videla reference to the worshippers of Deva, among the religious ccts prevailing in the carly centurrcs D C., pertains to the followers of Rudra Siva264 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS anthropological fact that phallus-worship, which has, indeed, prevailed in all primitive communities, is closely connected with the fertility cult 205 That, in one of his aspects, the Vedic Rudra is regarded as a god of fertility has been already indicated above Incidentally it may be recalled that the hieratic Vedic poet priests often looked at such fertility-gods and their cults with some kind of disfavour 206 While we are on the subject of phallus-worship, we may point out that there is sufficient evidence to show that in India, in very early times, this religious cult must have spread far and wide It has, for instance, been suggested by VRR DIKSHITAR that the Neolithic people in South India were primarily worshippers of linga 207 He produces, in this connection, the evidence of Kapa gallu hill in Bellary district, where one notices a linga together with a bull in a crouching position 208 The similarity of this 205 The phallic cult u closely connected with the serpent cult, which latter also is well known to be a fertility vegetation cult 206 Sec “Viṣnu in the Veda’, published elsewhere in this Volume A GHOSH ( Opat), to whom the connection of the Vedic Rudra with phallıcısm does not seem to have become clear, tries to suggest that the Indus Sıva cult came to be linked up with the Vedic Rudra-cult through the evidence of cllipsoid stones In the case of the Siva-cult, those stones represented phallıc symbols of that god, while, in the case of the Vedic Rudra, who, accord. ing to GHOSI, was a storm god they represented thunderbolt stones It will, however, be realised that such a round about linking up of the two cults 18 not at all necessary Besides it has beca duly shown that Rudra is not a storm god Though T M P MAHADEVAN (OP a) admits the connection between Sıva and the linga cult he is reluctant to accept the fact that the liniga us a pballic symbol He, therefore, makes the curious suggestion that the linga might be representing a column of light’ or otherwisc a peg (Radutarı in Tamil -a form which Siva is supposed to have taken QUARITCIT WALES *peaks ( Op¢) of the Yaksa s stone bevog replaced by the linga of the carthly origin IR SUBRAMANIAN ( Alat Un j I. part 2) regards linga as a symbol of the ancestor worship However, as pointed out by G RAO (Op al II, 1, 55-57) the peculiar shape of the langa at Gudumallam, hulattur, and kudumiyamalai hardly leave any doubt as to the linge representing the phallus 207 V RR DIKSHITAR, Prehistorie South Ind 8, 89, 238 208 According to KR SUDRABANIAN (Op 64 ), phallic cult was the primiuve form of Siva worship and upon Brahmanic and non Vedic in origin (Continued on the next pape) RUDRA IN THE VEDA 265 representation to the one on the oblong terracotta seal noticed by VATS (Op. cit.) is, indeed, most significant.209 On either side of the figure on the Indus Valley seal are shown four animals; and two deer are seen standing beneath the throne. Taken in combination with the evidence produced above this peculiar feature of the Indus Valley god would definitely con firm the close affinity of that god to the epic Pasupati Siva on the one hand, and the Vedic Rudra on the other.210 It may, how ever, be argued that the animals represented on the Indus Valley seal cannot be characterised as paśu in the usual sense of the word. In the Veda, for instance, the word paśu usually connotescattle It may be further argued that the animals represented on the seal are bardly associated with Rudra-Siva. In this connection, it should be, first of all, remembered that the connotation of the word pasu is not always necessarily restricted to domestic ani. mals.211 Besides, it is not unlikely that the animals represented on the Indus Valley scal possessed some peculiar significance in the religious cult of the proto-Indians; and, on account of such cult relations, specifically these animals were regarded as representing the animal kingdom in general It should also be remembered that, so far as the Vedic Rudra is concerned, his character as Pasupatı has to be understood from various points of view. As (Continued from the last page) having its roots in the neolithic times STEVENSON faint out (” Ante Brahmanic Religions of the Hindus,” JRAS 8, 830) that phallus worship contiqued to prevail na the far South and North West of India - that us, far away from the sphere of the influenco of Brahmanism 209 This juxtaposiuon of the langa and the bull on the Kapagallu hull would seem to suggest that the phallic cult had, even 10 that hoary antiquity, come to be associated with some form of the Sıva-religion. For a detailed discus sion of the linga-cult, scc. DANDEKAR, “Valsnavism and Saivism”, R. G. Bhandarkar as an Indologist, 82-87. 210. It may be recalled that the Vedic Rudra is sometimes characterised as Pasupatin the AY (XI. 6 9) and the SPB (1 7. 3. 8), for instance, Pasupatt is mentioned as one of the many names by which Rudra known According to the AB (111. 33), Rudra chose the name Pasupata after having slaio Prajapati. 211. Cf. pasin fush cakte vāyavyárı &rapy en grumsy co JI (BV X. 90.8). 34 varreligioasa chali hapa 266 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS indicated above, Rudra is frequently celebrated in the Veda as a god of mountains and wild forests. It is in this aspect of his personality that he must have been associated with wild animals, some of which are shown on the Indus seal.212 The Vedic Rudra is an archer and a hunter and his connection with deer is variously reflected in Vedic and epic legends :13 It may also be presumed that, in the proto-Indian mythology, as in the classical mythology, the buffalo was regarded as the vchicle of the god of death,311 and that Rudra Siva, as god of death, was connected with animal from very carly times. Further, as pointed out above, buffalos were among the animals offered by the proto-Dravidians to their divinities All this may account for the appearance of a buffalo on the Indus Valley seal. There must have been another reason as well why Rudra was referred to as Pasupati. Rudra, as god of death, brought disease and death to men and cattic. But, as pointed out above, he was also supposed to possess the power to cure disease and prevent death. It was with a view to making Rudra bring this latter side of his power into operation that he was flatteringly - and in a sense, euphemistically called Pasupatı. It seems that originally Rudra was Pasupati in the sense that he was the lord of wild beasts. When, however, the Rudra-cult came to be adapted into the 212 It u interesting to notc, in thu context, that, a later literature, Siva is described as being clad in the skin of the clephant (Kumdra. 5. 67, Megha POTLA, 38 ) -one of the animals shown on the Indus Valley scal, As for the tiger, it may be pointed out that that beast is connected with the later Sıva-cult through the fact that Siva’s consort is sometimes represented with a tiger - as a tiger-goddess (As the “Old Alan of the Afountains” and as an archer, the Vedic Rudra and the cpic fiva are closely connected with wild animals like rhinoceros and tiger (cf AV XL 2 24 d-anyah pasangh mentioned in connection with Rudra) Siva 13 rcferred to as harinefa and my garipo in a stotra occurring in the Humavat khanda of the Skanda-Purana His characterisation as ekarriga in that very slotra may remind one of the unicorn bull which is commonly rtpresented on the Indus Valley seals Also ste : DANDEKAR, Sume Aspects of the History of Hinduism, p 61 213. V R R. DIKSHITAR sees, even on an Indus Valley geal ( MIIC III, pl. cxvu, fig 16 }, the representation of Siya as a hunter with a bow in his band, 214. The vebicle of Yama, according to classical mythology, is the buffalo, RUDRA IN THE VEDA 267 religion of the people, who had begun to lead some sort of settled life, cattle and other domestic animals were committed to the charge of that god 215 The Pasupati aspect of Rudra’s character can also be connected with the cults of fertility and vegetation - cuits, Rudra’s connection with which is cstablished on other grounds also The remaining two features of the Indus Valley god, namely, his three faces and his pair of horns, are not evidenced so far as the Vedic Rudra is concerned, though we find them in the epic Sıva As has been repeatedly pointed out above, certain features of the original Rudra Siva were purposefully suppressed by the Vedic poet priests Curiously enough however, DR BHANDAR KAR,218 thinks that the three faces of the proto Siva are preserved in the form of the Vedic Rudra’s epithet, tryambaka But, as will be shown later, the sigpificance of that epithet seems to have been quite different 917 One or two observations may, however, be made, in this context, about the two horns of the Indus Valley god It is suggested that, in the representation of the epic Siva, those horos assumed the form of the insula or trident The trisula, in turn, is regarded as the symbol of the thunderbolt And as the god of storn, the Vedic Rudra is 215 This stage scenes to be indicated by RY I 114 9 where the poet Icfers to himself as parupa while addressing Rudra 216 21SA, June-Dec 1937. 217 In bus recent book, Die drakoephige Gottheit, W KIRFEL has made an cxhaustive study of the three beaded divinities of Eurasia He puts forth the thesis of the pre Aryan origin of the three headed Siva, the proto type of the vast Orig..b e ncadea sya. Proto bost of the Hindu, Janna, and Buddhist three heads “The three-headed gods in Iran, Slavonic regions, Thracc, Mediterrancan basın, and Gaul arc traced back try that scholar to pre IE strata These, in turn, arc, according to him, inter related, being parts of one very old Mediterranean Civilization Spread ing castward, thus Mediterrancan cultural circle gave the three head to the Indus Valley Civilization H C RAYCILAUDEIURI also speaks (DR Bhandarkar Comm Vol , 301-03 ) of Prototypes (?) of Siva in Western Asia According to him, Suva with bus vehicle, bull, finds a closc parallel in a god worshipped by ancient Houtes, namely, Teshub The Hitate gon is armed with bow and trident, and rides a bullHos consort the Mother Goddess, Ma RAYCIŁAUDIIURI further point to the simulanty between the Sumerian deity, Nergal, and the Rudra of the Satarudrija 268 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS connected with the thunderbolt The Vedic Rudra is thus linked up with the pair of horns of the Indus Valley god in a round about manner Such linking up, however, is, as indicated above, based on a wrong premise It may be added that the horns of the Indus Valley god seem to have assumed the form rather of the crescent moon on the forehead of the epic Siva As regards the significance of this pair of horns the following hypothesis may be hazarded The purpose of the horns cannot be, as suggested by some scholars,“18 merely to give the figure a distinctive look and raise it above the normal human beings It is more likely that, at some stage in the evolution of the proto Indian Siva, the bull came to be closely associated with him as his special animal or as his vehicle As pointed out elsewhere, sometimes a god is actually represented in the form of his special animal 210 So the frequently represented Indus Valley bull may, after all, have been a symbol of the proto Indian Siya himself There is also evidence in the primitive mythology to show that sometimes some characteristic feature of the animal of a parti cular god is transferred to that god This would explain the two horns of the Indus Valley Siva Many of the followers of the pre Vedic proto Indian Sıva cuit also may have used the symbol of their cult, panely, a pair of horns, as their own symbol One would, accordingly, be justified un presuming that the Visunins — the non-Aryan people mentioned among the enemies of Sudas in the Dāśarajña battle (RY VII 18 7) - must have received their peculiar name on account of their head gears adorned with horns It is, indeed, significant that, in that passage the Visanins are mentioned by the side of another tribe called the Siyas 220 218 For instance, A Luas ( ) 219 Pusan for instance seems to have once had the form of a goat and Visbu that of a bird (Sce Paṣan, the pastoral god and Viṣgu in the Veda , published elsewhere in this Volume) The animal specially connected with a part cular god 18 in many cases the remnant in the process of the anthropomorphisat on of the original animal form of the god 220 I interpret Siyasab in that context as denoting the tribes which specially adhered to the Siva religion Incidentally thc Sivas are also identi (Continued on the next page) RUDRA IN THE VEDA 269 Attention may now be drawn to another seal which closely connects the Indus Vally Siva cult with the Vedic Rudra The same familiar figure of the yogin is represented on a copper sealing, which also shows two devotees kneeling on the two sides of that figure with hands joined in prayer and two coiling ser pents both facing the figure “I This seal provides unmistakable evidence for the assumption that the serpent cult must have constituted an integral part of the Indus Valley Siva cult The connection of the Vedic Rudra with serpents is already referred to above Nothing more need, therefore, be added here in that connection It may only be pointcd out that the serpent cult normally implied two things firstly, association with mountains and wild forests, and, secondly connection with vegetation ferti lity rites — in other words, things which are quite evident in the religious thought and practice relating to the Vedic Rudra While discussing the religious cult of the red god of the proto Dravidians, which, at least to some extent, constituted the basis of the cult of the Vedic Rudra, we have already drawn attention to a very significant point of difference between the proto Dravidian religion and the Vedic Aryan religion, namely, the great importance attached to famale dividities in the former This must, indeed, be regarded as a feature which differentiates the Vedic Aryan religion from the pre Vedic proto Indian religion as a whole A large number of terracotta female figurines have been discovered at different sites in the Indus Valley This fact not only indicates the importance which must have becn attached to female divinities in the Indus Valley religion but, what is more significant for our present purpose, it also actually confirms the hypothesis regarding the prevalence, in the Indus Valley, of the cult of the Mother Goddess 32” It is, therefore, possible to (Continued from the last page) fied with the Siboi of Alexander s annalists who I ved on the confluence of the Hydaspes and the Acces nes It 1$ also interesting to note that Patanjali (on Panini IV 2 10+) characterises Savapura as udic agrama 221 ANIC III plcxvu fig 11 222 It is difficult to believe as suggested by CHAUDHURI (Op 61,86), (Continued on the next page) 270 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS presume that the Indus Valley religion represents a stage in the evolution of religious thought, wherein the cult of the Magna Mater coexisted with that of the equally important mile divinity, namely, proto Sıva 2) However, without going into any further details of this important problem, we may only emphasize what 15 most pertinent to our present purpose, namely, that the influ ence of the proto Indian mother cult can be traced also in the religious ideology connected with the Vedic Rudra It is well known that, in the Veda, Rudra is either called Tryambaka ( RV VII 59 12 ) or is associated with Ambikā (TS I 8 6, VS 3. 57, NISI 104, TBI 6 104, SPB IT 6 2 9 ) As for the Dame, Tryambaka, it should be remembered that it must have (Cont nued from the last page) that the several types of female figurines arc tmys or votive offerings Inciden tally it may be pointed out that in his Alother Right in Inda EIIRENFELS draws attention to the social implications of this fcature of the Indus Valley Civil zation 223 So far as India is concerpcd the cvolut on of rel gious thought in thu respect seems to basc proceeded along some such lines as indicated below There is no doubt that, as elsewhere so also in India, the motho-cult and the Worship of the Mother Goddess rcpresented a very early form of primitive religion In course of time the concept of the Mother Goddess secms to have undergone a sort of sex differentiation as the result of which the supreme divinity came to be represented in two aspects the female and the malt-both aspects exisling s de by side This is the stage represented in the Indus Valley religion For a time thereafter under the influencc of the Vedic religious thought, the female aspect was almost relegated to oblivion (This must not of Course be understood to mean that Vedic religion and mythology bad remained epurely unaffected by the widely sprcad primitive Mother Goddess concept ) This stage represented in the Veda was then followed on the one hand, by a socond emphasis on and in somnc cases, a un fication of the male and the femalc aspects wluch are cvidenced in early Hinduism, by the forms of Sıva and Sakti and of Ardhanarisvara aod, on the other, by a revival of the exclusive Mother Goddess cult as evidenced in Saktism Ipcidentally it may be pointed out that B N PURI (PIHG V, 101 102 ) has connected the Indus Valley cult of the Mother Goddess with the Nana Amba cult of the hutana period and that S K DIKSHIT (The Alother Goddess ) seeres to connect the diverse symbols on ancient Indian coins and seals with the worship of a Mother Goddess The juxtapos tion of the mother cult and the Civa cult seems to prevail among the aborigines even today The Biyors for instance, ra se two stone-pillars to represent Dharatı (- Dhantri) and Mahadeva, who are propiated when harvest is gathered RUDRA IN THE VEDA 271 been an ancient name of Rudra - a name, which, even in the early Vedic period, had dropped out of vogue Such an assump tion alone would explain why that came is not included in the Iists of Rudra’s various names occurring in different Vedic texts 224 It is, at the same time, significant that the pame, Tryambaka, is preserved in connection with an ancient fertility-rite—a rite, which was, presumably, pre-Vedic origin but which was later on adapted into the Vedic ritual - pamely, Iraiyambaka homa. which is to be offered at the sahanedha, the third cäturmāsya. yāga Various attempts have been made to interpret the name, Tryambala,225 but the only interpretation, which is really satis factory, is that Tryambaka represents Rudra as connected with three mothers The creation mother, Ambā, and the creation god, Rudra, are thus brought together in connection with a popu. lar fertility cult The fact that Ambikī is sometimes referred to as a sister of Rudra328 or, in later literature, even as his wife, 227 should not create any difficulty For, as JOHANSSON has shown,228 the mythico-religious concepts of mother, sister, and wife are derived from a common primitive mother wife concept and are often mixed up together Apart from the merging of the Mother Goddess cult and the proto-Sıva cult, which is rellected in the personality of the Vedic Tryambaka-Rudra, there is another – and, perhaps, more significant — religious phenomenon which is reflected in him In addition to the Great Mother, and, vodoubtedly, as an offshoot of that concept, the primitive people assumed the existence, by 224 GF AV’ XI 2 XV 5, etc 225 E g Tryambaka as a god having three eyes (comma on 7$ I 8 6), as a gad ta wbom 11 offered a sacrifical cake on there ptsherde wuh three white spot (Vayu P 31, 46), as a god connected with three seasons or three worlds (KEITH RPVU, 119), ‘Tryambaka by amplıcalion understood as stry ambaka (SPB II 6 2 9), or as +ambaka 226 CE AS I 10 20, TDI 6 10 śreII 6 2 9 ctc 227 Comm on TS in epics Ambi = Durgs = Purvati 228 Dic altındische Collin Dh fond und Vertu andles p 10 Incidentally it may be pointed out that lodra who according to DIKSHIT ( Opal, 50), was the male counterpart of Saktı and, thereforc, identical with Rudra Siva, 13 also connected with three ded’s (cf AS 19 3, 115 11 5) 272 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS the side of a male god, of certain female demon dividities, called mothers, who were supposed directly to influence their day to day communal life 229 The number of such mothers’ varied from community to community The concept of Tryambaka. Rudra, as developed in the Veda, would seem to belong rather to this second type of religious thought For, like the guardian *mother’ of a village, Ambikā is sometimes, represented as a frightful demoness helping Rudra in his malevolent activity (MS I 10 20, TBI 6 10), and, at other times, being propitiated by the worshippers, she is said to turn into a healing, luck-bringing, fertility-giving divinity In the Indus Valley religion, however, special emphasis seems to have been put on the procreation fertility vegetation aspect of the mother cult Two seals discovered in the Indus Valley one at Harappa230 and the other at Mohenjodaro231 — are particularly significant in this connection On the Harappa sealing a nude female figure is depicted upside down with legs apart and with a plant issuing from her womb One can hardly doubt that the figure on this sealing is that of the Mother Goddess as the goddess of vegetation 23” The Mohenjodaro seal depicts a nude figure with long hair, appearing between two branches of a tree la front of this goddess, there is another figure interpreted as that of a votary in an attitude of adoration Below are shown, in a row, seven female figures with long pig tails The connection of this seal also with the cult of fecundity and procreation is quite obvious 233 While on this subject, we may make a reference to 229 Cf MOVIER WILLIAMS Brahmanism and Hinduism 222 230 MIC I pl xi 12 231 MIC I pl xu, 18 232 Accord ng to PRZYLUSKI (HJAS 1), the Vedic concept of Aditi 15 the result of the Aryan borrowiog from some non Aryan populations who adored a Great Mother This Great Mother was attended upon by two Cavaliers, who were turned by the I edic Aryads into the two Asvin: In thu connection PRZYLUSKI draws special attention to the madhukasa of the Asvins, which, accord ng to him direcily connects Aditi and the Asyios with some fertility vegetation-cult 233 Incidentally i may be pointed out that MIJESEKERA (C K Raja Fel Vol, 428–41) thinks that the seven figures shown in the lower register of çhis seal are symbolic representations of the Rgvedic mer goddesses RUDRA IN THE VEDA 273 the attempt made by KOPPERS to connect the Central Indian fertility rites with the Indus culturc 234 KOPPERS points out that the focus of the fertility rites of the Bhils and the Gonds is a magic stand or table on which earth is laid and corn sowo at the beginping of the ceremonies This table, according to that scholar, may be connected with the mysterious cult object frequently depicted on the Indus seals in conjunction with a sacred bull Whatever that may be, for our purpose it would sufice to emphasize that the Vedic Rudra is closely copnected with the Indus Valley religion through the cults relating to pro creation, fertility, and vegetation From a study of the Satarudrija, it becomes clear that the Vedic Rudra was regarded as the tutelary lord of trees and forests, of grass and cultivated farms 235 Rudra is harikeśa (VS 16 17 ) as the trees are harikeśa (TS IV. 521) He is saspiñara (VS 16 17), so is his host He is described as urvarya and khalya (TS IV 561) and as parna and parna sada (IS 16 46) Indeed, it would appear from that litany that Rudra is more directly and potrinsically related to the wild forest-people, to the wandering gypsies, and, perhaps in a slightly lesser degree, to the settied agriculturists than the other classes of the population As a matter of fact those people must have looked upon Rudra as one among themselves – as their leader There can be little doubt that Rudra derived this peculiar aspect of his character from his prototype, the proto Indian Śiva It has been pointed out above that the cult of the proto Indian Sıva enjoyed almost an uobroken continuity among the direct descen dants of the proto Indian population as well as among those of the extra-braomanical or party brapmanised people Many seemingly uncoogeneal, but decidedly original, aspects of that cult are, accordingly, found to have bcen preserved in their folk songs, legends, religious practices, and festivals in medieval 234 SY KOPPERS *Zeatraliadesche Fruchtbarkeutsriten nod ihre Bezichungen zur Induskultur Geograph . I 165 ff 235 CE Rudra’s characterisation as peksandrit poti, Cofanart gal grapadors pat, kṣetraneh pan, faṣpya etc 35.274 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS Bengals literature,234 for instance, we see Sıva represented, on the one hand, as a typical cultivator-god and, on the other, as a typical vagrant god and a god of the vagrants 237 It is signi ficant that Siva is described in that literature not merely as a god of cultivators but as a god, who is himself a cultivator a god, who actually ploughs fields, sows seeds, takes out weeds, cuts grass, and carries it home 238 Rudra’s epithets, harıkesa, saspiñara, saspya, etc, occurring in the Satarudriya, thus seem to have direct bearing on this aspect of the proto-Indian Siva’s character The other aspect of Siva’s character emphasized in the early Bengali Saiva folk songs is perhaps more interesting He is there celebrated as a crazy mendicant addicted to various kinds of intoxicating drugs and associating himself with all types of lowly vagrant people 239 Such descriptions of Siva, which, it may be presumed, are true to the personality and character of the proto Indian Sıva, have their literary counterpart in the Satarudriya. Like the proto-Indian Siva, the Vedic Rudra also was regarded by rustics, vagabonds, low caste people, despised outcasts, and other similar unsocial elements of the population as their own special god and leader 240 Incidentally it may be added that, 10 236 CE A BHATTACHARYA, Early Bengali Sauva Poetry Calcutta, 1951, N. M CHAUDHURI, “Rudra Siva as an Agricultural Deity,’ IHQ XV, 183–96 237 Similar descriptions of Siva are to be found in the folk songs of other regions also 238 Attention is drawn in this connection also to thc Gambhira and Gajapa fesuvals 239 Sıva is, in one place, characterised as badrydr po (= the son of a wandering sypsy) It is interesting to note that a kind of rationalisation was attempted in some songs by connecting the two aspect of Siva’s character We are, for utance, told that Sva’s fondness for drugs and low compasy reduced him to a state of poverty He was, therefore, persuaded (by a devotce, or by his wife Pirvarl) to take to agriculture 240 WILTEHEAD ( Op at, 90 ) describes Iyedar, a popular god of South Iodia, who is often rightly identified with Siva This god stands in open under & tree with clay images of horse, clephant dog etc, round him (Does this not faintly remind one of the Indus Valley scal sigure?) The offerings made to thu god reflect very well the character of his rustic vagrant worshippers Tor, they include bottle of arrack, pot of toddy, cheroots, giñjā, opium, etc, YILITEHEAD, Videntified with and dog etc; The offer RUDRA IN THE VEDA 275 a sense, the Satarudrija descriptions reflect but the other side of Rudra’s association with the iratas, the bralımacarms, and the munis 241 We can thus visualise a composite picture of the pre-Vedic proto-Indian god from the various facets of his personality - such as the red god of the proto Dravidians, the Paśupati-Yogisvara of the Indus Valley people, the supreme male god associated with the Mother Goddess cult and the cult of mothers’, the god of procreation, fecundity, and vegetation, the cultivator god and the god of the cultivators, the vagrant god and the god of the vagrants, the creator and the destroyer, the demon divinity associated with wilderness and mountains, with dangerous places apd 10auspicious things, etc The Vedic Rudra has inherited most of these characteristics of the personality of the proto Indian god Indeed, Rudra is but an aryanised version of this proto Indian god It is sometimes suggested that the character of the Vedic Rudra is syncretic, that it has its origin in several mutually independent religious and mythological concepts But the mani. fold evidence, which has been produced above, should be sufficient to show that there existed a popular proto Indian god, whose cult had spread far and wide in pre-Vedic Iodia and had conti nued to be dominant, even after the Aryan migrations, on the fringes of the aryanised - Or, to put it more precisely, brahmanised — regions ?!? It may, however, be presumed that, in different regions, the same god was either called by different names, or different features of bis character and cult were specifically 241 A reference may be made, at the stage, to one characteristic feature of the Rudra-Siva cult nam-ly, thar, in that cult, the worshippers think of the god in terms of his immediate presence - they always look upon him as being very close to them, as duectly influencing their lives The fact that Siva 1: not generally represcried as taking aralaras is very significant in this context 242 LAURA (Hinayana and Alchyta) suggests that the outlaadish Aryans, who were away from the centre of the Aryan culture were naturally prone to the proto Indag 10fluences Attent on u drawn in this copoection, to the distinction between Brabqararta and Bralımarṣıdcsa on the one hand and Āry fiarta on the othcę 276 VEDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRACTS cmphasized Does the salapatha-Brāhmaṇa (I 7 3 8), for instance, not tell us that he was called Sarva by the Eastern people,248 and Bhava by the Vähikas,“44, or that his character as pasūnanı palı was celebrated in one region and his character as Rudra 10 another? It seems that, on account of their encounter with the outlandish people like the Vähikas, the Prācyas, the Vrātyas,245 the proto Dravidians, etc, the Vedic Aryans came into contact with the widely-spread religious cult of the proto Siva 246 The impact of that cult on the Vedic religion must have been particularly powerful and the popular pressure for the adaptation of that cult into the Vedic Aryan religious complex must have, indeed, been irresistible The hieratic Vedic poet priests, however, seem to have reacted to this pressure 10 a peculiar way As indicated above, while introducing the proto Indian god in the Vedic pantheon in the form of Rudra, they have attempted tendentiously to suppress many traits of that god’s personality and character and alter several items connected with the popular primitive rites associated with him Two things must, however, be remembered so far as these attempts of the $PB was populater or bow and arrows. It is other rustic and va 243 The Sarva form of the proto-Indian god, which, according to the ŚPB was popular in Eastern Indu, seems to hasc represented that god parti cularly at a wielder of bow and arrows It is therefore, likely that Sarva was a special god of hunters and, praumably, of other rustic and vagrant ypsics That Siva should have been prominently represented as a vagrant god and god of vagrants in the medieval folk songs of Bengal (that is, Lastern India) very ugnificant in this connection It is suggested by CHARPENTIER ( 11ZKAI XXIIT, 167 ) that the Eastemers had also developed another müder side of Sıva 244 This name clearly implies that these people were regarded as outlandish-that is, as living outside the pale of the Brahmanıc culture (Arc they to be identificd with the Bahlikas?) A reference has been made to the Siva-cult of the Vabikas in the dram bhdrata, Korps 44 145 It is interesting note that the yon m ucha camwww Crver WER MW out (Op 165) that their neighboun that we the Gandh ras were also followers of could the Siva-cule and, therefore, fought on the tide of Jarasandha, who, according to that scholar, was a great protagonut of that cult 245 According to CHIARPENTIER ( Op cit, 156-57), Herodotus (III 98-105 ) han referred to the rtyas in ) is account of India 246 16 u lanctimci yuksested of course incorrectly. that, unce Suva is connected with the Tanitas and the Tantras att derned from Tibet, the concept of Siva also must have come to India from Tilet RUDRA IN THE VEDA 277 Vedic poet priests are concerned Firstly, these attempts seem to have been made mainly in respect of the RV And, secondly, as has happened in similar circumstances, jo spite of these attempts, several incidental references have found their way, even in the RV, which betray the true character of Rudra If one leaves out of consideration the peculiar priestly side growth, in the RV, of the original Rudra Siva cult and mythology, one will realise that there is an unbroken continuity of religious tradition from the proto Śiva to the epic Sıva who is worshipped even to this day, and that Siva must, accordingly, be regarded as having the longest continuous record of godhead — not only in India but perhaps also in the entire civilised world “47 (First published JUPES 1, 1903, 91–148 ) 247 On Rudra Siva, also see . DANDEKAR, " Vaungvism and Sauvism”. R. C Bhandarkar os at Indologist, 21-11l.