The Maruts are a troop of male gods. Though they lack individual identities, they are quite prominent as a group: over thirty hymns are dedicated to them alone and several more to them in conjunction with Indra, and they are frequently mentioned elsewhere. Their character has both naturalistic and social aspects. On the one hand, they are the embodiments of the thunderstorm, especially of the monsoon, and many of their aspects reflect this natural phenomenon: like lightning, they are brilliant and flashing, bedecked with ornaments and glittering weapons; like thunder, they are excessively noisy on their wild chariot journeys, causing the earth to shake with fear, bending the trees and even the mountain; like thunderclouds, they are shape-shifting and sometimes clothed in gray; and they are accompanied by floods of rain.+++(4)+++ The terror they inspire is more than balanced by the fructifying rains they bring. All these physical aspects of the Maruts often inspire the poets to vivid and imaginative language.
As a social phenomenon, the Maruts represent the Männerbund, an association of young men, usually at a stage of life without significant other social ties (such as wife and children), who band together for rampageous and warlike pursuits. The violence of the thunderstorm is akin to the violence of these unruly age-mates, raiding and roistering. It is not unlikely that Vedic society contained and licensed such groups among its young men, given the frequent warfare depicted in the R̥gveda, and the divine Maruts provide the charter for this association and behavior.
Birth
The Maruts are not, however, entirely without social ties. Their parentage is clear, though the manner of their birth problematic and disputed—and often alluded to as a mystery. Their mother is a dappled cow, Pr̥śni, who can display androgynous characteristics and behavior; their father is Rudra, and they are often themselves referred to as Rudras.
Rodasī
Moreover, they have a female companion, Rodasī. When the word ródasī appears in the dual number, it refers to the two world-halves, but as a singular (also accented rodasī́) it is the name of the Maruts’ consort, a beautiful young woman who accompanies them on their chariot. Their normal location in the midspace between the two world-halves is presumably responsible for her name.
Indra’s friends
Perhaps the Maruts’ most important companion is Indra, for whom they serve as a sort of posse: marútvant “accompanied by the Maruts” is one of Indra’s stand ing epithets. Their major role in dynamic mythology was to provide support and encouragement to Indra before the Vr̥tra battle, an episode also treated in Vedic prose narratives. But, according to one of the most striking hymns in the R̥gveda, I.165, a dialogue among Indra, the Maruts, and the seer Agastya, Indra disputed the extent of their aid at that time. In this hymn Indra and the Maruts argue over their respective rights to a sacrifice offered by Agastya; Indra asserts his rights in part because he claims the Maruts abandoned him to fight Vr̥tra alone, though elsewhere in the R̥gveda (and later) there is no doubt about their supportive role in that combat.
This mythological contretemps has its reflection also in ritual, in fact to a ritual change occurring during the R̥gvedic period. Although in some of the Family Books Indra alone is the recipient of the offering at the Midday Pressing, in Maṇḍalas III and VI, in scattered mentions elsewhere, and in the classical śrauta ritual, the Maruts share the Midday Pressing with Indra. The tense negotiations among Indra, the Maruts, and the sacrificer Agastya in I.165 and I.170–171 suggest that the change in recipients of the midday oblation was a contested topic for R̥gvedic ritualists and the inclusion of the Maruts needed and was given mythological underpinning.