The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c11.65

v1.c11.65

**The myth of Rudra :** The Vedic conception of Rudra is that of a fierce divinity, typifying all that is terrible. All the other leading gods are personifications of the elements, of natural objects, and of physical phenomena. Indra rules the clouds and the thunder-bolt. Vāyu is the regent of the wind, and Varuṇa exercises dominion over the sea. Savitā is the presiding divinity of the sun, and Soma of the moon. Rudra, however, has no such firm substratum to rest upon. He has no control over the elements, and all physical phenomena are independent of him. In him we behold, not the spiritual essence of a concrete object, but the ideal embodiment of all that is frightful and terrible. He has no command over the air; but he lives in whirlwinds and cyclones, and is the father of the Maruts. He is not the master of the thunderbolt ; but the roar of that dread weapon of Indra is a manifestation of his wrath. The mountains owe him no allegiance ; but his abode is the snow-capped peak shooting far above the highest clouds, and threatening instant death to all living beings. He is tawny-coloured and of fierce aspect ; strong and impetuous. His hair is matted, and his person is draped with a tiger-skin, girdled with fierce and hissing serpents. Fiery and vigorous, there is [ 144 ] nothing more powerful than he. Malevolent by nature, he is "like a terrible wild beast". His weapons are sharp, and his bolts are piercing. "He is swift, and fleet, and speedy". "He dwells in billows and in roaring waters, in rivers and islands," in pathways and roads, in hollows and sides of mountains, in water-courses and rivers, "in barren land and inaccessible places". Nothing in creation is a more certain destroyer. "He kills in front, and from afar", the dire "slayer and vexer, and afflictor". In him robbers find their chosen lord, and huntsmen with ravenous dogs their patron.²⁵ With ghosts and imps , and goblins for boon companions, and armed with a thousand shafts, he roams the earth to the dire consternation of all. In short, he is all that is fierce and terrible, all that is frightful and appalling, all that is awe-inspring and heart-quaking ; or, in other words, the personification of the terrible in nature,—a unification of the presiding divinities, or spiritual essences, of various objects which excited the dread of a simple people, and which at an earlier period were looked upon as so many different divinities.