The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c11.69

v1.c11.69

**Rudra as a destroyer** : In this passage Rudra is identified primarily with Agni, and secondly with all the principal objects of nature; his principal names are also recounted. The story is repeated in the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa*, where the name Aśani is replaced by Bhīma, and a slightly different version of it is to be found in the *Śāṅkhāyana Brāhmaṇa*.²⁷ The character of Rudra as a destroyer, is however, not brought out in any of these stories, and for it I must quote another passage from the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* in which he is painted in that light, though it does not go to [ 145 ] the extent of assigning to him the role of the destroyer of the universe at statedtimes. It runs thus : “From Prajāpati, when he had become divided, the deities sprang forth. Only one god, Manyu, did not leave him, but continued extended within him. He (Prajāpati) wept. The tears which fell from him remained in that Manyu. He became a Rudra with a hundred heads, a hundred eyes, and a hundred quivers Then the other drops which fell from him in unnumbered thousands entered into these worlds. They were called Rudras, because they sprang from him when he had wept. This Rudra with a thousand heads, eyes, and quivers, stood with his bow strung, holding arrows, causing terror, and demanding food. The gods were afraid of him. They said to Prajāpati, we are afraid of this being, lest he destroy us. They collected for him this food, the *Śatarudriya*, and with it they appeased him. From the fact that they appeased the hundred-headed Rudra, it is wherewith the hundred-headed Rudra is to be appeased”.²⁸