The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c17.s10.27

v1.c17.s10.27

In the Brāhmaṇas we find the power of Rudra at its height. The gods even are afraid lest they be killed by the god. Under the name of Mahādeva he is essentially the slayer of cattle, and he is said to be prone to slay men.¹³ His origin is traced in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa,¹ to the evil deed of Prajāpati in consorting with his own daughter; the gods in their anger make up the most appalling of beings, who pierces the father god and thus asserts outraged morality. Another story in the same Brāhmaṇa² reveals him as a great black³ being who appears on the place of sacrifice, and claims all that is over as his own, a claim which Nābhānediṣṭha is told by his father must be recognized as being valid. In the ritual we find that he is marked out emphatically from the other gods: at the end of the sacrifice a handful of the strew is offered to him to propitiate him,⁴ at the end of a meal any food left over is placed in a spot to the north for him to take;⁵ his abode is in the north, while the other gods abide in the east, the place of the rising of the sun. The bloody entrails of the victim are made over to his hosts, which attack men and beast with disease and death, in order to avert their anger;⁶ the red colour of the god is the colour of fire and of blood. Moreover, the snakes⁷ are clearly conceived as being among his servants. When the gods reached heaven, it is said, Rudra was left behind.⁸ Still more important is the tendency seen to generalize the operations of Rudra: in the Çatarudriya litany of the Yajurveda he is credited with activity in almost every aspect of nature, in the mountains, the woods, the paths, and the streams. So in the ritual it is prescribed that offerings should be made to Rudra in the most manifold places and on varied occasions.⁹ In a place infested by snakes one should offer to Rudra who lives among the snakes, at a mound of manure to Rudra who is lord of cattle, in a river to Rudra who lives in the waters, at a cross way to Rudra of the roads, at sacred trees, at the place of sacrifice and so on.¹⁰ A verse in the Yajurveda reveals to us Rudra as a god haunting the lonely woods; the cowherds, and the maidens, who are drawing water, catch a glimpse of him.¹¹ He haunts the hills and is closely related to the trees, on which he deposits his weapons when he lays them aside.¹² It is clear that this wide extension of his power, which applies to the waters and to the fish in them and to the whole animal and vegetable kingdom, is due to a deliberate tendency to see in him a god with a comprehensive control over all nature.