The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c17.s10.58

v1.c17.s10.58

The Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa⁴ tells us that Çarva was a name of Agni among the eastern people and that Bhava was used among the Bāhīkas, which suggests that in Rudra there have combined the forms of different but kindred gods. A reference to the cult of Rudra by the Vrātyas has been seen as the explanation of the curious Vrātya hymn of the Atharvaveda⁵ and of the ceremonies which are used for the introduction into the Vedic religious life of the non-Brahmanical Aryans. The evidence for this view, however, must be regarded as quite insufficient to make it even plausible.¹ The question, however, does arise whether in the late Rudra we have not the syncretism of more than one deity, and possibly the influence of the aboriginal worship on the Aryan. It is certainly possible that a forest and mountain deity or some kindred god, such as a vegetation spirit, and even a god of the dead may be united with the Vedic lightning god to form the composite figure of the Yajurveda: the view preferred by Oldenberg, that the god is really the same throughout the whole period, and that it is the nature of the tradition which obscures the fact, cannot be accepted in face of the obvious probability of development of religion, and the admitted ease with which deities absorb foreign elements into their character. In the later Çiva there are many traces of conceptions commonly associated with vegetation spirits, and his phallic cult is one which is condemned by the Rigveda, but which doubtless remained as popular among the aborigines as it now is among Çiva worshippers throughout India.