The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c17.s10.70

v1.c17.s10.70

Arbman’s theory leads to a curious and unnatural result in the case of the intimate connexion with Agni which the texts admittedly reveal, and which is shown by the interchange of Rudra’s names with Agni. The obvious explanation afforded by the Rigveda is that Rudra is in a sense fire, for he is a lightning god; to Arbman it is necessary to hold that Rudra’s dangerous nature was expressed in the minds of his votaries by the term fire, a conception bizarre and implausible. Moreover we have on every hand evidence of the syncretism of gods in Rudra; Arbman seems to feel doubt over his desperate suggestion that in the Çatarudrīya the term Rudra means ‘the demon’, and not Rudra at all, and gives it up for Rudra Vāstoṣpati. What is obvious is that the great god absorbs, as other great gods have done, a mass of Sondergötter, though in the Çatarudrīya form we have priestly ingenuity extending and amplifying Sondergötter in the best manner of the Roman Indigitamenta. It is probably to syncretism again that we owe the connexion of Rudra¹ with thieves, robbers, and highwaymen, whose patron he seems to have been, and from whom, therefore, he is expected to protect his votaries, and we need not press the suggestion that he was regarded himself as tricky,² or connect this aspect with the uncertain character of the lightning. Nor in the Vedic texts does he ever become a snake god; his connexion with snakes is only incipient,³ and it becomes much more marked in the epic, showing us clearly the process of identification in its advance. On the other hand, it is probable that some of his characteristics in the later Vedic period come from a god of death; this may primarily be due to identification with Çarva and Bhava, and it is suggested in his connexion with birds of evil omen⁴ and howling dogs,⁵ for such birds and dogs are closely connected with Yama as a god of the dead.