Vedic Mythology c5.s2.t4.9

c5.s2.t4.9

Malevolence is frequently attributed to Rudra in the RV.; for the hymns addressed to him chiefly express fear of his terrible shafts and deprecation of his wrath. He is implored not to slay or injure, in his anger, his worshippers, their parents, children, men, cattle, or horses (1, 114⁷· ⁸), but to spare their horses (2, 33¹), to avert his great malevolence and his bolt from his worshippers, and to prostrate others with them (2, 33¹¹· ¹⁴). He is besought to avert his bolt when he is incensed and not to injure his adorers, their children, and their cows (6, 28⁷. 46²⁻⁴), and to keep from them his cow-slaying, man-slaying missile (2, 33¹). His ill-will and anger are deprecated (2, 33⁴⁻⁶· ¹⁵), and he is besought to be merciful to the walking food (10, 169¹). His worshippers pray that they may be unharmed and obtain his favour (2, 33¹· ⁶). He once even receives the epithet ‘man-slaying’ (4, 3⁶), and in a Sūtra passage it is said that this god seeks to slay men (AG. 4, 8³²). Rudra’s malevolence is still more prominent in the later Vedic texts. His wrath is frequently deprecated (VS. 3, 61 &c.; AV. 1, 28⁵ &c.). He is invoked not to assail his worshippers with celestial fire and to cause the lightning to descend elsewhere (AV. 11, 2²⁵; 10, 1²³). He is even said to assail with fever, cough, and poison⁸ (AV. 11, 2 22. 26; 6, 90 cp. 93). Rudra's widemouthed, howling dogs, who swallow their prey unchewed, are also spoken of (AV. 10, 1³⁰, cp. VS. 16, 28). Even the gods were afraid of the strung bow and the arrows of Rudra, lest he should destroy them (ŚB. 9, 1, 1 1. 6). Under the name of Mahādeva he is said to slay cattle (TMB. 6, 9⁷). In another Brāhmaṇa passage he is said to have been formed of a compound of all the most terrible substances (AB. 3, 33¹). It is probably owing to his formidable characteristics that in the Brāhmaṇas and Sūtras Rudra is regarded as isolated from the other gods. When the gods attained heaven, Rudra remained behind (ŚB. 1, 7, 3¹). In the Vedic ritual after offerings to other gods, a remainder is not uncommonly assigned to Rudra (Gobh. GS. 1, 8²⁸; Āp. Dh. S. 2, 4²³). His hosts, which attack man and beast with disease and death, receive the bloody entrails of the victim (ŚŚS. 4, 19⁸), just as blood is poured out to demons as their peculiar share of the sacrifice⁹ (AB. 2, 7¹). The abode of Rudra in these later texts is commonly regarded as in the north¹⁰, while that of the other gods is in the east. It is perhaps due to his formidable nature that in the RV. Rudra only appears once associated with another deity (Soma: § 44) as a dual divinity in one short hymn of four stanzas.