Rudra

Vedic deity
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Rudra, (Sanskrit: “Howler”), relatively minor Vedic god and one of
the names of Śiva, a major god of later Hinduism. Śiva is considered to
have evolved from Rudra, and the two share a fierce, unpredictable,
destructive nature. In the Vedas, Rudra is known as the divine archer,
who shoots arrows of death and disease and who has to be implored
not to slay or injure in his wrath. As a healer and a source of 1,000
remedies, he has also a beneficent aspect. He is also the father of the
storm gods, the Rudras, sometimes called Maruts.

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Hinduism: The rise of the major sects: Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism

The Vedic god Rudra gained importance from the end of the Rigvedic period. In the
Svetashvatara Upanishad, Rudra is for the first time called Shiva and is described as the
creator, preserver, and destroyer of the universe. His followers are called on to worship him
with devotion (bhakti).…


Hinduism: The Rigveda

…particularly associated with the god Rudra, a deity connected with mountains and storms
and more feared than loved. Rudra developed into the Hindu god Shiva, and his prestige
increased steadily. The same is true of Vishnu, a solar deity in the Rigveda who later became
one of the most important…

Hinduism: Theology

There is also Rudra, an ambivalent god who is dreaded for his unpredictable attacks (though
he can be persuaded not to attack); Rudra is also a healer responsible for 1,000 remedies.
Although there are many demons (rakshasas), no one god embodies the evil spirit; rather,
many gods have…
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HomePhilosophy & ReligionAncient Religions & Mythology
Shiva
Hindu deity
WRITTEN BY
Wendy Doniger
Wendy Doniger is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor
of the History of Religions in the Divinity School at the University of
Chicago. Her research and teaching interests revolve around two...
LAST UPDATED: Aug 24, 2020 See Article History
Alternative Titles: Śiva, Śiwa
Shiva, (Sanskrit: “Auspicious One”) also spelled Śiwa or Śiva, one of
the main deities of Hinduism, whom Shaivites worship as the supreme
god. Among his common epithets are Shambhu
(“Benign”), Shankara (“Beneficent”), Mahesha (“Great Lord”), and
Mahadeva (“Great God”).
Shiva and his family at the burning ground. Parvati, Shiva's wife, holds
Skanda while watching Ganesha (left) and Shiva string together the
skulls of the dead. The bull Nandi rests behind the tree. Kangra
painting, 18th century; in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
London.Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; photograph A.C.
Cooper

TOP QUESTIONS
Who is Shiva?
What does Shiva look like?
What forms does Shiva take?
What are Shiva’s roles as a deity?

Shiva is represented in a variety of forms: in a pacific mood with his

consort Parvati and son Skanda, as the cosmic dancer (Nataraja), as a
naked ascetic, as a mendicant beggar, as a yogi, as a Dalit (formerly
called untouchable) accompanied by a dog (Bhairava), and as
the androgynous union of Shiva and his consort in one body, half-male
and half-female (Ardhanarishvara). He is both the great ascetic and
the master of fertility, and he is the master of both poison and
medicine, through his ambivalent power over snakes. As Lord of Cattle
(Pashupata), he is the benevolent herdsman—or, at times, the
merciless slaughterer of the “beasts” that are the human souls in his
care. Although some of the combinations of roles may be explained by
Shiva’s identification with earlier mythological figures, they arise
primarily from a tendency in Hinduism to see complementary
qualities in a single ambiguous figure.

The god Shiva in the garb of a mendicant, South Indian bronze from
Tiruvengadu, Tamil Nadu, early 11th century; in the Thanjavur Museum
and Art Gallery, Tamil Nadu.P. Chandra
Shiva’s female consort is known under various manifestations as
Uma, Sati, Parvati, Durga, and Kali; Shiva is also sometimes paired
with Shakti, the embodiment of power. The divine couple, together
with their sons—Skanda and the elephant-headed Ganesha—are said
to dwell on Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas. The six-headed Skanda is
said to have been born of Shiva’s seed, which was shed in the mouth of
the god of fire, Agni, and transferred first to the river Ganges and then
to six of the stars in the constellation of the Pleiades. According to
another well-known myth, Ganesha was born when Parvati created
him out of the dirt she rubbed off during a bath, and he received his
elephant head from Shiva, who was responsible for beheading him.
Shiva’s vehicle in the world, his vahana, is the bull Nandi; a sculpture
of Nandi sits opposite the main sanctuary of many Shiva temples. In
temples and in private shrines, Shiva is also worshipped in the form of
the lingam, a cylindrical votary object that is often embedded in
a yoni, or spouted dish.

sandstone lingaSandstone linga, c. 900; in the British Museum,

London.Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum
Shiva is usually depicted in painting and sculpture as white (from the
ashes of corpses that are smeared on his body) with a blue neck (from
holding in his throat the poison that emerged at the churning of the
cosmic ocean, which threatened to destroy the world), his hair
arranged in a coil of matted locks (jatamakuta) and adorned with the
crescent moon and the Ganges (according to legend, he brought
the Ganges River to earth from the sky, where she is the Milky Way, by
allowing the river to trickle through his hair, thus breaking her fall).
Shiva has three eyes, the third eye bestowing inward vision but
capable of burning destruction when focused outward. He wears a
garland of skulls and a serpent around his neck and carries in his two
(sometimes four) hands a deerskin, a trident, a small hand drum, or a
club with a skull at the end. That skull identifies Shiva as a Kapalika
(“Skull-Bearer”) and refers to a time when he cut off the fifth head
of Brahma. The head stuck to his hand until he reached Varanasi (now
in Uttar Pradesh, India), a city sacred to Shiva. It then fell away, and a
shrine for the cleansing of all sins, known as Kapala-mochana (“The
Releasing of the Skull”), was later established in the place where it
landed.

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Wendy Doniger
LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:

India: Religious patronage

gods were Vishnu and Shiva, around whom there emerged a monotheistic trend
perhaps best expressed in the Vaishnava Bhagavadgita, which most authorities
 would date to the 1st century bce. The doctrine of karma and rebirth, emphasizing
the influence of actions performed either in this life or in former lives…

South Asian arts: The performing arts in India

…the Cosmic Dance of Lord Shiva, who is called Nataraja, the king of dancers, and
worshipped by actors and dancers as their patron.…

South Asian arts: The mahākāvya

…the courting of the ascetic Śiva, who is meditating in the mountains, by Pārvatī, the
daughter of the Himalayas; the destruction of the god of love (after his arrow has
struck Śiva) by the fire from Śiva’s third eye; and the wedding and lovemaking of Śiva
and Pārvatī, which results…
HISTORY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
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Shiva
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KEY PEOPLE
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Vedic religion
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 Introduction

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 Mythology

 Ritual

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 Introduction
 Vedic texts
 Mythology
 Ritual
 Development and decline

HomePhilosophy & ReligionReligious Beliefs

Vedic religion
Indian religion
WRITTEN BY
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have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by
working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
See Article History
Alternative Title: Vedism
Vedic religion, also called Vedism, the religion of the ancient Indo-
European-speaking peoples who entered India about 1500 BCE from
the region of present-day Iran. It takes its name from the collections of
sacred texts known as the Vedas. Vedism is the oldest stratum of
religious activity in India for which there exist written materials. It
was one of the major traditions that shaped Hinduism.

READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC

Hinduism: Indo-European sources

…by scholars as Brahmanism or Vedism, which developed in India among Indo-

European-speaking peoples. Scholars from the period of British...

Knowledge of Vedic religion is derived from surviving texts and also

from certain rites that continue to be observed within the framework
of modern Hinduism. The earliest Vedic religious beliefs included
some held in common with other Indo-European-speaking peoples,
particularly with the early Iranians. Though it is impossible to say
when Vedism eventually gave way to classical Hinduism, a decrease in
literary activity among the Vedic schools from the 5th
century BCE onward can be observed, and about that time a more
Hindu character began to appear.

Vedic Texts
The only extant Vedic materials are the texts known as the Vedas,
which were composed and handed down orally over a period of about
10 centuries, from about the 15th to the 5th century BCE. The Vedic
corpus is composed in an archaic Sanskrit. The most important texts
are also the oldest ones. They are the four collections (Samhitas) that
are called the Veda, or Vedas. The Rigveda, or “Veda of Verses,” the
earliest of those, is composed of about 1,000 hymns addressed to
various deities and mostly arranged to serve the needs of the priestly
families who were the custodians of that sacred literature.
The Yajurveda, or “Veda of Sacrificial Formulas,” contains prose
formulas applicable to various rites, along with verses intended for a
similar purpose. The Samaveda, or “Veda of Chants,” is made up of a
selection of verses—drawn almost wholly from the Rigveda—that are
provided with musical notation and are intended as an aid to the
performance of sacred songs. Finally, the Atharvaveda is a
later compilation that includes incantations and magic spells.

To each Veda is attached a body of prose writings of later date

called Brahmanas (c. 800–600 BCE), which explain the ceremonial
applications of the texts and the origin and importance of the
sacrificial rites for which the Vedas were composed. Further
appendices, the Aranyakas (c. 600 BCE) and the Upanishads (c. 700–
500 BCE), respectively expound the symbolism of the more difficult
rites and speculate on the nature of the universe and humanity’s
relation to it.

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When Vedic religion gradually evolved into Hinduism between the 6th
and 2nd centuries BCE, the texts, taken collectively, became the most
sacred literature of Hinduism. They are known as Shruti (“What Is
Heard”), the divinely revealed section of Hindu literature—in contrast
to the later strata of religious literature known as Smriti (“What Is
Remembered”), traditional texts attributed to human authors. But in
modern Hinduism the Shruti, with the exception of the Upanishads
and a few hymns of the Rigveda, is now little known, while some of the
Smriti texts remain extremely influential.

Mythology
Vedism was a polytheistic sacrificial religion involving the worship of
numerous male divinities (and a few goddesses), most of whom were
connected with the sky and natural phenomena. The priests who
officiated at that worship were drawn from the Brahman social class.
The complex Vedic ceremonies, for which the hymns of the Rigveda
were composed, centred on the ritual sacrifice of animals and the
drinking of a sacred, mind-altering liquor pressed from a plant
called soma. The basic Vedic rite was performed by offering those to a
sacred fire, which was itself deified as Agni and which carried the
oblations to the gods of the Vedic pantheon. Agni and Soma were at
the same time material elements of the ritual offering: Agni was the
fire of the sun, of lightning, and of burning wood; Soma was the
deified aspect of the liquid poured in the oblation. The god of highest
rank, however, was Indra, a warlike god who conquered innumerable
human and demon enemies and brought back the sun after it had been
stolen, among other feats. Another great deity was Varuna, who was
the upholder of the cosmic and moral laws. Vedism had many other
lesser deities, among whom were gods, goddesses, demigods, and
demons.

Ritual
The ancient Vedic worshippers offered sacrifices to those gods in the
hope that they in return would grant abundant numbers of cattle, good
fortune, good health, long life, and male progeny, among other
material benefits. To ensure the efficacy of their prayers, the people
came to believe that their offerings could be made more acceptable to
the gods if accompanied by songs of praise and other invocations of
the gods’ might and power. Thus originated the rites described in the
Vedas. Every sacrifice was performed on behalf of an individual, the
patron or yajamana (“sacrificer”), who bore the expenses.

The rites of Vedic sacrifice were relatively simple in the early period,
when the Rigveda was composed. They required neither temples nor
images. The ceremonies took place in an open space that
was consecrated afresh for every important occasion. The altar (vedi)
was a quadrangle marked out by hollowing or slightly raising the
ground. The agnyadheya (“installation of the fire”) was a necessary
preliminary to all the large public rituals and was preceded by the
patron’s fast.

The sacrifices themselves were of two major types—domestic (grihya)

and public (srauta, or vaitanika). The domestic rites were observed by
the householder himself or with the help of a single priest and were
performed over the domestic hearth fire. Some occurred daily or
monthly, and others accompanied a particular event, such as
the samskaras, sacraments marking each stage of an upper-caste
Indian’s life, from conception to death.

The grand rites performed in public, by contrast, lasted several days or

months and could usually be undertaken only by wealthy men or
kings. They required the services of many priests and were usually
performed at three fire-altars. Most characteristic of the public
ceremonies was the soma sacrifice, which ensured the prosperity and
well-being of both human beings and gods. In that basic ritual, a lay
sacrificer was first consecrated, after which juice was pressed three
times from the soma plant, part being offered to the fire and part
consumed by the priests. Each of the three occasions was preceded
and followed by recitations and chants. Edibles such as meat, butter,
milk, and barley cake could also be offered to a sacred fire.
Animal sacrifice—the killing of a ram or goat—existed either
independently or as an integral part of the sacrifice of soma. The
celebrated ashvamedha, “horse sacrifice,” was an elaborate variant of
the soma sacrifice. Human sacrifice (purushamedha) is described
and alluded to as a former practice but probably was merely symbolic.
The sacrifice of the mythical giant Purusha, from whose dismembered
limbs sprang up the four major social classes (varnas), probably
served as a model for the conjectured human sacrifices. Other
ceremonies marked fixed dates of the lunar calendar, such as the full
or new moon or the change of seasons.

Development And Decline

Over the centuries, the Vedic rites became increasingly complex and
governed by innumerable rules, which were embodied, together with
the hymns and prayer formulas used, in the Vedas. During the late
Vedic period the complexities of ritual were emphasized to such an
extent that only highly trained Brahmans could carry them out
correctly, and it was maintained that improperly or incorrectly
performed rites could, unless rectified, bring about disaster or death.

In reaction against this excessive emphasis on ritual (as well as the

growing power of the Brahmans), Vedic thought in its late period
became more speculative and philosophical in approach. Much
speculation was directed toward the search for harmony and for
correspondences between macrocosm and microcosm, with the
ultimate goal being a reduction of reality to an all-embracing unity by
way of successive equations. In the Aranyakas, Vedic ritual is
interpreted in a symbolic rather than literal manner, and the
Upanishads question the very assumptions on which Vedism rested.
The crucial idea that emerged from that period of intense questioning
was that of brahman, the ultimate reality and also a sort of guiding
principle. The central theme of the Upanishads is that the atman, the
unchanging core of a human being, is a part of brahman. The equation
of atman with brahman became the basis of Hindu metaphysics. The
spread in the 6th century BCE of the related concepts of reincarnation,
of karma, and of the attainment of release (moksha) from this cycle
(samsara) by meditation rather than through sacrifice marked the end
of the Vedic period.

The legacy of Vedic worship is apparent in several aspects of modern

Hinduism. The basic stratification of Vedic society into four varnas—
the Brahmans (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors or
rulers), Vaishyas (traders), and Shudras (servants)—by and large
persisted in later Hinduism. Sacrifices performed according to Vedic
rites continue to be performed in India occasionally, and the offering
of oblations to a sacred fire (homa) is an important element of much
modern Hindu worship (see yajna). The Hindu rite of initiation
(upanayama) is another direct survival of Vedic
tradition. Vishnu and Shiva, the major deities of classical Hinduism,
are briefly mentioned in Vedic mythology, and Indra remains the king
of the gods in narratives, although he is no longer worshipped.

This article was most recently revised and updated by  Matt Stefon, Assistant
Editor.
LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:

Hinduism: Indo-European sources

…by scholars as Brahmanism or Vedism, which developed in India among Indo-

European-speaking peoples. Scholars from the period of British colonial rule
postulated that this branch of a related group of nomadic and seminomadic tribal
peoples, originally inhabiting the steppe country of southern Russia and Central Asia,
brought with them the…
 

sacred: Dimensions of the sacred

In Vedic ritual, for example, the erection of a fire altar (in which the god Agni—fire—
was present) was the establishment of a cosmos on a microcosmic scale. Once a
cosmos is established, there are certain places that are especially sacred. Certain
rivers, mountains, groves of trees,…

India: Religious patronage

Vedic sacrifices were not discontinued but gradually became symbols of such
ceremonial occasions as royal consecrations. Sacrificial ritual was beginning to be
replaced by the practice of bhakti, a form of personal devotion whereby the
worshiper shares in the grace of the deity.…

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HomePhilosophy & ReligionAncient Religions & Mythology
Agni
Indian god
WRITTEN BY
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they
have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by
working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
See Article History
Agni, (Sanskrit: “Fire”) fire-god of Hinduism, second only to Indra in
the Vedic mythology of ancient India. He is equally the fire of the sun,
of lightning, and of both the domestic and the sacrificial hearth. As the
divine personification of the fire of sacrifice, he is the mouth of the
gods, the carrier of the oblation, and the messenger between the
human and the divine orders. Agni is described in the scriptures as
ruddy-hued and having two faces—one beneficent and one malignant.
He has three or seven tongues, hair that stands on end like flames,
three legs, and seven arms; he is accompanied by a ram, the usual
sacrificial animal. In the Rigveda he is sometimes identified
with Rudra, the forerunner of the god Shiva. Though Agni has no sect
in modern Hinduism, his presence is invoked in many ceremonies,
especially by Agnihotri Brahmans (who perform fire rites), and he is
the guardian of the southeast.
 Agni with characteristic symbol of the ram, wood carving; in the
Guimet Museum, ParisGiraudon/Art Resource, New York
This article was most recently revised and updated by  Matt Stefon, Assistant
Editor.
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
 Hinduism: Theology

…frequently invoked gods are Indra, Agni, and Soma. Indra, the foremost god of the
Vedic pantheon, is a god of war and rain. Agni (a cognate of the Latin ignis) is the
deified fire, particularly the fire of sacrifice, and Soma is the deified intoxicating or
hallucinogenic drink of the…

Vedic religion: Mythology

…which was itself deified as Agni and which carried the oblations to the gods of the
Vedic pantheon. Agni and Soma were at the same time material elements of the
ritual offering: Agni was the fire of the sun, of lightning, and of burning wood; Soma
was the deified aspect…

fire: Fire in religion and philosophy

In the ancient Vedic scriptures, Agni, or Fire, is the messenger between the people
and their gods and the personification of the sacrificial fire. Brahman households
today are supposed to maintain a sacred fire for the worship of Agni, much as the
ancient Romans kept a holy perpetual fire cared…