रुद्र mfn. amfn. (
prob. ) crying, howling, roaring, dreadful, terrific, terrible, horrible (applied to the
अश्विन्s,
अग्नि,
इन्द्र,
मित्र,
वरुण, and the
स्प॑शः),
[RV.] ;
[AV.] (
accord. to others ‘red, shining, glittering’,
fr. a √
रुद् or
रुध् connected with
रुधिर; others ‘strong, having or bestowing strength or power’,
fr. a √
रुद् =
वृद्,
वृध्; native authorities give also the following meanings, ‘driving away evil’; ‘running about and roaring’,
fr. रुद्र =
2.द्रु; ‘praiseworthy, to be praised’; ‘a praiser, worshipper’ =
स्तोतृ,
[Naigh. iii, 16] )
रुद्र m. m. ‘Roarer or Howler’,
N. of the god of tempests and father and ruler of the
रुद्रs and
मरुत्s (in the
वेद he is closely connected with
इन्द्र and still more with
अग्नि, the god of fire, which, as a destroying agent, rages and crackles like the roaring storm, and also with
काल or Time the all-consumer, with whom he is afterwards identified; though generally represented as a destroying deity, whose terrible shafts bring death or disease on men and cattle, he has also the epithet
शिव, ‘benevolent’ or ‘auspicious’, and is even supposed to possess healing powers from his chasing away vapours and purifying the atmosphere; in the later mythology the word
शिव, which does not occur as a name in the
वेद, was employed, first as an euphemistic epithet and then as a real name for
रुद्र, who lost his special connection with storms and developed into a form of the disintegrating and reintegrating principle; while a new class of beings, described as eleven [or thirty-three] in number, though still called
रुद्रs, took the place of the original
रुद्रs or
मरुत्s: in
[VP. i, 7] ,
रुद्र is said to have sprung from
ब्रह्मा's forehead, and to have afterwards separated himself into a figure half male and half female, the former portion separating again into the 11
रुद्रs, hence these later
रुद्रs are sometimes regarded as inferior manifestations of
शिव, and most of their names, which are variously given in the different
पुराणs, are also names of
शिव; those of the
[VāyuP.] are
अजैकपाद्,
अहिर्-बुध्न्य,
हर,
निरृत,
ईश्वर,
भुवन,
अङ्गारक,
अर्ध-केतु,
मृत्यु,
सर्प,
कपालिन्;
accord. to others the
रुद्रs are represented as children of
कश्यप and
सुरभि or of
ब्रह्मा and
सुरभि or of
भूत and
सु-रूपा;
accord. to
[VP. i, 8] ,
रुद्र is one of the 8 forms of
शिव; elsewhere he is reckoned among the
दिक्-पालs as regent of the north-east quarter),
[RV.] &c. &c. (
cf. [RTL. 75 &c.] )
N. of the number ‘eleven’ (from the 11
रुद्रs),
[VarBṛS.] the eleventh,
[Cat.] (in
astrol. )
N. of the first
मुहूर्तरुद्री (in music) of a kind of stringed instrument (
cf. and
रुद्र-वीणा)
ए of the letter ,
[Up.] of various men,
[Kathās.] ;
[Rājat.] आचार्य of various teachers and authors (also with ,
कवि,
भट्ट,
शर्मन्,
सूरि &c.),
[Cat.] of a king,
[Buddh.] भवा-र्° du. (incorrect
acc. to,
[Vām. v, 2, 1] )
रुद्र and
रुद्राणी (
cf. also and
सोमा-रुद्र)
pl. the
रुद्रs or sons of
रुद्र (sometimes identified with or distinguished from the
मरुत्s who are 11 or 33 in number),
[RV.] &c. &c.
रुद्र-जप an abbreviated
N. for the texts or hymns addressed to
रुद्र,
[GṛŚrS.] ;
[Gaut.] ;
[Vas.] (
cf. )
पुण्ड्र of a people (
v.l. ),
[VP.] रुद्र b &c. See
p. 883, col. 1.