A very old and highly temperamental Storm God known as ‘The Howling One’. Ruddy Rudra is red-faced and has many of them, all frowning and scowling. His neck, though, is blue. Despite the terrible sartorial consequences, he dresses in grotty animal skins. He also fathered an appalling squall of storm children called the Maruts and/or Rudras.

RUDRA is wild, impulsive and behaves like a rampaging force of nature when he’s out and about. Charging along on his wild boar, he spits with rage if anyone gets in his way. (And you thought that was rain.) If he’s in a really foul mood, he will zap you with thunderous arrows of sickness leading to awful pestilence and death.

However, when Hinduism came along he was miraculously cured of being the God of Sickness. To the applause of his new followers he changed his name to the far more modern and trendy Shiva The Destroyer.

We do not know for sure, but it’s possible that Shiva occasionally indulges in a relapse and sneaks out into rampaging Rudra mode. You know, just for old time’s sake.

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Article last revised on September 18, 2018 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

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