RUDRA is a Vedic god and precursor of the great Hindu divinity Śiva. The name Rudra derives from the verbal root rud ("to howl, to roar"), from which he takes the epithet "the howler." The root rud also connotes "red" (as in English ruddy), suggesting that the earliest concept of the divinity was inspired by red storm clouds or the sound of thunder. Rudra has no correlates in other Indo-European myth-ologies.

Some scholars believe that the earliest prototype of Rudra may be traced to an Indus Valley seal in which four animals surround a seated figure. This seal, and some Vedic texts, suggest Rudra's connection with animals. As the Lord of Animals (Paśupati), he is their protector as well as their destroyer, an ambivalence common in many mythologies. The animal most frequently associated with Rudra is the bull, a symbol of rain and fertility. Typically, the figure...