RUDRA

(Sanskrit: Howler), relatively minor Vedic god and one of the names of Siva, a major god of later Hinduism. Siva 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.