er way, came to be combined with them. The places
assigned to them in the pantheistic system were coordinate with that of
Brahma; the three deities, _Brahma, Vishnu_ and _Siva_, were to
represent a triple impersonation of the divinity, as manifesting itself
respectively in the creation, preservation and destruction of the
universe. Siva does not occur in the Vedic hymns as the name of a god,
but only as an adjective in the sense of "kind, auspicious." One of his
synonyms, however, is the name of a Vedic deity, the attributes and
nature of which show a good deal of similarity to the post-Vedic god.
This is _Rudra_, the god of the roaring storm, usually portrayed, in
accordance with the element he represents, as a fierce, destructive
deity, "terrible as a wild beast," whose fearful arrows cause death and
disease to men and cattle. He is also called _kapardin_ ("wearing his
hair spirally braided like a shell"), a word which in later times became
one of the synonyms of Siva. The _Atharvaveda_ mentions several other
names of the same god, some of which appear even placed together, as in
one passage _Bhava, Sarva, Rudra_ and _Pasupati_. Possibly some of them
were the names under which one and the same deity was already worshipped
in different parts of northern India. This was certainly the case in
later times, since it is expressly stated in one of the later works of
the Brahmana period, that Sarva was used by the Eastern people and Bhava
by a Western tribe. It is also worthy of note that in the same work (the
_Satapatha-brahmana_), composed at a time when the Vedic triad of Agni,
Indra-Vayu and Surya was still recognized, attempts are made to identify
this god of many names with Agni; and that in one passage in the
_Mahabharata_ it is stated that the Brahmans said that Agni was Siva.
Although such attempts at an identification of the two gods remained
isolated, they would at least seem to point to the fact that, in
adapting their speculations to the actual state of popular worship, the
Brahmans kept the older triad distinctly in view, and by means of it
endeavoured to bring their new structure into harmony with the ancient
Vedic belief. It is in his character as destroyer that Siva holds his
place in the triad, and that he must, no doubt, be identified with the
Vedic Rudra. Another very important function appears, however, to have
been early assigned to him, on which much more stress is laid in his
modern worship--that of dest