The Maruts are the sons of Rudra, a howling war-band born of the storm god's wrath — the Rigveda calls them Rudriyas, inheritors of their father's wild fury, riding armored through the tempest.
⚠ The Ramayana (1.46-47) gives an alternative origin: Indra split Diti's unborn child into forty-nine pieces with his thunderbolt, and these fragments became the Maruts.
The Vedic howler of storms and sender of plague merged over centuries into the greater figure of Shiva — Rudra's wildness, his arrows, and his thousand remedies all flowing into the destroyer-ascetic who would become one of the Trimurti.
Rudra, appointed by the gods as their avenger, pierced Prajapati with an arrow for pursuing his own daughter Ushas in the form of a deer, an act of divine punishment that left the wounded creator pinned against the sky as the constellation Mriga (Orion).
We use cookies to understand how you use our site and improve your experience. Learn more