Rudra

Rudra (Devanagari: रुद्र) is a Rigvedic God, associated with wind or storm, and the hunt. The name has been translated as "the roarer".

The theonym Shiva originates as an epithet of Rudra, the adjective shiva "kind" being used euphemistically of the god who in the Rigveda also carries the epithet ghora "terrible". Usage of the epithet came to exceed the original theonym and by the post-Vedic period (in the Sanskrit Epics), and the name Rudra has been taken as a synonym for the god Shiva and the two names are used interchangeably.