Introduction
Ajaikapada, "the one-footed goat or one-footed unborn one", is one of the eleven Rudras, a group of deities who are aspects or manifestations of Shiva in the Puranic tradition.
The eleven Rudras (Ekadasha Rudras) are a group of deities who are aspects or manifestations of Shiva. The idea goes back to the Vedic Rudra and the Maruts, who are sometimes called the sons of Rudra. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (3.9.4) says that the eleven Rudras are the ten vital breaths and the mind, and are called Rudras because when they leave the body at death, they make people weep (the verb rud, "to weep"). In the Puranas, the eleven Rudras are sons of Kashyapa and Surabhi, or of Kashyapa and Aditi, or manifestations of Shiva. The lists of the eleven names differ between the Mahabharata, the Harivamsha and the Puranas. This article follows one Puranic list: Ajaikapada, Ahirbudhnya, Pinakin, Ritadhvaja, Tryambaka, Maheshvara, Vrishakapi, Shambhu, Hara, Ishvara and Kapardin.
The Rudras are worshipped together in the Ekadasha Rudra rites, in which the Rudram hymn is recited eleven times over an abhisheka of Shiva. A tradition regards Hanuman as the eleventh Rudra, an incarnation of Shiva.
Name and early references
Ajaikapada, or Aja Ekapad, is an old Vedic deity. In the Rigveda, Aja Ekapad is invoked together with Ahirbudhnya and other gods, and is associated with the sky and with storm and lightning (for example, in hymns 10.65 and 10.66). The name can be understood as "one-footed goat" or "the unborn one-footed". Modern scholars have connected him with the sun or a storm power.
In the Puranic tradition
Ajaikapada is the deity of the lunar mansion Purva Bhadrapada (in the Vedic list of nakshatras), and Ahirbudhnya is the deity of the next, Uttara Bhadrapada. In the Puranic lists, he is one of the eleven Rudras.