Introduction
Maheshvara, "the great lord", 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
Maheshvara means "great lord", and is one of the most common names of Shiva. In the trinity of gods, Maheshvara or Mahesha is Shiva, in the roles of destroyer or dissolver. The name is used in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad and the Puranas.
In the Puranic tradition
In Shaiva philosophy, Maheshvara is one of the higher categories of Shiva, and in Shaiva Siddhanta, the Maheshvara-tattva is a level of the cosmos. In Buddhism, Maheshvara (Mahesvara, or Japanese Daijizai-ten) is a deity in the Buddhist cosmology, identified with Shiva. The town of Maheshwar on the Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh is named after him. In the Puranic lists, he is one of the eleven Rudras.