Introduction
Tryambaka, "the three-eyed or three-mothered", 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
Tryambaka is a Vedic name of Rudra. It means "three-eyed" (or, in an older sense, "three mothers" or "three sisters"). The Tryambaka mantra (Rigveda 7.59.12), the Mahamrityunjaya mantra, is one of the most widely recited Sanskrit mantras. It asks Tryambaka to free the worshipper from death, as a cucumber is freed from its stem, and for immortality.
In the Puranic tradition
In Vedic ritual, an offering to Tryambaka (the Traiyambaka rite) was made to Rudra to remove disease and misfortune. The Trimbakeshwar Temple near Nashik in Maharashtra, at the source of the Godavari river, is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas. In the Puranic lists, Tryambaka is one of the eleven Rudras.