Introduction
Vrishakapi, "a name of uncertain meaning, often read as the bull-monkey or the bull-boar", 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
The name Vrishakapi appears first in the Rigveda in hymn 10.86, a dialogue between Indra, his wife Indrani and Vrishakapi, a companion of Indra. The hymn is a puzzling and humorous one, and scholars debate who or what Vrishakapi is. The name is later used for Vishnu and for Shiva in epic and Puranic texts.
In the Puranic tradition
In the Puranic lists of the eleven Rudras, Vrishakapi is one of them. In the Mahabharata, the name is applied to Shiva and Vishnu, in both the Shaiva and Vaishnava contexts, which is a good example of the way Vedic names were used in a later tradition.