Maruts

Also Known As: Sanskrit Marut, plural Marutah; also called the Rudras, the sons of Rudra, and the Children of Prishni; the storm host of the Rigveda
Region/Culture: South Asia
Mythos: Hindu Mythology, Indian Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Gods and Deities
Mythical Attributes: They arrive as a single body of young men who look identical, sound like a mountain coming apart, and have no leader among themselves.
Role in Mythos: They are the storm gods of the Rigveda, Indra’s war-band in the killing of Vritra, and the force that breaks open the cloud and lets the rain down.
Relation to Humans: They receive more hymns than almost any other Vedic power and are asked for the same two things throughout: rain, and sons. When they answer a poet’s need directly, the Rigveda names him, which is how a man called Gotama comes to have his thirst recorded four thousand years later.

The woods go over first. Then the mountain itself, which the poet says is vast and tall and frightened, and then the height of heaven, which shakes at the noise. Something is coming down out of the sky in a body, on chariots, and the Rigveda describes the sound before it describes anything else, because the sound is the point.

They are the Maruts, and the hymns cannot stop looking at them. Whole runs of the Rigveda are given over to them and the same details come back every time. They are young. They wear gold on their arms and their bodies, put on for the look of the thing, and one poet compares them to young suitors from wealthy families who have dressed to be noticed. They carry spears that glitter. They yoke spotted deer to their cars. And when they set out, the dark red storm cloud opens and the water comes down over the earth the way water runs over a hide.

They are called Rudra’s sons, and their mother is Prishni, whose name means dappled or speckled and who is imagined as a cow, so that the host can be addressed as the Children of the Cow. That is the oldest genealogy they have and it stays consistent across the collection.

The most extraordinary thing said about them takes one line and is easy to read past. In a hymn of the fifth book the poet works through the usual list, the deer, the gold, the trembling mountain, and then says that among them there is no eldest and no youngest, and that they have grown up as brothers into good fortune together. In a religion of exact ranks, of who pours for whom and who receives first, here is a whole class of gods with no order of precedence inside it. Nobody in the band outranks anybody.

That is also why they matter militarily. The Maruts are what Indra takes with him. When Tvashtar the craftsman has turned the thunderbolt, golden and thousand-edged, and Indra has taken it up to do the thing he exists to do, it is the Maruts who go with him against Vritra, the serpent lying on the waters, and the hymns credit them with their own share of the work: they pushed the well up on high, they clove the cloud in two though it was very strong, they sent their voice out and did their glorious deeds in the wild joy of the Soma. The rivers that came out from under the dead serpent came out partly because the storm host tore the sky open first.

They are also, quite specifically, gods who answer. One hymn records that they drove a cloud across and poured out a spring for a thirsty man named Gotama, coming to him with help, shining with varied light, and fulfilling what the sage wanted. A named individual, a real thirst, and a fountain. Most divine action in the Rigveda is cosmic. This is a bucket.

How many of them there are was never settled. One hymn says a hundred and eighty. Others say twenty-seven, or twenty-one. What the poets are consistent about is that the number does not matter, because they never appear singly and there is nothing to distinguish one from another, and a host that acts as one body does not need a headcount.

The later tradition supplied a completely different origin, and it is worth naming as later rather than blending it in. In the Puranas and in the Ramayana, where Vishvamitra tells the story to Rama, the Maruts are the wreckage of an unborn child. Diti was carrying a son who would grow up to displace Indra from the kingship of heaven, and Indra got into her womb while she slept, and cut the embryo apart with his thunderbolt. It cried out. He told it not to weep, and the words he used are said to be the source of the name, and then he cut each of the seven pieces into seven again, which is how the later texts arrive at forty-nine. That etymology is folk etymology and the story is centuries younger than the hymns, in which the Maruts are Rudra’s own sons and Indra’s allies rather than his mutilated rivals.

Their power is weather used as force. They break cloud, raise wind, throw down trees, shake ground, and bring the rain that the whole agricultural year depends on, and the hymns are honest that the same visit does both things. Before the Maruts, one poet writes, every creature is afraid, and the men are like kings, terrible to look at.

Their limits follow from being a host. No Marut has a name, a story, a marriage or a death. Nothing is ever attributed to one of them. They cannot be split up or singled out or bargained with individually, and the only way to approach them is the way the hymns do it, by addressing the whole band at once, laying out the grass, setting out the Soma, and hoping that this time they are coming to help rather than merely passing over.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the Maruts?

The Maruts are the storm gods of the Rigveda, a host of young warrior deities who ride chariots drawn by spotted deer, wear gold ornaments, carry spears and make the mountains tremble. They are called the sons of Rudra and of Prishni, and they accompany Indra in the killing of the serpent Vritra.

How many Maruts are there?

The sources disagree. One Rigvedic hymn gives a hundred and eighty, others say twenty-seven or twenty-one, and the later Puranas settle on forty-nine. They never act individually, so the count varies without affecting anything.

Who are the parents of the Maruts?

In the Rigveda they are the sons of the god Rudra and of Prishni, whose name means speckled and who is pictured as a cow, so the host is also addressed as the Children of the Cow. A much later tradition in the Puranas and the Ramayana makes them instead the pieces of Diti’s unborn son, cut apart in the womb by Indra.

What is the relationship between the Maruts and Indra?

They are his war-band. When Tvashtar had forged the golden thousand-edged thunderbolt and Indra took it up to kill Vritra, the Maruts went with him and are credited with cleaving the cloud, raising the well and roaring the enemy down. The hymns treat them as allies with their own share of the victory rather than as an escort.

Do the Maruts have a leader?

No, and the Rigveda says so directly: among them there is no eldest and no youngest, and they have grown up as brothers together. In a tradition otherwise built on precise ranking, the storm host is a body of gods with no internal order of precedence.