Rudra-Siva—as an Agricultural Deity

This essay examines an unusual portrayal of Rudra-Siva in medieval Bengali literature as a humble agricultural deity. In certain poems and songs, the great god is depicted ploughing his fields, sowing seeds, weeding, cutting grass, binding it into sheaves and carrying them home on his head. Although divine assistance is granted—Visvakarma forges a golden plough and sickle and Indra waters his fields—these accounts emphasise Siva’s poverty and need to farm for sustenance. Stories explain that he took up agriculture because he is a mendicant, with no wealth and a fondness for drugs and wandering. Domestic quarrels with his young wife Parvati prompt devotees to advise him to grow rice and cotton to avoid hunger and nakedness. In another version, Parvati persuades Siva to ask Indra for land; Siva then ploughs the fields with his own bull and Parvati’s tiger, assisted by Bhima. The article notes that in Gambhira and Gajana festivals, bhaktas enact Siva’s cultivation, and verses recited during the Vandani ceremony refer to his farming. Over time this cultivator image faded and was replaced by a different portrayal: Siva as a vagabond, crazy god of the lowly. Poets call him Badiyar Po (son of a gypsy), Pagal (mad), or Baul (wandering mendicant), describing him as addicted to bhang and partial to low company. The article argues that the agricultural conception likely arose from folk worship among semi-Hinduised tribes and tribal peoples; later literature emphasised his mendicant, vagabond traits. The dual roles of cultivator and outcaste underscore Siva’s complex relation to the rural poor and marginalised groups.

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