text: The Vishnu Purana narrates that Rudra – here identified as Shiva . The furious Rudra was in Ardhanari form, half his body was male and other half female. He divided himself into two: the male and female. The male form then split itself into eleven, forming the eleven Rudras. Some of them were white and gentle; while others were dark and fierce. They are called:
  Manyu
  Manu
  Mahmasa
  Mahan
  Siva
  Ṛtudhvaja
  Ugraretas
  Bhava
  Kāma
  Vāmadeva
  Dhrtavrata
  From the woman were born the eleven Rudranis who became wives of the Rudras. They are:
  Dhi
  Vrtti
  Usana
  Urna
  Niyuta
  Sarpis
  Ila
  Ambika
  Iravatl
  Svadha
  Diksa
  Brahma allotted to the Rudras the eleven positions of the heart and the five sensory organs, the five organs of action and the mind. Other Puranas call them Aja, Ekapada (Ekapat), Ahirbudhnya, Tvasta, Rudra, Hara, Sambhu, Tryambaka, Aparajita, Isana and Tribhuvana.
  In one instance in the epic Mahabharata, the Rudras are eleven in number and are named:
  Mrgavadha
  Sarpa
  Nirriti
  Ajaikapad
  Ahi
  Budhnya
  Pinakin
  Dahana
  Ishvara
  Kapali
  Sthanu
  Bhaga
  While Kapālin is described the foremost of Rudras here, in the Bhagavad Gita it is Śankara who is considered the greatest of the Rudras. Both Kapalin and Śankara are epithets of Shiva. In another instance, they are described as sons of Tvastr and named:
  Vishvarupa
  Ajaikapad
  Ahi Budhnya
  Virupaksa
  Raivata
  Hara
  Bahurupa
  Tryambaka
  Savitra
  Jayanta