text: The Mahabharata describes the Rudras as companions of Indra, servants of Shiva and his son Skanda and companions of Yama, who is surrounded by them. They have immense power, wear golden necklaces and are "like lighting-illuminated clouds". The Bhagavata Purana prescribes the worship of the Rudras to gain virile power.
  Association with Maruts
  Rudras are at times identified with the Maruts – sons of Rudra in the Vedas; while at other times, considered distinct from them.
  Some scholars believe that Rudras and Maruts could be distinct groups, Rudras being the true followers of Rudra and daivic (Godly) in nature. But poets of the Rigveda declared the Maruts to take the position of the Rudras in order to give status to the Vedic god Rudra. Later in post-Vedic literature like the epics and Puranas, Maruts were associated with Indra, while Rudras gained their former status as followers of Rudra, who had evolved into Shiva. However, other scholars disregard this theory and consider that originally Rudras and Maruts were identical. A theory suggests that slowly in the Vedas two classes of Maruts came into existence: the friendly and beneficent, and the roaring and turbulent; the latter grew into the distinct group of deities called the Rudras, who were associated only with the wild Rudra.