Shiva as we know him today shares many features with the Vedic god Rudra,^[36] and both Shiva and Rudra are viewed as the same personality in a number of Hindu traditions. Rudra, the god of the roaring storm, is usually portrayed in accordance with the element he represents as a fierce, destructive deity.

The oldest surviving text of Hinduism is the Rig Veda, which is dated to between 1700 and 1100 BCE based on linguistic and philological evidence.^[37] A god named Rudra is mentioned in the Rig Veda. The name Rudra is still used as a name for Shiva. In RV 2.33, he is described as the "Father of the Maruts", a group of storm gods.^[38] Furthermore, the Rudram, one of the most sacred hymns of Hinduism found both in the Rig and the Yajur Vedas and addressed to Rudra, invokes him as Shiva in several instances, but the term Shiva is used as a epithet for Indra, Mitra and Agni many times.

The identification of Shiva with the older god Rudra is not universally accepted, as Axel Michaels explains:

Rudra is called "The Archer" (Sanskrit: Śarva),^[39] and the arrow is an essential attribute of Rudra.^[40] This name appears in the Shiva Sahasranama, and R. K. Sharma notes that it is used as a name of Shiva often in later languages.^[41] The word is derived from the Sanskrit root śarv-, which means "to injure" or "to kill",^[42] and Sharma uses that general sense in his interpretive translation of the name Śarva as "One who can kill the forces of darkness".^[41] The names Dhanvin ("Bowman")^[43] and Bāṇahasta ("Archer", literally "Armed with arrows in his hands")^[43][44] also refer to archery.