Rudram, anuvāka 3 — the lord of thieves
The popular claimThe Veda bows to Rudra as the lord of robbers, cheats and night-prowlers. It means it.
If the second anuvāka made Rudra lord of every place, the third makes him lord of every person — beginning with the ones a Vedic household most feared. Seventeen clauses. The first eight are the thieves; the rest are everyone.
The thieves
Namaḥ sahamānāya nivyādhina āvyādhinīnāṁ pataye namaḥ. — To the one who overpowers, who strikes down, lord of those who strike from all sides. Āvyādhinī — Sāyaṇa: the armies that surround.
Namaḥ kakubhāya niṣaṅgiṇe stenānāṁ pataye namaḥ. — To the eminent one, the one with the sword-belt, lord of thieves. Stena — the plain Sanskrit word for thief. It is the first time the word appears in the Rudram, and it is in the dative with pati: Rudra is their lord.
Namo niṣaṅgiṇa iṣudhimate taskarāṇāṁ pataye namaḥ. — To the sword-bearer with the quiver, lord of robbers. Taskara — a highwayman, one who takes by force.
Namo vañcate parivañcate stāyūnāṁ pataye namaḥ. — To the one who cheats, who cheats all round, lord of the deceitful. Stāyu — Sāyaṇa: one who steals by stealth, the pickpocket.
Namo nicerave paricarāyāraṇyānāṁ pataye namaḥ. — To the one who moves low, who moves around, lord of the forest-dwellers. Nicera — one who goes about hidden; araṇya — the forest, and those in it who are not there to gather wood.
Namaḥ sṛkāvibhyo jighāṁsadbhyo muṣṇatāṁ pataye namaḥ. — To those with the lance, those who wish to kill, and the lord of plunderers. Muṣṇat — one who robs.
Namo'simadbhyo naktaṁ caradbhyaḥ prakṛntānāṁ pataye namaḥ. — To the sword-bearers, those who go by night, lord of those who cut down. Night-prowlers.
Nama uṣṇīṣiṇe giricarāya kuluñcānāṁ pataye namaḥ. — To the turbaned one, the mountain-wanderer, lord of those who steal from houses and fields. Kuluñca — Sāyaṇa: one who takes grain from the fields.
Why the thieves are here
The commentators do not explain it away. Sāyaṇa's reading is that Rudra, being everything, is also this; Bhaṭṭabhāskara adds that naming the god as their lord is what makes them his to restrain. The plainest reading is the Śatarudriya's own method: if the god is to be made universal, he must be lord of what the reciter fears as well as what he owns — and a Vedic village feared the thief more than the tiger. Naming Rudra as stenānāṁ pati is not praise of thieves. It is the refusal to leave any part of the world outside him.
Everyone else
Nama iṣumadbhyo dhanvāvibhyaś ca vo namaḥ. — To those with arrows and those with bows, obeisance to you. The pattern shifts here: ca vo namaḥ — and to you (plural) obeisance — and the Rudras are addressed as a host.
Nama ātanvānebhyaḥ pratidadhānebhyaś ca vo namaḥ. — To those who string the bow, and those who fit the arrow.
Nama āyacchadbhyo visṛjadbhyaś ca vo namaḥ. — To those who draw, and those who release.
Namo'syadbhyo vidhyadbhyaś ca vo namaḥ. — To those who shoot, and those who pierce.
Nama āsīnebhyaḥ śayānebhyaś ca vo namaḥ. — To those sitting, and those lying down.
Namaḥ svapadbhyo jāgradbhyaś ca vo namaḥ. — To those sleeping, and those awake.
Namas tiṣṭhadbhyo dhāvadbhyaś ca vo namaḥ. — To those standing, and those running.
Namaḥ sabhābhyaḥ sabhāpatibhyaś ca vo namaḥ. — To the assemblies, and the lords of assemblies.
Namo aśvebhyo'śvapatibhyaś ca vo namaḥ. — To the horses, and the lords of horses.
The pairs
From the ninth clause the section runs on pairs of opposites or sequences — string and fit, draw and release, sit and lie, sleep and wake, stand and run. This is the device the fifth, sixth and seventh anuvākas will use throughout: the god is named as both terms of every pair, so that nothing between them is left out. Here it begins.
What this page does not say
It does not say the Veda approves of theft, and it does not read the thieves allegorically, which some modern commentators do; Sāyaṇa did not. It gives the seventeen clauses as they stand, with the tradition's own reason for the first eight, and lets the reader hear the section as the chanters do — as the moment the god's lordship reaches the people nobody else would claim.
Source — Taittiriya Samhita 4.5.3 (Namakam, third anuvaka), Krishna Yajurveda; Sayana's bhashya on the Taittiriya; Bhattabhaskara's commentary on the Rudram
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