ColossiansOne

Side by side, from the sources

Rudra vs Sekhmet

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Senders of disease who are also its physicians.

Deity · Vedic · c. 1400 BCE

Rudra

also called Shiva (later)

The fierce archer who sends disease and withholds it — addressed in the Rigveda with open fear, and later absorbed into Shiva.

Alignment
Disputed
Rank
The Howler
First attested
Rigveda · c. 1500-1200 BCE
Named there as
Rudra
Texts naming it
3
Powers attributed
4
90attestedVedic & Hindu

Deity · Egyptian · c. 2400 BCE

Sekhmet

also called Sacmis

Sent by the Egyptian sun-god to destroy humanity, and stopped only by being tricked into drinking beer dyed red. Her priests were physicians: she sends pestilence and she lifts it.

Alignment
Disputed
Rank
The Powerful One
First attested
The Egyptian Book of the Dead · c. 1550 BCE onward
Named there as
Sekhmet
Texts naming it
2
Powers attributed
4
60attestedEgyptian

Where do they actually overlap?

Texts naming both

None. The two never appear in the same text in this corpus, which is worth knowing before accepting any confident claim that they are one figure.

Powers credited to both

Causes SicknessBurns & SlaysHeals

Common questions

Are Rudra and Sekhmet the same figure?

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Senders of disease who are also its physicians. ColossiansOne records the link rather than asserting the identity: where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is what gets shown.

Which is older, Rudra or Sekhmet?

Sekhmet is the older name: first attested around c. 2400 BCE, against c. 1400 BCE for Rudra. Where the two dates are far apart, that gap is the whole reason the pair is worth comparing.

Do any texts name both Rudra and Sekhmet?

No text in this corpus names both. That is not proof they were considered the same figure, but it is why the identification has to be traced through the scholarship rather than read off a page.
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