Rig-Veda 1.114 is both archaic in its preservation of long-standing poetic formulas and also forward-looking in the use to which it puts inherited locutions. Three stanzas, 1, 6, and 10, include semantically distinctive combinations ("two-footed and four-footed", "speech sweeter than sweet", "cow-slaying and man-slaying"), which have clear parallels in other Indo-European poetic traditions. Though traditional, each of these formulas can also be used innovatively, both within the Indian tradition and elsewhere. The reference in stanza 6 to "speech sweeter than sweet", for example, is paralleled at Rig-Veda 8.24.20 in a context in which both past songs and the fresh approach to Indra offered by the present song are mentioned. Avestan and Greek also connect the combination of derivatives from Indo-European *wekw- and *swadu- with poetic and religious innovation and/or renewal. Seen against this broader setting, then, Rig-Veda 1.114 admirably illustrates the Vedic position of Rudra as a divinity who eventually developed into the later Siva.
Two other stanzas, 9 and 11, may also be illuminated by this approach. Although the extra-Indic parallels are less clear, stanza 9 can probably be analyzed in terms of evening's bringing together what dawn has scattered. It therefore connects the roles of Rudra-Siva as destroyer and preserver. Stanza 11 then connects srnotu "may he hear" with Rudra, and mamahantam "may they make great, magnify" with other divinities. It thereby suggests that Mitra, Varuna, and the others are more likely to hearken to the seer's request. To be sure, the concluding phrase in this hymn is a traditional one, found at the end of several other hymns also. Analysis of 1.114 as a whole, though, reveals a consistent pattern of (1) the comparative isolation of Rudra, vis-à-vis other divinities, combined with (2) his eventual incorporation into a broader divine perspective.