Who made whom: the Bhagavata's creation frame

The Bhagavata's third canto tells how Rudra came to be. Brahma orders his first sons, the four Kumaras, to people the world; they refuse, preferring renunciation. His anger, which he tries to suppress, comes out from between his eyebrows as a child of mixed blue and red who cries and asks who he is and where he should live. Because he cried so, Brahma calls him Rudra, and gives him eleven seats — the heart, the senses, the breath, sky, wind, fire, water, earth, sun, moon and austerity — with eleven names (among them Manyu, Bhava, Kala, Vamadeva, Shiva) and eleven consorts including Uma and Ambika. When Rudra's own offspring begin to consume the universe, Brahma stops him and sends him to penance. Elsewhere the same text states its ranking outright: Shiva is joined to the three qualities of nature, Vishnu is beyond them (10.88), and the sages settle on Vishnu as the lord of goodness (10.89).