Brahm� and
Vishnu were disputing with each
other for the status of supreme God and appealed to the testimony of the four
Vedas, which unanimously proclaimed Rudra-Shiva as the Ultimate Truth of the
Universe. But the disputants were unable to accept that Rudra, endowed with so
many revolting symbols of impurity and degradation, could be identical with the
Absolute Reality of Brahman. Brahm� laughed scornfully: "How could the
Brahman, free of all attachment, lustily sport with his wife in the company of
his troop of deformed churn-goblins (pramatha)?" However, Rudra's supremacy was finally
reconfirmed by the esoteric sound-syllable, Omk�ra, quintessence of the Veda
and most condensed symbol of Brahman, who pointed out that Shiva's wife is not
adventitious to her husband but on the contrary embodies his own blissful
essence.19 Just then an immense pillar of flame manifested itself in
their midst, within which was recognized the towering figure of the three-eyed
Rudra bearing his trident, serpents and crescent moon. But the fifth head of
Brahm� taunted him: "I know who you are, Rudra, whom I created from my
forehead. Take refuge with me and I will protect you, my son!"
Overflowing with
anger, Shiva created a blazing Bhairava in human form, addressing this
K�labhairava as "Lord of Time-Death" (k�la) for he shone
like the god of Death: "You are called Bhairava because you are of
terrifying features and are capable of supporting the universe. You are called
K�la-Bhairava, for even Time-Death is terrified of you."20 He
ordered him to chastise Brahm�, promising him in return eternal suzerainty over
his city of K�sh� (V�r�nas�), the cremation-ground of the Hindu universe, where
final emancipation is assured. In a trice, Bhairava ripped off Brahm�'s guilty
head with the nail of his left thumb. Seeing this, the terrified Vishnu
eulogized Shiva and devotedly recited his sacred hymns, followed in this by the
repentant Brahm�. Thereby they gained his protection by realizing and acknowledging
the supreme reality of Shiva. The severed head immediately stuck to Bhairava's
hand, where it remained in the form of the skull, destined to serve as his
insatiable begging-bowl.21 Enjoining him to honor Vishnu and Brahm�, Shiva then directed Bhairava
to roam the world in this beggarly condition to atone for the sin of
Brahmanicide. "Show to the world the rite of expiation for removing the
sin of Brahmanicide. Beg for alms by resorting to the penitential rite of the
skull (kap�lavrata)." Creating a maiden renowned as
‘Brahmanicide’ (brahmahaty�), Shiva instructed her to relentlessly follow
Bhairava everywhere until he reached the holy city of K�sh� to which she would
have no access.
Observing the
K�p�lika rite with skull in hand and pursued by the terrible Brahmahaty�,
Bhairava sported freely, laughing, singing and dancing with his goblin horde (pramathas). Stealing more than the hearts of all women,
even the chaste wives of the Seven Vedic Sages (sapta-rshi) as he
passed through the Daru forest, the erotic ascetic arrived at Vishnu's door to
seek redemption only to find his entry barred by the guard, Vishvaksena.
Spearing the latter and heaving the corpse of this Brahman on his shoulder, he
pressed before Vishnu with outstretched begging-bowl. Vishnu split his forehead-vein but the
out-flowing blood, the only suitable offering, could not fill the skull though
it flowed for eons. When Vishnu then tried to dissuade Brahmahaty� from
tormenting Bhairava, the criminal observed that "beggars are not intoxicated
by the alms they receive as (are others) by drinking the wine of worldly
honor." Vishnu venerated him as the Supreme Being, untainted by sins like
Brahmanicide, and acknowledged that his dependence and degradation were a mere
fancy. Before leaving joyously to beg elsewhere, Bhairava reciprocated by
recognizing Vishnu as his foremost disciple and acknowledged the latter's
status as "grantor of boons to all the gods." On arriving at K�sh�,
Brahmahaty� sank into the nether-world, and the holy ground on which the skull
fell, freeing Bhairava from his Brahmanicide, came to be known as Kap�lamocana.
It was on the eighth day (ashtam�) in the dark (waning moon) half of the month
of M�rgash�rsha that Lord Shiva manifested himself as Bhairava. Ever since, by
performing ablution at Kap�lamocana one is rid of even the worst sin of
brahmanicide (brahmahaty�); and whosoever fasts on this day (Bhairav�shtam�) in
front of K�labhairava (temple at K�sh�) and stays awake at night is freed from
great sins.
In the Tamil transposition
of the sacred geography of Shaiva mythology, the fiery linga appeared in the temple-city of Tiruvann�malai to become the sacred red
mountain of Arun�cala, which ritually reverts to its original form during the
K�rttika festival when a blazing fire is lit on its summit. The
Lingodbhava-m�rti is generally depicted on the western face of the external
face of the sanctum of Tamil Shaiva temples, with the boar-Vishnu attempting to fathom its depths and the
swan-Brahm� aspiring likewise in vain after its summit. In the K��ci-M�h�tmya,
Bhairava spears the demon Antaka (‘Death’), who was besieging Kail�sa (the
abode of Lord Shiva), and fixes his lance on the ground on arriving at K�nci in
order to remove Antaka. It formed a pit filled with water, Sh�la-t�rtha, where
the ceremonies for ancestors are performed on new or full moon days. Bhairava
lets Antaka perform ablutions at the Shiva-Gang� tank before granting him
salvation and Antaka disappears into the Antakesha linga he had
erected and adored. Bhairava likewise removes Vishvaksena from his lance and
returns him to Vishnu, before being appointed by Shiva as the guardian of
K�nci, distributing the blood of the skull to all his ganas.22 The Tamil Bhairava is released from his skull at
Tirukantiy�r, ‘holy site of the (head-) cutting,’ where the temple of ‘the Lord
of Brahm�'s decapitation’ (Brahma-shira-khand�svara), in which Brahm� and
Sarasvat� are worshipped beside Shiva, refers to Shiva-Lingodbhava-m�rti in
this context as 'Ann�malaiy�r' (he who resides in Tiruvann�malai).
The apparently later temple of ‘Vishnu as liberator of Shiva(-Kap�lin) from his
curse’ (Hara-sh�pa-vimocana-perum�l), with its own Vaishnava version of the
Brahmanicide myth, claims that, having released Brahm�'s greedy skull at Kap�la-Pushkarin�
(lotus-pond) behind the temple by enticing it with ‘blood’ (i.e., turmeric
mixed with lime) rice, Vishnu
directed the kap�la to K�sh� where its insatiable hunger would be
satisfied by offerings of N�r�yana-bali (oblations performed especially for those who
die at an inauspicious moment, pa�caka).
The original K�la
Bhairava temple was located on the banks of the Kap�lamocana T�rtha itself, in
the Omk�reshvara area north of Maid�gin in V�ranas�, where Bhairava remained as
the ‘Sin-Eater’ (P�pa-Bhakshana) par excellence to devour the accumulated sins
of devotees and pilgrims. If the pilgrims to K�sh� do not fear death there,
this would be because their pilgrimage to the Mah�shmash�na is conceived on the
ritual model of Bhairava's own arrival at K�sh� for absolution from his
terrible sin and his subsequent establishment there. The paradox of Bhairava's
scapegoat function even after his ‘purification’ can be explained as a ‘lawful
irregularity’ resulting from the two opposing valorizations, diachronically
disjoined in the myth, of his transgressive essence; it matches the
complementary paradox of the pure K�sh�-Vishvan�tha himself being identified
esoterically with the impure criminal Bhairava.