Brahma
It was Shiva who deprived Brahma of his fifth head, though the story of how this occurred varies. All versions, however, illustrate the tension existing between them.Though it is sometimes said that they were born simultaneously of the supreme being and immediately vied for superiority, some declare Shiva sprang from Brahma's forehead; others claim that Shiva created Brahma, who worshipped him and acted as his charioteer. As for Brahma's fifth head, according to one version Brahma claimed that he was superior to Shiva, who thereupon cut off the head with his nail.
A second version states that Shiva cut off the head because Brahma told Vishnu a lie in an effort to establish his superiority over Vishnu. In a third version Shiva punishes Brahma for drunkenly committing incest with his daughter. A variant of this myth relates that the daughter was Sandhya, Shiva's wife, who tried to escape her father's advances by changing into a deer, but was pursued through the sky by Brahma in the shape of a stag. Shiva, who witnessed all this, shot an arrow which cut off the head of the stag,and Brahma then paid homage to Shiva.
The fourth account says that Brahma wanted Shiva to be born as a son to him and that Shiva, though he had promised Brahma that he would grant him any boon, kept his promise but punished him for his insolence by pronouncing a curse which deprived him of one head. But Shiva thus committed Brahminicide, for Brahma was considered the chief of the Brahmins. He was paralysed for his crimes and thus open to attack by a demon created by Brahma. He fled but was captured and forced to perform penances. Apart from being the progenitor of the human race in general, Brahma was the father of Daksha, who was born from his thumb. Daksha became chief of the Prajapatis, sages associated with Brahma' 5 creation. Though Daksha gave his daughter to Shiva as a wife, he insulted the god until, cowed by his violence, he was forced to acknowledge Shiva's superiority to him and to his father.
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