Kapalika Vrata

A vrata is a religious rite. There are three vratas in particular whose observance pleases Rudra no end. These three are known as kaplika vrata, babhravaya vrata and shuddhashaiva vrata.

Brahma originally had five heads. After Brahma created Rudra, he took Rudra up on his shoulders. With his fifth ehad, Brahma started to chant a hymn to Rudra. The hymn contained the word kapali, which means the one with a skull (kapala). Rudra’s appearance was rather strange and he thought that Brahma had used the word kapali to make an insulting reference to his ugly looks. This angered Rudra. With the thumb of his left hand, he loosened Brahma’s fifth head from the creator’s shoulders.

But the loosened head stuck to Rudra’s thumb and would not come off. After several futile attempts to get rid of the head, Rudra resorted to Brahma himself for advice as to how the head might come unstuck. Brahma advised Rudra to observe the kapalika vrata. (According to some Puranas, the act of severing Brahma’s fifth head amounted to the killing of a brahmana. The head got attached to Rudra’s hand because of this sin.)