Daksha’s daughter, Sati (or Gouri), was married to Shiva or Rudra. Shiva however treated his father-in-law with scant respect, or so Daksha thought. He therefore organised a yajna to which he did not invite Shiva. Sati turned up at the yajna, although she had not been invited either. Daksha seized the opportunity to hurl abuse on directed at her husband. Through here powers of meditation, she immolated herself and gave up her life. When the news aroused. He created a warrior named Virabhadra and despatched him to destroy Daksha’s yajna. When the ceremony was completely devastated, the gods prayed to Shiva and appeased him. Sati was subsequently reborn as Parvati, the daughter of the Himalayas, and married Shiva again.

As for Rudra’s taking part in the act of creation, the more customary account is that Brahma asked Rudra to create. But all the beings whom Rudra credated were immortal, like himself. When Brahma asked Rudra to create mortal beings, Rudra flatly refused. Brahma thereupon asked Rudra to refrain from taking part in the act of creation.)

To return to the account of the Varaha Purana, Gouri was married to Rudra and lived with him happily. But after some days had passed, she recollected the insult that her father’s yajna had meant to her husband. She went to the Himalaya mountains and, through severe meditation, Yielded up the body which had become unbearable to her as it had stood witness to Rudra being insulted on the occasion of the yajna.