These words angered Shiva and his appearance became terrifying. With his nails. Shiva tore off one of Brahma’s heads and the head got stuck to Shiva’s left hand. No matter now hard Shiva tried to dislodge it, the severed head would not come unstuck.

Brahma, meanwhile, created a warrior to destroy Shiva. This warrior was armoured and held a bow and some arrows. He had four arms. The warrior told Shiva. “I shall not kill you, because you are a sinner. No one kills a sinner. But I shall certainly teach you a lesson.”

Hearing these words, Shiva and Parvati fled to the Himalayas. The river Sarasvati flowed there and on the banks of the Sarasvati there was a famous hermitage named vadrikashrama.

Shiva came across Vishnu there and requested him, “Please save me. Grant me a boon.”

“Strike my left hand with your trident (trishula),” replied Vishnu.

As soon as Shiva did this, blood started to flow from Vishnu’s hand in three streams. The first stream mingled with the nakshatras (stars) in the sky. The next flowed down to earth and the sages Atri and Durvasa were created out of this. The third and final stream fell on Shiva’s forehead and a warrior emerged from there. He was dark in complexion and he held a bow and some arrows in his hands.

(Most other Puranas give a different account of Atri’s birth. For example, the Bhagavata Purana, the Vishnu Purana and the Matsya Purana state that the sage Atri was born out of Brahma’s eyes. He did not have any sons and so he began to perform tapasya (meditation). Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva were pleased with Atri’s prayers and agreed to grant him boons so that he would have sons. From Shiva’s boon was born the sage Durvasa, from Vishnu’s boon the sage Dattatreya and from Brahma’s boon the god Soma.)

To return to the account of the Vamana Purana, the warrior who was born out of Shiva’s forehead asked. “Who is to be destroyed? What are your orders?”

“Kill the warrior whom Brahma created,” was Shiva’s reply.

The two warriors started to fight, and for a thousand years of the gods, the battle raged. Finally, Brahma’s warrior defeated Shiva’s warrior and Brahma triumphed. Brahma’s warrior mingled with the solar system and Shiva’s warrior merged into an image of Vishnu.

Shiva And Vishnu

But Brahma’s severed head would not be dislodged from Shiva’s hand and soon became a skull. A brahmana is the first of the four classes (Varna) and by cutting off Brahma’s head, Shiva had committed the sin (brahmahatya) of killing a Brahmana.

The sin adopted the form of a living being and refused to let Shiva go. It followed Shiva wherever he went. In fact, it entered Shiva’s body. Shiva went to the hermitage known as vadrikashrama, but the sin clung onto him. Shiva tried to bathe in the river Yamuna so as to cleanse his sin. But so severe was the sin that the river dried up. This was also what happened when Shiva tried to bathe in the river Sarasvati. There were several tirthas (places of pilgrimage) that Shiva visited, but to no avail, Numerous were the vratas (religious rites) that Shiva observed, but nothing happened.

Eventually, Shiva met Vishnu and began to pray to him. Vishnu told Shiva. “There is a tirtha named Varanasi, at the confluence of the two sacred rivers Varana and Asi. In the city of Varanasi there is a place named dashashvamedha. Go there and pray and you will be freed.”

This is what Shiva did and the sin left him. What of the skull that had got stuck to Shiva’s hand? This was also dislodged. Since the word for skull is kapala, Shiva came to be known as Kapali. And the place where the skull was dislodged is a famous tirtha named kapalamochana.

Daksha’s Yajna

“To go back to what I was saying,” continued Pulastya, “Daksha did not invite Shiva to his yajna because Shiva had a skull stuck to his hand.”

Shiva was at the time married to Sati, Daksha’s daughter and Daksha was his father-in-law. It was Sati who was born as Parvati in a subsequent birth.