Bhairava
பைரவர் भैरव
Also Kala Bhairava, Vatuka Bhairava, Swarna Akarshana Bhairava, Kotwal of Kashi.
SaivaVillage and folkShakta
Who this is
Bhairava is Siva’s anger given a body, and the body kept the consequences. He took off Brahma’s fifth head and the skull stuck to his hand, and he wandered as a beggar with it until it fell at Kashi, where he stayed on as the kotwal, the city’s police officer. He is the guardian of the temple, the keeper of the keys and the god of the night watch, which is why his shrine is at the north east corner and why the temple keys are laid before him when it closes. He is approached for protection, for fear, for lawsuits and for debts, and he is fed through his dogs.
How to recognise them
Naked or in a tiger skin, dark, with a trident, a drum, a noose and a skull cup, a garland of skulls, hair standing out, and a dog at his feet or beside him. Fierce faced with tusks in the Kala Bhairava form, and boyish in the Vatuka form. Often only a small dark image in a niche rather than a full sanctum.
Family and companions
A form of Siva rather than a separate god, though the folk layer treats him as his own. The dog is his vehicle and his companion. The eight Bhairavas guard the eight directions, and the sixty four are counted in the tantric lists. Kali and the Mahavidyas are his circle.
How they are worshipped
The dark Ashtami each month; Kala Bhairava Ashtami in Margashirsha; Sunday and Tuesday night.
After dark, and in some temples at the Rahu kalam rather than at dusk. Sesame oil in the lamp, vadai malai of urad dal, and the feeding of dogs, which is counted part of the puja and not a kindness alongside it. The temple keys are placed at his feet at closing. Ashtami, the eighth tithi of the dark fortnight, is his, and Kala Bhairava Ashtami in Margashirsha is the great day.
The stories
As they are told, with the disagreements left in
The skull that would not fall
Brahma’s fifth head spoke what it should not have, and Siva’s anger took shape as Bhairava and struck it off. Killing a Brahmin is the gravest thing there is, and the skull fastened itself to his palm and would not be shaken loose. He wandered as a beggar with it for twelve years, begging in it, until he came to Kashi and it fell. The place it fell is Kapalamochana. The tradition is pointed about it: even the god’s own anger has to work its punishment off, and the working off is what made him the guardian of the city.
The keys and the dogs
When a Siva temple closes for the night the keys are brought to the Bhairava shrine and laid at his feet, and in the morning they are taken up again with his permission. He is on duty between. The dogs that live around a temple are his and are fed first on his day, before the devotees eat the prasadam, and chasing them off the premises is held to be an insult to him directly. In Kashi the custom is older than the current temple and has outlasted several rebuildings of it.
Where the regions differ
- Tamil
- Kerala
- Telugu
- Kannada
- North
- Maharashtra
- Bengal
- Punjab
- Assam
- Sri Lanka
- Nepal
- Gujarat
- Odisha
- Mithila
- Kashmir
- Tulu Nadu
- manipur
- rajasthan
- konkani
- sindhi
- jharkhand
- himalayan
- kodava
- Tamil Nadu
- In the north east corner of every Siva temple, given the keys at closing, and worshipped at the Rahu kalam in the temples that keep that custom.
- North India
- Kashi keeps him as the kotwal of the city and a pilgrim is expected to take his permission; at Ujjain the offering is liquor, poured to the image and visibly taken.
- Kashmir
- Kashmir Saivism treats Bhairava as the name of the absolute itself, and the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra is addressed to him.
- Nepal
- The Kala Bhairav at Hanuman Dhoka was the place oaths were sworn, since a false word before him was believed to be fatal, and the Sweta Bhairav mask is opened for Indra Jatra.
Their days
Every one of these has a page of its own
Where to see them
From the temple directory
- Kaal Bhairav Temple, Ujjain Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh
- Kaal Bhairav Temple, Varanasi Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
What is said
From the mantra library