According to Kedaar Khand, Canto 3, angry Shiva tore at the lock of hairs on his
head and uprooted some of its strands. Then he slammed them angrily on the side of
the mountain at Kailash. This produced Beerbhadra and his army of attendants.
Beerbhadra’s birth and the subsequent destruction of Daksha’s fire sacrifice is
narrated in detail in Srimad Bhagwat Maha-Puran, Skandha 4, Canto 5 as follows:--
According to its verse nos. 1-6—“As soon as Shiva heard of how he was insulted
in the fire sacrifice of Daksha that resulted in Sati’s death, he became furious.
Chewing his lips with his teeth in anger, he got up, tore at the lock of hairs on his
head, uprooted some of its strands, and slammed them against the earth. This
produced Beerbhadra. He had a colossal body, thousand arms that held countless
forms of weapons, three eyes as brilliant as the sun, ferocious sharp teeth, hairs that
resembled leaping flames of a raging fire, dark complexion, and he wore a garland of
skulls.
Beerbhadra stood before Lord Shiva with palms joined in submission, and asked
Shiva for instructions. Shiva told him—‘Oh son, you have been created from a
fraction of my own body (because Beerbhadra was created from Shiva’s hairs). You
will be called another Rudra like me. Go and punish Daksha in an appropriate
manner.’ Beerbhadra lifted his trident and rushed to the fire sacrifice of Daksha. At
that time it appeared that a huge storm has arrived.”
Mahabharat, Shanti-parva, however, presents a little variation of how Beerbhadra
was created. Here, Vaismapaayan Veda Vyas told Janmanjaya that “Shiva produced
Beerbhadra from his mouth. The latter was an image of Shiva, and a personified form
of anger. Hence, Beerbhadra was called ‘Rudra’, meaning the angry form of Shiva.
When Shiva ordered him to go punish Daksha and ruin his sacrifice because it was
not being conducted according to the sanction of the scriptures, Beerbhadra produced
countless devil warriors from each root of his hair on his skin. They were aided by
Mahakaali, the ferocious form of Sati’s spirit.
Srimad Bhagwat Maha-Puran, Skandha 4, Canto 5, verse nos. 13-26 describe in
detail the destruction of the fire sacrifice of Daksha and how those who had caused
insult to Shiva, such as the selfish gods, the priests, as well as Daksha were punished.
So, as soon as Beerbhadra reached the site of the fire sacrifice, he and his
warriors surrounded the venue of the sacrifice and laid everything to ruin (verse nos.
13-15).
To punish sage Bhrigu who had taken the side of Daksha and scorned at Shiva in
as much as he not only sneered at the Lord and challenged his authority but also
helped Daksha to resume the fire sacrifice and chased away Sati’s escorts by creating
demi-gods by the virtue of mystical powers of Mantras of the Yajur Veda in which he
was an expert.
As soon as Beerbhadra reached the venue of the fire sacrifice, he took Daksha
Prajapti as captive. His companion Chandish held Pusha as hostage, and Nandi (the
Bull of Shiva) caught hold of Bhagdeva (the personified forms of various gods who
were there to take their shares of the offerings made to the sacred fire).
Then Beerbhadra pinned Bhagdeva to the ground and gorged out his eyes because
he had used his eyes to signal encouragement to Daksha to insult Shiva in the court of
Brahma earlier (verse no. 20).
Then he pulled out the teeth of Pusha because when Daksha was insulting Shiva
in the same court of Brahma, Pusha was laughing with an open mouth and showing
his thirty-two teeth in mirth (verse no. 21).
Finally, Beerbhadra pushed Daksha to the ground, sat on his chest, squeezed and
wringed his neck so as to break it from the shoulders like one breaks the neck of a
sacrificial animal. Then he threw this severed neck into the fire pit. After thus
punishing all chief offenders, Beerbhadra returned to Lord Shiva at Kailash—(verse
nos. 22-26).
kiana
(Kiana)
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