Bhairava Born as Vetāla, and the Maheśa Avatāra
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Bhairava, set to guard Śiva’s door, fails to recognise the Goddess when she comes out in a wild disguise, and is cursed to be born on earth as a man named Vetāla. Out of love for him, Śiva and Pārvatī come down to earth as well, as Maheśa and Śāradā. The Śiva Purāṇa tells it in just fifteen verses.
Nandīśvara tells Sanatkumāra: now hear, with love, of one more excellent avatāra of Śiva — an account that fulfils every wish of those who listen to it.
Bhairava at the door
Once Śiva and Girijā, the supreme Lord and his consort, wished to spend time together by themselves. They set Bhairava at the door as doorkeeper and went inside.
There, lovingly attended by many of the Goddess’s companions, the two carried on their play in the manner of human beings. A long time passed in this way. The Purāṇa stresses that both are wholly free and act only by their own will; and both were deeply content.
The Goddess in disguise
Then Śivā, who is as free as her Lord, came to the door as part of her play. She came with Śiva’s leave, and she came in the guise of one who is unmatta — wild, beside herself, not as she is usually seen.
Bhairava was misled by that appearance. He did not see the Goddess; he looked at her as he would at an ordinary woman, and he stopped her from going out.
The curse
Being looked upon in that way made the Goddess angry, and Ambikā cursed him. “Bhairava, lowest of men,” she said, “you look at me as at an ordinary woman. Then take a human form upon the earth.”
At the curse a great cry of dismay went up. Bhairava was stricken with grief — though the Purāṇa calls even this the Goddess’s līlā, her play.
Śiva, who knows well how to soothe and persuade, came there quickly and comforted Bhairava.
Vetāla, Maheśa and Śāradā
So, by the force of that curse and by Śiva’s own will, Bhairava was born on earth in a human womb, under the name Vetāla.
But he did not go alone. Out of affection for him Śiva too took up the ways of the world and descended to earth together with Pārvatī. There Śiva was known as Maheśa and Pārvatī as Śāradā, and the two, masters of every kind of play, carried on their līlā lovingly on earth. This is the Maheśa avatāra.
The chapter says nothing more about what Vetāla, Maheśa and Śāradā did on earth; it ends here.
The fruit of hearing it
Nandīśvara closes: this account of Śiva gives wealth, fame, long life and the fruit of every wish. Whoever hears it or tells it with devotion and an attentive mind enjoys every good thing in this world, and at the end attains liberation.
Here the story ends
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The central Purāṇa of Śiva, in seven saṃhitās: Vidyeśvara, Rudra (in five khaṇḍas), Śatarudra, Koṭirudra, Umā, Kailāsa and Vāyavīya. Chapter numbers vary between editions; all our references follow the Gita Press Kalyāṇ Śivamahāpurāṇāṅka.
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How the tellings differ
- This is one of the shortest avatāra chapters in the Śatarudra Saṃhitā: fifteen verses, with no account of where Vetāla was born or what Maheśa and Śāradā did on earth.
- The Purāṇa’s main account of Bhairava — his birth from Śiva’s anger, the fifth head of Brahmā and the skull released at Kāśī — is told earlier in the same Saṃhitā (Adhyāyas 8–9).
- Here Vetāla is the name of a man, Bhairava’s human birth. In popular story the word vetāla more often means a spirit that haunts cremation grounds, as in the tales of King Vikrama; the chapter does not make that connection.