Kapāla Mocana

Rudra is also called Śiva and Mahādeva. The Varāha Purāṇa, in Chapter 96, tells how Brahmā’s fifth head called Rudra “Kapālī”. Rudra, in anger, cut that head off with the nail of his left thumb. The skull stuck to his hand and would not come off. For twelve years Rudra wandered through the tīrthas (holy places) of the earth. At last he plunged into the Gaṅgā at Vārāṇasī, and the skull fell away. From then on that tīrtha at Kāśī was known as Kapāla Mocana, “where the skull was set free”. The Padma Purāṇa also gives an account of how the skull was released.

Background: the Moha-śāstra

The Varāha Purāṇa gives an earlier account that sets the scene. In an earlier age all beings honoured Bhagavān Janārdana, reached the higher lokas and in time reached moksha (liberation). The paths to mukti (liberation) were filling fast. The devas, who were already liberated, came before Bhagavān Vishṇu and said: “O Deva-deva, all the people have entered the path of moksha. How will creation go on? Who will live in the narakas (hells)?”

Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa heard this and said to Rudra: “O mighty-armed Rudra! You also make śāstras that cause moha (bewilderment). Show little effort with great seeming result. Show deceit, indrajāla (magic trickery) and conduct against the rules. By these, quickly bring moha on the people.”

Then Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa hid his own true form (svarūpa) and arranged things so that all would be able to see him. Rudra made the Niḥśvāsa-saṃhitā and other śāstras that bewilder those who have strayed from the path of the Veda.

The creation of Rudra and the fifth head

At the start of one cycle of creation, Brahmā made Rudra. This was his third creation, after Vishṇu and Brahmā himself. This Rudra had green eyes and a colour that was both black and red.

The newborn Rudra was placed on Brahmā’s shoulder, and Brahmā spoke tenderly to the child. But Brahmā’s fifth head, in its eagerness, called out the name “Kapālī!” to Rudra. This was a recitation of Ādharvana mantras.

Rudra was angry to hear himself called “Kapālī”. In that moment of rage he cut off Brahmā’s fifth head, the one that had called him that, with the nail of his left thumb. The severed head at once stuck to Rudra’s hand and would not fall.

The wandering with the kapāla

Rudra stood before Brahmā and asked humbly: “O Deva, how will this skull leave my hand? How will this pāpa (sin) be destroyed? Tell me without delay.”

Brahmā said: “Keep the Kāpālika vrata, with the tejas (power) that is yours alone.”

Rudra then began his long tapas of wandering. He went first to Mahendra-parvata. There he broke the skull into three pieces. He made the hair into his sacred thread (yajñopavīta) and the bones into a rosary (akshamālā). He held one bloodied piece in his hand and placed another in his matted hair (jaṭā).

He then crossed the whole earth of seven dvīpas, going from tīrtha to tīrtha in hope of release:

• First he bathed in the ocean, then in the Gaṅgā, the Sarasvatī and the meeting of the Yamunā.
• Then he bathed in the Śatadrū, Devikā, Mahānadī, Vitastā, Candrabhāgā, Gomatī, Sindhu, Tuṅgabhadrā, Godāvarī and Gaṇḍakī.
• He visited Rudra-mahālaya, Dāruvana, Kedāra, Bhadreśvara and Gayā.
• At Gayā he bathed and offered tarpaṇa (water offerings) to the pitṛ-devas (ancestors).
• He went around the whole brahmāṇḍa (universe) in his wandering.

Through all of this the skull did not leave his hand.

In the sixth year of his wandering his gocha garment slipped and fell off. Mahādeva became digambara, without clothes, and from then on was known as a Kāpālika.

For one full year he wandered over the Himavat mountains, and in this time his colour became kapila-varṇa, reddish brown. He spent two more years visiting all the ancient tīrthas. At last, in the twelfth year of his wandering, the great Śūla-pāṇi (the bearer of the trident) came to Vārāṇasī.

The freedom at Kāśī

When Mahādeva dipped himself in the waters of the Gaṅgā at Vārāṇasī, the Brahmā-kapāla that had stuck to his hand from the beginning slipped off and fell. At that moment the whole burden of brahma-hatyā (the pāpa of killing a brāhmaṇa) was lifted.

The Varāha Purāṇa says to Bhūdevī: “O Bhūdevī! From that time the best of tīrthas in the great city of Kāśī became famous on earth as Kapāla Mocana.” It is the place where the skull was released.

The origin of the Kāpālika vrata

When the skull fell, Brahmā came with all the devas and spoke to Rudra:

O Bhava! O Rudra! O Virūpāksha! Keep dharma in mind and keep vratas for the good of the world. These vratas will help the world, O Mahāprabhu!

Brahmā went on:

You wandered with the skull and with the gocha garment. This becomes the Mahā-vrata for human beings. You wandered without clothes, with the skull held carefully in your hand. This becomes the Nagna-kāpālika-vrata for humans. When you wandered through the Himavat, a reddish colour came on your body. This becomes the Bābhravya-vrata. Now in this tīrtha you have become pure in body. The vrata that destroys pāpa and arises from this is called Śuddha-śaiva.

Brahmā then said: “Taking me as your authority, the devas will honour you in many ways. You yourself can explain all those śāstras and traditions. There is no other authority. O Kumāra! One who keeps all the vratas that you kept is made pure, even from brahma-hatyā, by your prasāda (grace).”

The four traditions

Four śaiva vrata traditions arose from this wandering of Rudra:

1. Mahā-vrata: wandering with a skull and a gocha garment.
2. Nagna-kāpālika-vrata: wandering without clothes, with the skull carefully held.
3. Bābhravya-vrata: from the kapila or bābhravya colour gained on the Himavat.
4. Śuddha-śaiva: the pure śaiva practice set up at Kāśī.

The text also speaks of the Niḥśvāsa-saṃhitā and the Pāśupata-dīkshā as śāstras that Rudra made. They belong to the moha-śāstras of Rudra. Those who follow the path of the Veda and the highest path of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa reach mukti. Those who have strayed receive these śāstras as their path, according to their karma.

The final teaching

Brahmā had been satisfied and Rudra had received these instructions. Rudra then went joyfully to his home on Kailāsa as the devas shouted “Jaya!” Brahmā and all the devas went back to their own abodes.

The Varāha Purāṇa says: “I have told you fully the greatness (māhātmya) of Rudra, how his conduct and his vratas arose on this earth. Among all beings, who is greater than Rudra, except the one Prabhu Nārāyaṇa?”

The Padma Purāṇa account: Brahmā sends Rudra to Avimukta

The Padma Purāṇa, in the Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 14, gives its own account of the skull and how it was released. In this account Śiva had wandered keeping the Kāpālika vrata, with Brahmā’s skull stuck to his hand. Brahmā himself then appeared and spoke to Rudra. The account is set within the larger account of Brahmā’s fifth head and the birth of Karṇa and Arjuna.

Rudra pleaded with Brahmā: “O Bhagavān Brahmā! O maker of the world! This great skull will not fall from my hand. It brings me shame before all the ṛshis. By your grace I have kept the Kāpālika mahāvrata. Has this mahāvrata been completed? Where shall I throw this skull, in what holy tīrtha, to become pure before the ṛshis?”

Brahmā names Vārāṇasī

Brahmā answered: “There is an ancient divine place called Avimukta, a divine abode from time immemorial. The skull will be released there. I, you and Vishṇu will all live there. Whoever only sees this tīrtha becomes pure and gains all enjoyments. Those who die there reach moksha. The rivers Varuṇā, Asi and Yamunā are there. Brahma-hatyā can never enter the region between those rivers. I give you a region of five krośa as your kshetra (sacred ground). Through its centre the Gaṅgā flows north to the sea. A city of great puṇya (merit) will rise there. Go there and drop the skull.”

Brahmā said further: “One who bathes at the great tīrtha in Vārāṇasī is freed from the pāpa of seven births. Going there on pilgrimage is enough for liberation. It is the first of all tīrthas. Those who die there reach the state of Rudra and rejoice with you. Gifts made there in the mind alone have fruit that has no equal. Those who are cremated there reach Rudra-loka for ever. Bathing there frees one from all bondage of birth.”

Rudra’s request

Śiva then made his own request: “In all tīrthas, wherever I am honoured together with Vishṇu, this is the vara (boon) I ask: that I may always be revered as the Deva.”

Brahmā gave it: “All devas, ṛshis and those who meditate on the ātman, I give them to you. No other deva can claim this. This is my word.” Brahmā then left and set up the divine tīrtha at Vārāṇasī.

Sources

• Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 96
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 14