Virabhadraवीरभद्र

Virabhadra (वीरभद्र) is wrath given a body. When Sati died at her father Daksha's sacrifice, Shiva in his anguish tore a lock of matted hair and dashed it against the mountain; from it rose Virabhadra, a warrior of terrifying stature, thousand-armed in the fuller descriptions, garlanded with skulls and bearing every weapon. With him, in many accounts, came the fierce goddess Bhadrakali. His single commission: destroy the sacrifice that had destroyed Sati.

The sack of the sacrifice

The Puranas describe the rout with relish. Virabhadra and his host fell upon the assembly, scattering the gods who had accepted Daksha's hospitality; the sacrifice itself fled in the form of a deer and was seized. Individual gods and sages suffered exemplary punishments in the various tellings, and Daksha was beheaded. When the terror had run its course and the gods appealed to Shiva, mercy followed judgement: Daksha was revived with the head of a goat, and acknowledged the god he had scorned. The episode carries one of Shaivism's central claims — that no rite is complete which excludes Shiva.

Worship and legacy

Virabhadra grew from an episode into a cult, especially in the Deccan. In Karnataka, Andhra and Maharashtra he is worshipped as a powerful deity in his own right, guardian of heroes and of the Virashaiva tradition's imagination; the celebrated temple at Lepakshi in Andhra Pradesh is dedicated to him. Icons show a fanged, four-armed warrior with sword, bow, arrow and mace, often with Daksha, goat-headed, standing in attendance — the punished host turned devotee. Beyond the temple his name persists wherever modern yoga is practised: the warrior poses, virabhadrasana, are named for the moment the lock of hair struck the ground.