Bhimashankar

In Kamarupa, Suta says, Shankara himself took an avatara for the welfare of the world. The reason was a valiant rakshasa named Bhima, who caused misery to all beings and destroyed dharma. He was the son of Kumbhakarna and Karkati. After Rama killed Kumbhakarna, Karkati lived with her son on Mount Sahya.

As a boy Bhima asked his mother who his father was and why they lived alone. She told him. Her father was Karkata, her mother Pushkashi, her first husband Viradha, killed by Rama. A rishi, Sutikshna, a disciple of Agastya, had reduced her parents to ashes when they went to devour him. Left alone, she was taken by force by Kumbhakarna, Ravana's younger brother, who had come that way, and Bhima was born. Kumbhakarna had left for Lanka and been killed by Rama.

Bhima was enraged. Rama, as an avatara of Hari, had killed his father and his maternal grandfather. If he was a true son, he decided, he would make Hari suffer. He set out to perform austerities for Brahma, standing on one foot with his arms raised and his eyes on the sun. After a thousand years a terrible energy rose from his head and scorched the devas, who ran to Brahma.

Brahma went to him and offered a boon. Bhima asked for unmatched strength, got it and went home. He told his mother, "Behold my strength now," and vowed to wreak carnage among the devas even if Hari helped them.

Bhima defeated the devas under Indra, seized their positions, and defeated Hari in battle when the devas begged for help. Then he started on the earth. He first attacked King Sudakshina of Kamarupa, a devotee of Shiva. Because of Brahma's boon the asura defeated the king, bound him in chains and shut him in solitary confinement.

There, in the prison, the king made a parthiva lingam and worshipped it. In his mind he invoked Ganga for the bathing and rites, did dhyana, used mudras and asana, and chanted the panchakshara mantra prefixed with Pranava. His wife Dakshina worshipped a parthiva image too. The two were single-minded in worshipping Shankara.

Meanwhile Bhima, intoxicated by the boon, destroyed sacrifices and rites and said everything should be given to him. He overran the whole earth with his rakshasa soldiers and destroyed the dharma of the Vedas, the smritis and the Puranas. The devas and rishis suffered, and brahmanas were driven from the world.

Led by Brahma and Vishnu, the devas went to Shankara. On the banks of the river Mahakoshi they made a parthiva image and worshipped it by the rules. Shiva appeared and asked what he could do for them. They explained: a powerful rakshasa, son of Karkati and Kumbhakarna, oppresses the devas because of Brahma's boon. Please slay Bhima, and do not delay.

Shiva said he would kill him. He called King Sudakshina his supreme devotee and told the devas to carry the message that the task would soon be done and that the king should continue his worship. Brahma's boon would not stand in the way, Shiva said.

Shiva went quietly near his devotee, with his ganas, but stayed hidden. Someone told Bhima that the king was performing some abhichara (hostile rite) against him. Furious, Bhima seized a sword and rushed at the king. Seeing the parthiva lingam, he reasoned that the king must be doing something with it, and demanded to know what.

The king, steady in his faith, replied that what is to be will be, that prarabdha governs everyone and Shiva governs prarabdha, and that he was worshipping the lord of all moving and unmoving things. Bhima laughed. He knew Shankara, he said: his uncle (Ravana) had kept Shiva as a servant. Put the image far away, he told the king, or face a reason for fear. When the king refused, Bhima hurled his sword at the lingam, saying, "Now behold your lord's strength."

As soon as the sword touched the parthiva lingam, Hara appeared from within it. "Behold, I am Bhimeshvara. I have formerly taken the pledge that I will always protect my devotees." He split the sword in two with Pinaka. Bhima threw a trident, a spear and a jagged javelin, and Shiva shattered each of them. A terrible battle broke out between the rakshasas and Shiva's ganas, and the oceans and mountains trembled. The devas despaired that their prayers had been in vain.

Narada came, bowed and asked Shiva's pardon: why use an axe when a blade of grass will do? Please kill him quickly. At this, the text says, the lord burned the whole host of rakshasas to ashes with the weapon of a humkara, as a forest fire burns a forest. No one could even find Bhima's ashes, and his name was never heard again.

The Purana says the blaze spread from forest to forest and the ashes of the rakshasas gave rise to many useful herbs. It adds that men can change their appearance using these ashes and that bhutas, pretas and pishachas keep their distance. Peace returned to the devas and the world.

The devas and sages asked Shambhu to remain there for the happiness of the worlds: it had been an awful region, they said, and if people saw him welfare would come. They gave him the name Bhimashankara and asked that the lingam always be worshipped as a counter to every kind of sin. Self-ruling Shiva, affectionate to devotees, happily stayed.