The Five Faces of Shiva in the Linga Purana
पञ्चब्रह्म
Five ages, five colours, and five times Brahma asks for a son
In chapters 11 to 16 the Linga Purana shows Shiva's five aspects, Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Tatpurusha, Aghora and Ishana, as five meetings with Brahma in five successive ages of Brahma. Each time Brahma wants a son, meditates, and Shiva appears as a boy of one colour. This page follows the Purana's own telling, which is different in shape from the explanation of the five faces in the Vayaviya Samhita of our Shiva Purana.
How the Purana frames it
The sages ask Suta how Brahma saw the great lord as Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Tatpurusha, Aghora and Ishana. Suta answers with five episodes, one for each of five ages of Brahma, and each age has its own colour. The pattern repeats. Brahma wants a son and meditates, a boy appears, Brahma recognises the lord in him and bows, sons are born from Brahma's sides, those sons live for a thousand years as teachers of yoga and then enter Shiva again, and the chapter closes by saying that anyone who takes refuge in that aspect with discipline is freed from sin and reaches Rudra's world. A footnote by the translators explains that the five faces stand for the five elements, ether, air, fire, water and earth, and that the face of Vamadeva is the one at the back of Shiva.
Sadyojata, in the white age (chapter 11)
In the twenty-ninth age, called Shvetalohita, Brahma meditates for a son and a boy with a tuft of hair appears. Brahma holds Sadyojata in his heart and meditates. Four white sons are born from his sides, Sunanda, Nandana, Vishvananda and Upananda, and the white sage Sveta shines in front of him. The text says that those who turn to Vishveshvara with controlled breath and a mind fixed on Brahman are freed from sin and pass beyond Vishnu's abode into Rudra's world.
Vamadeva, in the red age (chapter 12)
In the thirtieth age, called Rakta, Brahma himself is red. A boy appears in red garlands, red clothes and red ornaments, with red eyes. Brahma bows to him as Vamadeva and sings a hymn that begins with the words 'brahmane Vamadevaya'. Shiva, pleased, says that Brahma will have the strength of meditation and will know him as the lord who creates the worlds in every age. Four red-robed sons are born, Viraja, Vibahu, Vishoka and Vishvabhavana. They teach dharma to their pupils and after a thousand years enter the lord again. The chapter says that those who repeat 'namo brahmane Vamadevaya' and rely on him go to a world from which there is no return.
Tatpurusha, in the yellow age (chapter 13)
In the thirty-first age, called Pitavasas, Brahma wears yellow. A long-armed young man appears in yellow robes, with a golden sacred thread and a yellow turban. Brahma, meditating, sees the lord's great cow, which has come out of his mouth in her universal form, with four feet, four faces, four hands, four horns and four udders. The text says she is the goddess herself, with thirty-two qualities. The lord calls her to him and tells her to keep the universe under her control and to be Uma for the good of the brahmins, and he gives her to Brahma, who understands in meditation that she is the great goddess. Brahma repeats the Rudra Gayatri as the lord has taught it, and Shiva grants him yoga, learning, wealth, fame and detachment. Yellow-clad sons come from his sides, live a thousand years as teachers of yoga, and enter the lord.
Aghora, in the black age (chapters 14 and 15)
After the yellow age the universe is again a single sheet of water, a thousand divine years pass, and Brahma, wanting to create, becomes low in spirit. While he meditates for a son his own colour turns black. A black boy of great strength appears, in black clothes, thread, crown and garlands, and Brahma bows to this terrible-looking Aghora. Brahma practises breath control and holds Shiva in his heart. Four black sons are born, Krishna, Krishnashikha, Krishnasya and Krishnavastradhrik, who worship Shiva by yoga for a thousand years, teach it to disciples, and enter his stainless world. In chapter 15 Aghora speaks to Brahma in praise of this form and says that in it he destroys sin of every kind, whether done in speech, body or thought, knowingly or not, or inherited from either parent. The chapter then sets out an expiation rite, with counts of mantra repetition scaled to the wrong done, and a rite with the five products of the cow for a brahmin who has committed grave offences. We name that here but do not reproduce it, because it is a ritual-law passage and not a procedure for readers to follow.
Ishana, in the Vishvarupa age (chapter 16)
In the Vishvarupa age, after a dissolution, Brahma meditates for sons and the goddess Sarasvati appears in universal form, with the universe for her garland, clothes and sacred thread. Brahma meditates on Ishana, who looks like pure crystal and wears every ornament, and offers a hymn of homage to Ishana, the lord of all learning who rides the bull, to Sadashiva, Sadyojata and Vamadeva, to Rudra, and to the lord who is Kala, the reckoner of time. The text says that whoever reads the hymn even once becomes fit for the world of Brahma, and that reciting it before brahmins at an ancestral rite brings the highest goal, which are the Purana's own statements about its text. Shiva offers a boon, and Brahma asks to see his universal form and asks about the four-footed, four-faced cow, why she is called Vishvarupa, and whose she is.
Shiva's answer about the cow
Shiva begins to answer by calling it a great secret. He says that the present age is the thirty-third, that beyond Brahma's world lies a region of Vishnu, who was born from his left limb, and that hundreds of thousands of Brahmas have passed before this one. He then lists thirty-two qualities that characterise the goddess, among them yoga, Samkhya, penance, learning, truth, mercy, non-violence, wisdom, forbearance, meditation, control of the senses, modesty and skill in the senses. He says she is the goddess Prakriti, the source of Brahma's own birth, created by him, and that thinkers call her by many names, among them the four-faced one, cow, speech, Gauri and Maya. A translators' note says that the cow here is Prakriti, the primal nature. The chapter continues beyond this point.
How this differs from our Shiva Purana page
On our Shiv forms page the five faces and the eight forms are taken from the Vayaviya Samhita, where they are set out as the faces of one form of Shiva with their directions and powers. In the Linga Purana the same five names appear as five meetings in time, each with its own colour and its own set of sons, and the cow, the mother of the universe, comes into the story at Tatpurusha. The two can be read together, but they are two tellings and not one list. As elsewhere in these Puranas, the promises at the end of each chapter, that a person is freed from sin or reaches Rudra's world, are the text's own claims and not a promise offered here.
Read the source chapters
Source note
Retold in our own words from the English translation of the Linga Purana by a board of scholars led by J.L. Shastri (Motilal Banarsidass), Part 1, chapters 11 to 16 (pages 47 to 58), read against the book's text. It is condensed and does not reproduce the translation. The detailed lists of mantra counts and penances in chapter 15 are deliberately not reproduced.