Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.107

c9.107

Once during a quarrel between Śiva and Brahmā the former nipped off Brahmā’s head. (For details see under Brahmā). Some drops of sweat appeared on the forehead of the angry Brahmā, and from the sweat which Brahmā wiped with his hand arose a person wearing a thousand shields, bow and quiver, That person was Svedaja. He asked Brahmā what he should do and the former granted him permission to destroy Śiva. He then approached Śiva with bow drawn and the frightened Śiva ran to Viṣṇu and sought refuge. Svedaja followed Śiva and when Viṣṇu, seeing him, raised a loud noise ‘Hum’. Śiva prostrated at Viṣṇu’s feet. Śiva extended the skull in his hand towards Viṣṇu requesting something to be given to him. Mahāviṣṇu, who had nothing else to give Śiva, put his right hand into the skull as alms, Śiva wounded the hand with his Śūla (three-pronged weapon) and pure red blood began flowing from the hand into the skull. The blood continued for a thousand years in a length of fifty yojanas and thickness of ten yojanas. At the end of the period Viṣṇu asked whether the skull was not filled yet, and looking into the skull with his three eyes Śiva answered that it was full. Then Viṣṇu stopped the flow of blood, and Śiva, in the presence of Viṣṇu, looked into the blood for a thousand years and stirred it with his hand. The blood gradually turned into a bubble, and a person possessing thousand hands and as glowing as fire appeared in the skull. He had a crown on his head and he held in his hands a bow and quiver. He wore gloves on his hands. And, that was Raktaja, an incarnation of Nararṣi.