Workmen digging a water channel for King Pratap Malla turned up a huge stone Bhairab from Licchavi times. It was set up in the square. Officials taking office swore before it, accepting a violent death if they lied, so it is called the court Bhairab. Nearby at Hanuman Dhoka the mask of Sweta Bhairab, the white Bhairab, is kept behind latticed windows and shown only at Indra Jatra, when rice beer runs out of its mouth through a pipe and people reach to drink it, for it is believed to cure illness.
Sources: Bhairab (ECS Nepal); Indra Jatra (BBC Nepali)
When the skull of Brahma falls from Bhairava's hand at Kashi, Shiva makes him the city's lord and keeper; he alone punishes those who sin in Kashi, so even Yama's messengers keep away, and pilgrims still go to ask his leave.
At the Kal Bhairav temple by the Shipra the offering is liquor; the priest tilts a saucer to the god's lips and it disappears, and when Madhya Pradesh closed Ujjain's liquor shops in 2025 the offering went on.
Brahma grows a fifth head, and with it pride or a false word.
In the Kumaoni jagar, singers call a deity into a gathering through song and drum until a medium falls into trance; Bhairav's tales are among those sung.
Brahma and Vishnu quarrel over who is greater; Shiva appears as a column of fire without end; Brahma flies up as a gander and Vishnu digs down as a boar; Vishnu admits failure, Brahma lies with the ketaki as witness and is cursed. Tamil tradition roots the pillar at Tiruvannamalai.
Bhairava, born from Shiva's brow, cuts off Brahma's fifth head; the skull sticks to his hand and the sin of brahmin-killing follows him; he wanders as a beggar, kills Vishnu's gatekeeper, is fed blood from Vishnu's forehead, and is freed when the skull falls at Kashi.