A jagar is a night of invocation in the Kumaon hills. Its singer, the jagariya, recites the life and deeds of a god to the beat of a drum, and the recital is meant to bring the deity down into the gathering, where a medium begins to tremble and then to speak in the god's voice, answering questions and settling disputes. Bhairav, the fierce form of Shiva who is a household and village guardian in the hills, has his own body of jagar tales. The story in a jagar is a means, not an end: it exists to make the god present in a particular room for a particular family.
Jagar (ritual) — Wikipedia; Jagar: invoking divine energy through folk music
Sources: Jagar (ritual) — Wikipedia; Jagar: invoking divine energy through folk music
Brahma grows a fifth head, and with it pride or a false word.
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.