Bhairavi is the fifth of the ten Mahavidyas. Her name is the feminine of Bhairava, the fearsome form of Shiva, and means the fierce one or the terrible one. Many texts call her Tripura Bhairavi, and the name links her with Tripura Sundari as a second form of the same lordly power. She is the goddess of fire and of effort, and the tradition treats her as a teacher as much as a terror. This page covers her image, the tradition of her, her temples and her day, as tradition tells it.
The name
Bhairava and Bhairavi are a pair. Bhairava is the form of Shiva who is worshipped at Kashi and elsewhere, and the Bhairavi who stands with him is the Shakti of the form. The word comes from a root linked with fear, but the tradition glosses it as the one who takes fear away, a reading also given for Bhairava. In several Tantric texts she is placed beside Kali and Tara as a fierce form.
A separate meaning of the word also exists. In some Tantric lineages, a woman teacher or practitioner is called a Bhairavi. The best known case is the woman called the Bhairavi Brahmani, who in the nineteenth century guided the saint Ramakrishna through a series of Tantric practices at Dakshineswar, according to the accounts of his disciples. We mention it to show how the word is used, and to keep it apart from the goddess.
Form and iconography
Bhairavi is shown with a red complexion, three eyes and a face that is both stern and kind. She wears a garland of severed heads and a crown with a crescent moon. She has four arms. In the commonly given image, two hands hold a rosary (japamala) and a book, and the other two make the gestures of fearlessness and of giving. Other descriptions, especially of Tripura Bhairavi, give her a sword and a skull cup, or a noose and a goad, depending on the text. She sits on a lotus, or on a corpse on the cremation ground, in the older descriptions.
The two objects that most people remember, the rosary and the book, are signs of a student: recitation and learning. This is the point that the tradition makes about her. She is fierce in her discipline, and what she burns is ignorance and not people. The images vary a good deal between regions, so one that differs from the above is not an error.
The tradition around her
No single narrative in the Puranas is given to Bhairavi, and we do not invent one. She is described in the Tantras, where she is the goddess of tapas, the heat of austerity, and of the fire of knowledge. In the list of ten, she follows the gentle form of the queen of the world and comes before the terrible form who holds her own head, and tradition sees this as the movement of the sequence from rule to effort to sacrifice.
Some texts speak of several forms of Bhairavi, with names like Sampatprada Bhairavi, Kaulesha Bhairavi and Chaitanya Bhairavi, and the lists vary. Other texts treat Bhairavi as a name of the Goddess in a general sense, used for Durga in some regions. In the Kashi tradition she is named as the companion of Kalabhairava; the Kalabhairava Ashtakam is on this site.
What the form means
In the readings given by devotees, Bhairavi is the power that does the work of inner change. Where Kali is time and Tara is rescue, Bhairavi is the discipline that makes a person able to change. The red is the colour of the fire that tempers metal. A plain way to take the form is that it honours effort: not the gift that comes without work, but the force that comes from steady practice.
The tradition does not say that her worship is easy. It is understood that the path of the fire is demanding, and for this reason Tantric worship of Bhairavi is taught only through a teacher. We do not describe it.
Where she is worshipped
The Kamakhya complex in Assam has a shrine to Bhairavi among the Mahavidyas. There are Bhairavi shrines at several Shakta temples in Bengal, Odisha and the Himalaya, and at Kashi the goddess is worshipped alongside Kalabhairava. In some Shakti Peetha lists she is the goddess of a peetha, named as Bhairavi beside a Bhairava, as at several of the places that devotees count. We do not give visiting hours, fees or rules. Check each temple’s own site.
Festivals
Her jayanti is commonly given on the full moon of Margashirsha, though calendars differ and we give no date. The same day is Dattatreya Jayanti in many places, and a time of general worship of the Goddess. She is honoured in Navratri, in particular in the Tantric traditions that keep the nights as nights of the Mahavidyas; see the Sharad Navratri page and the Navratri day by day page. Maha Shivaratri is the great night of Shiva and his forms, and many Bhairava temples keep it; see the Maha Shivaratri page.
A hymn that suits the Goddess in her stern and caring side is the Devi Aparadha Kshamapana Stotram, in which a devotee admits his failings and asks his mother’s forgiveness.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Who is Bhairavi among the Mahavidyas?
Bhairavi, often called Tripura Bhairavi, is the fifth Mahavidya, a fierce goddess of fire and austerity. Her name is the feminine of Bhairava.
↳ What does Bhairavi hold?
In the commonly given image she holds a rosary and a book in two hands and makes gestures of fearlessness and giving with the other two. Some texts give other objects.
↳ Is Bhairavi the same as Tripura Bhairavi?
Many texts use the two names for the same fifth Mahavidya. A few treat Tripura Bhairavi as a related but separate form, so lists differ.
↳ What is a Bhairavi in the Tantric tradition?
In some lineages a woman teacher or practitioner is called a Bhairavi. The Bhairavi Brahmani who guided Ramakrishna is the best known example, and the word is separate from the goddess.
↳ When is Bhairavi Jayanti?
It is commonly given on the full moon of Margashirsha, but calendars differ. Check your own calendar or temple.