Other People's Stories: Haribhadra and the Decapitation of Brahma

This is paper explores the relevance of Jain sources for an understanding of the development of Saiva myths. It proposes that Haribhadra's Dhurtakhyana offers the earliest version of the popular story of Siva decapitating Brahma. Comparing the version in the Dhurtakhyana with those in two early Saiva sources, the early Skanda Purana and the Brahmayamalatantra, the paper seeks to understand the role of Visnu in the story and the development of the myth as a sectarian Saiva story. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009.