Baghbhairav
The story of how the clay tiger made by shepherds came to life, ate the sheep, and became Baghbhairav.
Baghbhairav
Shepherds came every day to graze their sheep and goats in the open ground at the foot of Chandragiri in Kirtipur. One day, to pass the time, they amused themselves by kneading clay and making a beautiful idol of a tiger.
When the tiger's entire body had been made, there was no tongue left to put inside its mouth. The shepherds consulted among themselves and said to the clay tiger: "Tiger, we will go and find a suitable leaf from the forest for your tongue. Until then, look after these sheep and goats of ours well."
Taking the opportunity while the shepherds had gone off toward the forest, the very power of Bhairav awakened within that clay tiger, and it devoured all the sheep and goats in the open ground in a single gulp.
When the shepherds returned with the leaf and did not see their sheep and goats, they asked the tiger's idol. The tiger smiled gently and opened its mouth to show them, and its teeth and gums were smeared with blood.
Angered to see that it had eaten their sheep and goats, the shepherds cursed it: "May you, with your tongueless gaping mouth, remain forever fixed just like this!"
Because of the shepherds' curse, that tiger became forever a stone image with its tongueless mouth agape. Later that very stone came to be worshipped as the famous and powerful 'Baghbhairav' of Kirtipur.
Note: These are traditional Nepali folk tales (kimbadanti), passed down orally through generations. They may or may not reflect actual historical events, but they are told and believed as part of Nepal's cultural heritage.
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