When
Shiva was not invited to
Daksha's yajna, his wife,
Sati, was swept by sorrow. Observing the unease of his wife, Shiva's third eye issued a drop of sweat, and a fearful creature emerged out of the sweat, gleaming like a flame. The creature was dwarfish, with penetrating eyes, donning a green moustache, with hair standing erect on his head and body, looking like hybrid of a hawk and an owl, jet-black in hue, and was dressed in a blood-coloured cloth. He named the creature Jvara, and the creature proceeded to cause a fever to all the
devas. Once,
Vishnu was inflicted with the fever of Jvarasura, when in the form of
Hayagriva. He then killed the fever-demon by cutting him into three pieces using his discus, the
Sudarshana Chakra. However, Jvarasura was later revived by
Brahma, who joined the three parts. But, by that time, each three parts had grown a head and a limb. Thus, Jvarasura is depicted as having three faces, three feet, and remarkable ability to move in all directions at once. He was later selected as servant of the pox-goddess,
Shitala.
Cult The cult of Shitala-Jvarasura is widely popular in
Bengali culture. Incidentally, in
Bengali,
Oriya,
Kannada and
Hindi languages, fever is referred to as
Jvara. and
Asura means demon. The name Jvarasura is combination of these two words -
Jvara (meaning fever) and
Asura (meaning demon) - Jvarasura. Thus, Jvarasura means the demon of fever. Jvarasura is disguised as a young servant.
Shitala, Jvarasura is widely worshipped by village folk in whole of North India, as a protector of pox and fever diseases. ==Buddhism==