Shiva and Parvati merged into one body — the right half Shiva's ash-smeared form, the left half Parvati's golden skin — when Parvati embraced Shiva so tightly that no space remained between them, becoming Ardhanarishvara.
Bhringi, fanatically devoted to Shiva alone, tried to circumambulate only the male half of Ardhanarishvara by boring through the composite body as a worm — an insult to Parvati that cost him all flesh and blood, leaving a skeleton held upright only by Shiva's gift of a third leg.
Brahma, unable to populate the cosmos with only male beings, prayed to Shiva for a female creative principle — Shiva revealed the Ardhanarishvara form and then separated the goddess from his left side, granting Brahma the feminine power of creation.
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