Physically he said to have a dark complexion like that of a thundercloud. The animal associated with Bhairava is the dog (he is shown here riding one). The dog in India is regarded as impure because it survives by scavenging, just like a vulture or jackal. Also it will feed on a human corpse if the dead are not protected before the funeral rites are accomplished. But this strange representation of Shiva is perfectly graspable once we partake of its true nature. The Shiva Purana says that this repugnant image of Shiva is a reminder of the fact that in this aspect the god swallows the ugly sins of his devotees, just as he had swallowed the poison at the time of the churning of the ocean. The paradoxical doctrine of seeing beauty in a repulsive form is crisply elaborated in the Mahimnastava as "dushanam api bhushanam," i.e. ugliness itself is enhancing, as in a divine being who absorbs the world's poison in the form of the sins of his worshippers.
Here the three-eyed Bhairava sits in a triumphant posture on his dog, whose bared fangs and blood soaked elongated tongue point to the gruesome nature of this deity. The painted area is bounded on the four sides by a composite border, consisting of a layer of OM followed by a river of blood. Another layer of OM finally signals the beginning of the actual subject.
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