Dakasha was a powerful god, had a daughter named Sati. Sati wanted to marry Shiva, but her father was against it. However, Sati went on against her fathers wishes to marry Shiva, and eventually, Dakasha harboured a deep hatred for him.

One day, Dakasha was sacrificing a holy horse to Vishnu, and had invited all the gods to the ceremony except Shiva. Sati was angry, and she decided to go to the sacrifice because it was held in her house after all. Before she went, she consulted her husband, Shiva, who cautioned her that her father would insult him, and told her not to take revenge on anyone, and to be careful of her anger.

With this, Sita left for the ceremony, and true enough, like Shiva had said, Dakasha started hurling insults at Shiva once Sita entered the hall. At first, Sita managed to remain calm and composed, taking the insults with a pinch of salt, but as the insults got worse and worse, Sita finally was unable to tolerate it anymore, and grew mad at her father. However, she had remembered Shiva's words to not take revenge on anyone. When she was at the point of exploding, she disowned her father, and killed herself by burning herself in the sacrificial fire.

When Shiva learnt of his beloved wife's demise, he was very angry, and he created a demon who destroyed the ceremony along with everyone who had attended it. Vishnu was appalled and requested Shiva to bring them back to life, but Shiva refused only until after much persuasion, then did Shiva finally relent. When Dakasha was brought back to life, he was terrified, and he gave in to Shiva, telling him that he was a greater god than he was. To mark his foolishness, Shiva made him wear a goat's head forever. After this, Shiva went into meditation, to wait for his wife to be reincarnated as Parvati.

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