Mahishāsura Vadha (Devī Bhāgavata Purāṇa)

The Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells how Mahishāsura was defeated, in Skanda 5, Chapters 2 to 20. In it, Mahishāsura is born of the daitya Rambha and a she-buffalo. Raktabīja is born from the same fire. Bhagavān Vishṇu and Bhagavān Śiva both fail against Mahishāsura in battle. Then Devī Mahālakshmī is made from the joined teja (radiance) of all the devas and slays him with the Sunābha cakra, a divine wheel of a thousand spokes. The account ends with a long stotra from the devas to the Devī and with the rule of King Śatrughna.

Mahishāsura’s birth

The daitya Rambha fell in love with a she-buffalo (mahishī) and had offspring by her. Rambha was then killed. His mahishī, struck with grief, entered the funeral fire with him, which is called sahagamana (going with her husband). From that fire two mighty beings were born. One was Mahishāsura, the buffalo asura. The other was Raktabīja, the blood-born warrior, each drop of whose blood could make a new warrior. Mahishāsura could change at will between a human form and a buffalo form.

The vara and the conquest of the world

Mahishāsura did fierce tapas (austerity) and received a vara (a boon) from Brahmā: that no man, no animal and no bird could kill him. He thought women powerless and did not ask to be safe from them. Proud of the vara, he raised huge armies and conquered all three worlds. His generals were strong. Among them were Cakshura, Biḍāla, Tāmra, Asiloma, Durmukha and Durdhara. The lokapālas (guardians of the directions) lost their duties and their homes and wandered the earth in distress.

Even Bhagavān Vishṇu, riding on Garuḍa and bearing all his weapons, was struck down senseless in battle by Mahishāsura’s attack. Bhagavān Śiva too failed to overcome the asura. The conflict now needed a power greater than any single deva: the joined teja of all creation.

Devī rises from the joined teja

The devas had used up all their own means. They went first to the assembly of Brahmā, then to Kailāsa, then to Vaikuṇṭha. Bhagavān Vishṇu saw how grave the matter was and gave a plan. All the devas should send out their divine teja together and let it join. As the bright light of each deva poured out, it merged into one blazing form. From this union of all divine powers, Devī Mahālakshmī appeared.

She had eighteen arms. In her form were all three guṇas (sattva, rajas and tamas) and all three varṇas together. Each deva then gave her his strongest weapon and his own power. Bhagavān Śiva gave his triśūla (trident). Bhagavān Vishṇu gave his cakra and śaṅkha. Indra gave his vajra (thunderbolt), Yama his daṇḍa (staff), Varuṇa his pāśa (noose), and Agni his śakti (spear), and so on. The vehicles of the devas gave their strength. The armourers of the devas made weapons to suit each of her eighteen arms. So the Devī came forth fully armed, one being who held the joined strength of all creation.

Mahishāsura tries to win the Devī

Mahishāsura’s spies told him of the Devī’s matchless beauty and power. He did not attack at once. He first tried to win her as his wife. He sent envoys to ask for her hand, and they boasted of his conquest of the three worlds and of his safety from harm. Each time, the Devī refused calmly. She would take as husband only the one who could beat her in open battle.

Mahishāsura asked his ministers. Some advised him to retreat, some to talk, some to attack with the whole army. Several generals, Bashkala, Durmukha, Tāmra, Cikshura, Asiloma and Biḍāla, were sent against the Devī in the first fights, and all were killed.

Then Mahishāsura himself came in human form to woo the Devī. He made a long speech on the kinds of joy and on how love is better than war. He told the story of Maṇḍodarī. She was a woman who had proudly turned away a worthy suitor, was sorry for it afterward, and in the end took an unworthy one. He said the Devī was making the same mistake. The Devī answered him just as plainly: go to Pātāla, or fight. There was no third way.

The battle in many forms

When the last battle began, Mahishāsura showed that he could change shape. He fought in one form after another.

Human form. He traded arrows with the Devī. She struck him with her gadā (mace), and for a time he lay senseless.
Lion form. He fought with claws against the Devī’s lion. The Devī answered with arrows.
Elephant form. He threw mountain peaks at the Devī, and she broke them to pieces with arrows.
Śarabha form. In the form of the eight-legged beast Śarabha, he fought the Devī, who used a sword. Blows were traded.
Buffalo form (the last). He charged with his horns, lashed the ground with his tail to hurl mountains, and mocked the Devī with a speech saying her defeat was near.

Through all these changes the Devī stayed calm. After Mahishāsura’s last taunt, she drank madhu (divine wine) from a golden cup, laughed, and said his end had come.

The death blow

The Devī took up the Sunābha, a divine cakra of a thousand spokes, and spoke to Mahishāsura.

“Wait but a moment, you blinded one. This cakra will cut your throat and send you to the realm of Yama.”

She hurled it, and Mahishāsura’s head was cut off at once. From the mountainside where he fell, rivers of hot blood began to flow. His headless body staggered and fell to the ground. The surviving dānavas saw the fall of their king and fled in terror to Pātāla.

In the sky, the devas, siddhas, gandharvas, kinnaras, cāraṇas and ṛshis who had been watching burst into joy. Flowers rained down and divine drums thundered.

The devas’ stotra and the Devī’s blessing

The devas then came to the Devī with a deep stotra of praise. Its main teachings are these.

All work of making, keeping and dissolving is the work of the Devī alone. Brahmā, Vishṇu and Śiva are her instruments and not independent doers.
The Devī is in all twenty-four tattvas (principles) and in every form of śakti in creation.
Even those who honour Hari and Hara, but do not know the Devī as the highest source, are not yet whole.
The devas themselves are honoured by humans, but the devas depend on the śakti of the Devī, so it is the Devī who in the end receives all honour.
She gives even the asuras killed in battle a place in svarga. Her grace reaches all.

The Devī, pleased with the praise, said to the devas:

“Whenever you meet a difficulty you cannot overcome, remember me, and I will take your troubles away.”

Then she went out of sight to Maṇidvīpa.

Dharma restored

After the Devī had gone, the devas made Śatrughna, a king of the solar line of Ayodhyā, the ruler of Mahishāsura’s former kingdom. With a righteous king on the throne, dharma came back to the earth. Rain fell in its season, crops were plentiful, cows gave much milk, and the rivers ran clear and calm. All four varṇas returned to their own dharmas. Wives were faithful, sons were dutiful to their fathers, and the earth was free of thieves, of those who deny the Veda, and of cheats. The people, living by the Devī’s grace and by the example set by Chāmuṇḍā (Kālikā), lived in health, plenty and devotion.

The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa account

The Devī Māhātmya in the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapters 82–83, also tells of the Devī and Mahishāsura. In that text:

The birth of Mahishāsura is not given.
Raktabīja appears only in the episode of Śumbha and Niśumbha.
Fury flows out of Vishṇu and Śiva and forms the Devī.
The Devī has eighteen arms.
The Devī kills Mahishāsura with the śūla (trident). She pins him as he comes out of the buffalo and pierces him.
No king is named after the battle.

Sources

Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 5, Chapters 2–20
Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 5, Chapter 2 (Mahishāsura’s birth)
Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 5, Chapters 3–7 (the vara and the conquest)
Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 5, Chapter 8 (the Devī from the joined teja)
Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 5, Chapters 9–17 (the wooing and the early fights)
Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 5, Chapter 18 (the battle and the death blow)
Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 5, Chapter 19 (the stotra)
Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 5, Chapter 20 (dharma restored)
Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa (Devī Māhātmya), Chapters 82–83