Śatākshī and Durgama Vadha (Devī Bhāgavata)

The Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells this narrative in the twenty-eighth chapter of the seventh Skanda. The daitya Durgama took all the Vedas out of the world by a vara (boon) from Brahmā. A drought and famine followed that lasted a hundred years. The brāhmaṇas in their suffering went to the Himālaya and did ārādhanā of Devī Mahāśakti with their whole hearts. She appeared with countless eyes and became known as Śatākshī. Her tears of compassion brought rain back to the dry earth. She gave vegetables and food to the starving and so received the name Śākambharī. Then she killed Durgama in battle, took back the Vedas and set the order of the worlds right again.

Durgama’s vara and the theft of the Vedas

Durgama was a daitya of the line of Hiraṇyāksha, a strong, wicked and utterly ruthless asura. He wanted to destroy the order of the worlds. He went to the Himālaya, lived on air alone, and did fierce tapas (austerity) aimed at Brahmā for a thousand years. The heat of his tapas troubled all the lokas and all the devas and asuras. Brahmā was pleased. He came to Durgama riding on his haṃsa (swan) and offered him a vara.

Durgama made two requests. First, that all the Vedas, wherever they lived among brāhmaṇas and devas in the three worlds, should come to him. Second, that he should receive the strength to defeat all the devas. Brahmā gave both varas and went back to Satyaloka.

The hundred-year catastrophe

From that day the brāhmaṇas all over the world forgot their Vedas completely. With the Vedas gone, the daily rites stopped: sandhyā (the twilight prayers), homa (fire offerings), śrāddha (offerings for the ancestors) and japa (repeating mantras). Without the homa offerings the devas no longer received their shares, and the rains stopped. For a hundred years not one drop of rain reached the earth. Rivers and lakes dried up. Fields split open. People and animals died in great numbers. Every house became a cremation ground.

Then Durgama attacked Amarāvatī. The devas could not stand against the power of his army. They all fled and hid in mountain caves, where they meditated in secret on Parāmbikā.

The brāhmaṇas do ārādhanā of Devī in the Himālaya

In their last need, the brāhmaṇas of the world turned their minds to Bhagavatī and went to the Himālaya. They gave up even food and water and surrendered themselves wholly to Devī Śivā-Parāmbikā. Their prayer was simple and pure. They had no strength left for long praise, and the pain of hunger and thirst left them hardly able to speak. They offered only their surrender. They asked Devī for her compassion and for the return of the Vedas.

Devī appears as Śatākshī

Devī was moved by their devotion. Devī Tribhuvaneśvarī, Mahāśakti, the great Pārvatī, appeared before the gathered brāhmaṇas with countless eyes (ananta-nētramu). Her form was dark as collyrium, and her eyes were like black lotuses. In her many hands she held a lotus, arrows, vegetables, sweet ripe fruits, flowers and tender leaves, all of them things that take away hunger and thirst. Her form shone with the light of ten million suns.

She saw the suffering of the world and was moved by compassion. From all her thousands of eyes she began to weep. Her tears fell as rain on the earth for nine nights without a break. It was a great downpour (kumbhavrishṭi). It filled the rivers, refilled the lakes, and made plants and crops spring up from the ground again. The starving devas, who had been hiding in the caves, came out when they saw the rain.

Because she looked on the world with countless eyes, the brāhmaṇas and devas gave her the name Śatākshī, “the Hundred-Eyed” or “the Thousand-Eyed”.

Śākambharī

While the rains fell, Devī took the vegetables, fruits and other food she held in her hands and gave them straight to the brāhmaṇas and the hungry. She fed them śāka (vegetables) in plenty, enough to keep them alive until the new crops were ready. Because she carried and gave śāka to the world in its time of need, she received the name Śākambharī, “She Who Bears Greens”.

The battle with Durgama

Durgama heard from his messengers that a great disturbance had come. Devī had appeared, rain had fallen, and his hold on the worlds was loosening. He armed himself, gathered a vast army of one thousand akshauhiṇīs, and marched out to meet Devī.

As Durgama’s army came on, Devī made an army of Śaktis that came out of her divine limbs. They included Kālikā, Tāriṇī, Bālā, Tripurā, Bhairavī, Ramā, Bagalā, Mātaṅgī, Tripurasundarī, Kāmākshī, Tuljādevī, Jambhinī, Mohinī, Chinnamastā, Guhyakālī, Daśasahasrabāhu and many others. First there were thirty-two more, then sixty-four more, and then countless Śaktis beyond number. This divine army destroyed Durgama’s whole force in ten days of fierce battle.

On the eleventh day Durgama himself came forward. He wore red garlands, was anointed with red sandal paste, and rode in his chariot. He and Devī fought face to face for two jāmas (about six hours). Then Devī let go fifteen terrible arrows, one after another with great exactness. Four arrows killed his four horses. One killed his charioteer. Two pierced his eyes. Two struck his shoulders. One destroyed his chariot flag. The last five pierced his heart. Durgama spat blood and fell dead at Devī’s feet. At the moment of his death, a divine shining tejas (radiance) came out of his body and merged into Devī.

Restoration and the names of glory

When Durgama fell, all the worlds rejoiced. Brahmā, Bhagavān Vishṇu and all the devas came forward and praised Devī in joyful stotras (hymns of praise). They called her Śākambharī, Śatākshī and Durgāghnasinī (the destroyer of Durgama), and bowed before her.

Devī was pleased with the devotion of the brāhmaṇas and the devas. She brought the Vedas out of Durgama’s keeping and gave them back to the brāhmaṇas with her own hands. She said: “These are like my own body. Guard them with care. Worship me always. And whoever chants my name Durgā, which I have received by killing Durgama, and the name Śatākshī, shall cross over māyā and reach the highest abode.” After speaking, and after making her presence known to all, she withdrew from sight before the gathered devas and brāhmaṇas.

Sources

• Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 7, Chapter 28