Andhakāsura Vadha and the Mātṛkās

This narrative is from Chapter 178 of the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa. It tells how Andhakāsura came to the Mahākālavana to carry off Pārvatī, how Bhagavān Śiva fought him, and how new Andhakas rose from every drop of his blood. Bhagavān Śiva created 189 Raudra-mātṛkās to drink the blood, and Bhagavān Vishṇu added his own protectors. Then Bhagavān Śiva impaled Andhaka on his trident, purified him and made him a gaṇa (a member of Bhagavān Śiva’s own company). After this, Bhagavān Śiva took the form of Bhairava, and the Saptamātṛkās were set up at the Rudra-sthāna.

The setting: Mahākālavana near Ujjayinī

The episode takes place in the Mahākālavana, the great forest of Mahākāla near Ujjayinī, where the Śivaliṅga of Mahākāleśvara presides. Pārvatī was there with her attendants. Andhakāsura was full of desire for Pārvatī. This longing had ruled him since he met her many forms on Mandara mountain. He came to Mahākālavana meaning to carry her off by force.

The battle and the blood

Bhagavān Śiva fought Andhaka to protect Pārvatī. The fight was fierce and long. The trouble was not Andhaka’s strength, for Bhagavān Śiva’s power was far greater. The trouble was that every drop of Andhaka’s blood that fell on the earth produced a whole new Andhaka, fully armed and just as strong. Each blow Bhagavān Śiva struck made the blood fall from the wound and give birth to a dozen or a hundred new Andhakas. The battlefield was in danger of filling with an endless army of Andhakas, each one as angry and as hungry for blood as the first.

Force alone could not end this. Every blow only made more enemies.

Bhagavān Śiva creates the 189 Raudra-mātṛkās

To meet this, Bhagavān Śiva created one hundred and eighty-nine Raudra-mātṛkās. They were fierce śaktis (powers) born from his own anger and strength. He made them to drink every drop of Andhaka’s blood before it could reach the earth and give birth to new beings. The Mātṛkās were fearful in form and blazed with Bhagavān Śiva’s own tejas (radiance). They moved across the battlefield and drank each drop of blood as it fell.

In this account the number is 189. These Raudra-mātṛkās are not the same as the Saptamātṛkās who are set up later in the same narrative. They are the direct forms of Bhagavān Śiva’s fierce, protecting anger at this moment.

Bhagavān Vishṇu’s part: Śushka-Revatī and the Nārasiṃha-mātṛkās

Bhagavān Vishṇu also joined the battle and added protectors of his own.

• He created Śushka-Revatī, a fierce śakti whose work was to dry up and destroy whatever Andhaka’s blood might still bring forth.
• From the parts and energies of his own body, Bhagavān Vishṇu produced thirty-six mātṛkās of the Nārasiṃha form. These were fierce lion-faced women. They were thirty-six more protecting śaktis beside Bhagavān Śiva’s one hundred and eighty-nine.

Together, these Mātṛkās, born of Bhagavān Śiva’s anger and Bhagavān Vishṇu’s power, made sure that no drop of Andhaka’s blood reached the earth to bring forth new enemies.

Andhaka is impaled and purified

With the problem of the blood solved by the Mātṛkās, Bhagavān Śiva could end the battle. He raised his trident, the triśūla, and impaled Andhaka on it. Held high on the trident, Andhaka could not die, and his life stayed in him for a long time in that state. In it he was purified.

The burning of Bhagavān Śiva’s trident through him, the fire of his own purified blood, and his nearness to Bhagavān Śiva removed the avidyā (ignorance) and the all-consuming desire that had ruled his whole life. Andhaka’s name means “blind one”. He had never been able to see the divine truth before him, even when Prahlāda warned him. Now at last he was made to see clearly.

After this long ordeal of purification, Bhagavān Śiva drew out the trident and raised Andhaka to the rank of a gaṇa, one of his own company. The former enemy became a devotee and servant.

The form of Bhairava

After the great battle and Andhaka’s purification, Bhagavān Śiva appeared in his Bhairava form. Bhairava is the fearful guardian of tīrthas (holy places) and of sacred kshetras. His terrible look and his eight forms, the Ashṭa-Bhairavas, are linked with this episode, in which an enemy who threatened the holiness of the sacred place was destroyed.

In Vārāṇasī (Kāśī), Kālabhairava presides as the kshetrapāla, the guardian of the sacred place.

The Saptamātṛkās are set up

The Saptamātṛkās, the seven divine mothers, were set up at the Rudra-sthāna, the place where Rudra appeared, as the lasting guardians of the kshetra.

The Varāha Purāṇa (Chapter 27) also tells of the Mātṛkās in the Andhaka battle. It says they arose from the body-energies of the devas and Bhagavān Śiva, in a slightly different form of telling. Both texts tell that the Andhaka episode is the origin of the Mātṛkās.

Sources

• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 178
• Varāha Purāṇa, Chapter 27