Bāṇāsura Tripura Dahana

Bāṇāsura was the powerful son of Bali Mahārāja. Chapters 186 and 187 of the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa tell how Bhagavān Śiva burned the city that Bāṇa had built in the sky. This episode sits inside the Narmadā Māhātmya and explains how the Jvāleśvara tīrtha (pilgrimage place) on the Narmadā began.

Two Tripura episodes in the Matsya Purāṇa

The Matsya Purāṇa has two Tripura episodes.

  1. Tripura of Tārakāksha, Vidyunmāli and Kamalāksha (Chapters 127 to 139). Maya the builder made three cities for the sons of Tārakāsura. Bhagavān Śiva destroyed them after Nārada visited the city.
  2. Tripura of Bāṇāsura (Chapters 186 and 187). This is a separate flying city of Bāṇāsura on the bank of the Narmadā. Bāṇa receives grace and a lasting life, and the Jvāleśvara tīrtha is established.

The second episode is told below.

Bāṇāsura’s Tripura

Bāṇāsura had won great power through his tapas (austerity) to Bhagavān Śiva. With that power he built a flying city of three tiers that moved through the sky, held up by his tejas (radiance). It was more than a fortress. Its men shone like devas, its women matched the apsarases in beauty and spiritual light, and the shared devotion of its people kept the city in the air.

The Tripura stood on the bank of the Narmadā, in or near the Amarakaṇṭaka region where the river begins its westward journey.

Nārada’s visit

Nārada visited the Tripura and spoke with its women, the wives and daughters of Bāṇa’s courtiers. He taught them about dharma, vratas (vows) and the arts of devotion. This turned the women away from the particular devotion that held the city in the sky. When the women’s tejas and shared will were turned, a dosha (a spiritual fault) opened in the city’s armour.

The men of the Tripura stayed as devoted as before. But the power of a city needs all its people together, and the change in the women’s devotion made a break that could not be mended.

Bāṇāsura’s Toṭaka stotra

Bāṇāsura understood what was coming: the end of his city and the will of Bhagavān Śiva in it. He made a stotra (hymn of praise) to Bhagavān Śiva in the Toṭaka metre, a quick, flowing metre. It begins:

O Śiva, Śaṃkara, cause of all good, I bow to you.
O Bhava, Maheśvara, most terrible in all creation, I bow to you.
O destroyer of the body of Manmatha, O Tripurāntaka, I bow to you.
O you who bear the crescent moon on your head, I bow to you.

In the stotra Bāṇa owned up to:

  • his hold on para-dhana (the wealth of others), para-dāra (the wives of others) and parābhava (the defeat of rivals);
  • his pride (mada) and his confusion (moha) about power that does not last;
  • his knowledge that all the wealth, women and power of the Tripura were in the end empty.

He asked:

  • that Bhagavān Śiva cut the bonds of mada and moha;
  • that Bhagavān Śiva lift him out of the ocean of saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death);
  • that he, his sons, his grandsons, his wives and his kinsfolk might always remember Bhagavān Śiva.

Bhagavān Śiva burns the Tripura

Bhagavān Śiva came to the bank of the Narmadā when the conditions of the cosmos were right. The Matsya Purāṇa describes the burning briefly. At the exact moment when the three tiers stood in line, he let go the arrow. The cosmic fire burned the Tripura. The women had already lost their shared tejas and could not resist. The city that had floated in the sky by spiritual power fell when that power was gone. Smoke filled the streets, palaces fell, and the burning city came down toward the earth.

Bāṇa’s surrender and the vara

Bāṇāsura watched his city fall and did not give way to grief, for his stotra had already loosened his hold on it. He took the Śiva-liṅga he had worshipped, put it on his head and walked out of the city gate alone, leaving behind all his wealth and his court.

He set up the liṅga near the ruins and gave himself fully to Bhagavān Śiva.

Bhagavān Śiva was moved and came before Bāṇa. He gave his grace: “Child, do not fear. Stay here with your sons, grandsons, wives and kinsfolk. From this day you will be akshaya (without decay), avyaya (without change) and nirbhaya (without fear). Even the devas will not be able to kill you.”

So Bāṇāsura, who began as a king proud of his city in the sky, ended as a devotee made lasting by the direct grace of Bhagavān Śiva.

The Jvāleśvara tīrtha

The burning city fell on the bank of the Narmadā. The great flames that had burned the Tripura rose into the sky, and devas, asuras and kinnaras cried out in wonder. At the will of Bhagavān Śiva the flames were held still (stambhita) at the spot where the city came to rest.

At that spot Bhagavān Śiva set up the Jvāleśvara liṅga, the īśvara (ruler) of the jvāla (flame). This liṅga, born of the cosmic fire of the Tripura, became one of the chief tīrthas of the Narmadā.

At Jvāleśvara:

  • those who die there are freed from rebirth;
  • a pilgrim who comes during an eclipse (grahaṇa) receives the reward of ten aśvamedha yajñas (horse sacrifices);
  • during a solar eclipse all tīrthas and devas gather at this spot.

The Padma Purāṇa account

The Padma Mahā Purāṇa, in its Svarga Khaṇḍa, Chapters 14 and 15, tells of Bāṇāsura’s Tripura as well. In that account:

  • Nārada teaches the gift of a cow made of sesame (tila-dhenu-dāna) and the keeping of the tithis (lunar days).
  • Bāṇa’s stotra is in the Toṭaka metre and has similar content.
  • The cosmic chariot is described in detail, with the whole universe as the chariot.
  • One city falls at Śrīśaila and one at Amarakaṇṭaka.
  • Bāṇa’s wife is named Anaupaymā.
  • The Jvāleśvara tīrtha is on the Amarakaṇṭaka mountain.

Sources

  • Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 186 (the Tripura, Nārada’s visit, Bāṇa’s stotra)
  • Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 187 (the burning, Bāṇa’s surrender and vara, Jvāleśvara)
  • Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 127 to 139 (the other Tripura, of Tārakāksha, Vidyunmāli and Kamalāksha)
  • Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Svarga Khaṇḍa, Chapters 14 and 15