Bhaṇḍāsura
Bhaṇḍāsura was the great asura king of Śoṇitapura. His rule over the three worlds was so terrible that Lalitā Mahātripurasundarī appeared to end it. His story is told in the Lalitopākhyāna of the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa.
He came from the ashes of Manmatha (Kāmadeva), through an act of play (līlā) by Gaṇeśa. He performed deep tapas (austerity) and received a vara (boon) from Bhagavān Śiva. Śukrācārya made him king. He conquered all three worlds. At the end Lalitādevī destroyed him with the Mahāpāśupatāstra.
Origin: born from Manmatha’s ashes
The devas needed a commander to defeat the asura Tāraka. They persuaded Manmatha to disturb the deep tapas of Bhagavān Śiva. Manmatha shot his love-arrow at Śiva. At once the Third Eye of Śiva opened, and a jet of fire turned Manmatha into a heap of ashes.
The devas stood stunned, and the ash lay in piles. Bhagavān Gaṇeśa saw this and, in an act of divine play (līlā), gathered the ash and shaped it into the form of a human figure. By divine grace the figure began japa (the quiet repeating of a mantra). It recited the Śatarudrīya one hundred thousand times.
The power of this japa drew Bhagavān Śiva. He awakened. He was pleased with the figure’s devotion and gave it vara.
Brahmā suggested the name Bhaṇḍa. The name points to the figure’s origin from a pile or bundle (bhaṇḍa) of Manmatha’s ash. Manmatha was the deva of desire, and he had been burned away. So Bhaṇḍa took on a nature opposed to kāma (desire), to love and to the creative urge. This marked his reign of cosmic negation.
Kingship and the conquest of the worlds
Śukrācārya, the guru of the daityas, saw the great power of this being born from the ashes of the deva of desire. He declared Bhaṇḍa king of Śoṇitapura, the great city of the asuras. Bhaṇḍa had the vara of Śiva and the power of one born from Manmatha’s own substance, and he quickly came to rule the cosmos.
He conquered the three worlds one after another. The devas could not stand against his power. They were made to serve as his attendants and labourers.
Desire was put out of the world by Bhaṇḍa’s very existence, for he was the opposite of Manmatha. The creative processes of the universe began to fail. Beings could not bring forth young. Ascetics lost their tapas. Yajñas (fire rituals) bore no fruit. The cosmos was held in a frozen barrenness under his reign.
The summoning of Lalitā
Indra was humbled and powerless. He gathered the devas who were left and performed a mahāyajña (a great fire ritual) like none before. They offered their own flesh as āhuti (the offering into the fire). The honesty and desperation of this offering broke the deadlock.
From the sacrificial fire Lalitā Mahātripurasundarī appeared. She is the supreme Parāśakti. Her appearance showed that Bhaṇḍa’s rule was ending.
The great war and his destruction
Lalitādevī challenged Bhaṇḍāsura. He answered by calling up the full strength of his army. Battles of cosmic size broke out across the stages of the campaign. Bhaṇḍa used commanders and weapons of terrible power, among them the famous Pañca-tanu weapons and the forces of his thirty sons.
Lalitādevī’s commanders met and overcame each wave of his army. Among them were Daṇḍanātha-Vārāhī and Śyāmalā-Mātaṅgī.
When Bhaṇḍa used his last and greatest weapons, Lalitādevī brought forth counter-weapons from the Śrī Cakra itself. In the final clash she released the Mahāpāśupatāstra, the supreme astra of Bhagavān Parameśvara. In a single moment it destroyed Bhaṇḍāsura, his sons, his generals, his city of Śoṇitapura and the whole army of the daityas.
With Bhaṇḍa gone, the creative power of the universe came back. Manmatha was revived. Desire flowed again into the cosmos. The three worlds returned to their natural order, which sustains life.
Sources
- Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Lalitopākhyāna, Chapters 11–12 and 21–30
- Chapter 11: the origin of Bhaṇḍa from Manmatha’s ashes
- Chapters 11–12: his kingship and conquest
- Chapter 12: the appearance of Lalitā Mahātripurasundarī
- Chapters 21–30: the great war and his destruction