Narakāsura Vadha (Bhāgavata Purāṇa)

Narakāsura, also called Bhaumāsura (son of Bhūmi), was a powerful asura who grew into a tyrant. He stole Varuṇa’s divine umbrella and the earrings of Aditi, and he took Maṇiparvata, the jewel-mountain that was the seat of the devas. Indra went to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa for help. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa rode Garuḍa to Narakāsura’s city Prāgjyotishapura with Satyabhāmā, broke its defences, killed the five-headed asura Mura and his seven sons, and then killed Narakāsura. He freed sixteen thousand one hundred captive princesses and married them. The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells this in its 10th Skanda, Chapter 59. The Vishṇu Purāṇa tells it in the Pañcamāṃśa, Chapter 29.

Narakāsura’s offences

Narakāsura was the son of Bhūdevī (the earth devī) and an asura of great power. He had done three great wrongs against the order of the worlds:

  1. He had stolen Varuṇa’s divine umbrella.
  2. He had taken the divine earrings of Aditi, the mother of the devas.
  3. He had seized Maṇiparvata, the jewel-mountain that was the seat of the devas.

Indra came to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa at Dvārakā and told him of these outrages. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa decided to march on Prāgjyotishapura, Narakāsura’s city that none could enter. He rode out on Garuḍa, with Satyabhāmā beside him.

The siege of Prāgjyotishapura

The city had strange defences. It had impassable mountains on every side, barriers of weapons set in networks, a deep moat of water, a ring of fire and a ring of wind. The five-headed asura Mura had strung ten thousand iron nooses around the edge of the city.

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa broke through them one by one:

  • He shattered the mountains with his gadā (mace).
  • He destroyed the barriers of weapons with his arrows.
  • He cut through the ring of fire, the ring of wind and the moat of water with the Sudarśana cakra (discus).
  • He cut Mura’s nooses with his sword.
  • He blew the Pāñcajanya conch, with a sound like the thunder of the pralaya (the dissolution of the worlds).

Mura, the five-headed asura

Mura had been sleeping in the moat. The terrible sound of the Pāñcajanya woke him. He rose blazing like the sun of the pralaya, holding a triśūla (trident), his five mouths open as if to swallow the three worlds. He was able to swallow Garuḍa.

Mura hurled his triśūla at Garuḍa. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa broke it in mid-air with two arrows and struck all five of Mura’s heads. Mura then threw his gadā, and Bhagavān Kṛshṇa smashed it to pieces with his own gadā. As Mura charged with raised arms, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa spun the Sudarśana cakra and cut off all five heads at once. Mura fell into the water like a mountain peak cut down by Indra’s vajra (thunderbolt).

Mura had seven sons: Tāmra, Antarīksha, Śravaṇa, Vibhāvasu, Vasu, Nabhasvanta and Aruṇa. They took up the fight with their general Pīṭha. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa destroyed all of them with his arrows.

Narakāsura’s death

Narakāsura rode out at the head of his surviving elephants to face Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. He fired a machine-weapon at him, and his soldiers attacked from all sides at once. Garuḍa drove back the war-elephants with his wings, beak and claws.

Narakāsura raised a śūla (spear) to strike. Before he could throw it, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa cut off his head with the razor-sharp Sudarśana cakra. The blazing head, set with jewels, fell and lit up the ground. The rākshasas wailed. The devas and the great ṛshis cheered and showered flowers.

Bhūdevī’s stotra and the return of the jewels

Bhūdevī, the earth devī and mother of Narakāsura, came before Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. She brought the stolen jewels: Aditi’s earrings, the Vaijayantī garland made of eight kinds of jewels, a garland of forest flowers, and Varuṇa’s divine umbrella. She bowed to the ground and sang a stotra (hymn of praise):

“You carry the conch, the cakra and the gadā. Your devotees decide the form of your avatāra. To you, from whose navel the lotus arose, whose eyes and feet are like lotuses and whose feet bear the lotus mark, we bow. You are Vāsudeva, the son of Vasudeva, Pūrṇa Brahma come down. You are cause and effect, the five elements and the three guṇas, and yet you are beyond them all.”

She then placed Narakāsura’s young son Bhagadatta before Bhagavān Kṛshṇa as one who seeks shelter. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa gave him abhaya (freedom from fear) and made him king.

The 16,100 princesses

In Narakāsura’s treasury Bhagavān Kṛshṇa found sixteen thousand one hundred royal daughters. They had been taken by force from many kingdoms. When they saw Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, they at once set their hearts on him as the husband fixed for them by destiny.

He sent them to Dvārakā in palanquins, with great treasures, chariots, horses and sixty-four white four-tusked elephants of the line of Airāvata.

At Dvārakā, by the power of Yogamāyā, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa took sixteen thousand one hundred separate forms at the same time. He married each woman in her own palace, with the proper Vedic rites, and lived with each as a true householder. The Bhāgavata says these women were partial forms of Lakshmī herself.

Aditi’s earrings and the Pārijāta tree

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and Satyabhāmā flew on Garuḍa to svarga and gave Aditi’s earrings back to her in person. Indra and Śacī honoured them with fitting pūjā.

Then, because Satyabhāmā asked for it, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa pulled up the Pārijāta tree from Nandana-vana and set it on Garuḍa. Indra objected, and a battle followed. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa defeated Indra’s forces and brought the Pārijāta to Dvārakā. It was planted beside Satyabhāmā’s palace, where it filled the air with its scent and drew bees from svarga itself.

The Bhāgavata points out that Indra had just been helped by Bhagavān Kṛshṇa in the killing of Narakāsura, and yet he turned against him over the tree. It calls this the self-centredness of the devas and the blindness that pride brings.

The Vishṇu Purāṇa account

The Vishṇu Purāṇa tells the killing of Narakāsura in the Pañcamāṃśa, Chapter 29, with its own emphasis.

Mura’s part. The Vishṇu Purāṇa gives special attention to Mura, the five-headed asura who was Narakāsura’s chief guard and stood between Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and Prāgjyotishapura. It describes him as an asura of extraordinary power. His five heads stand for five kinds of asura force, and he had strung ten thousand iron nooses around the city as its first line of defence. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa destroyed Mura before he faced Narakāsura. The Vishṇu Purāṇa presents this as a deliberate order: first clear the guard, then deal with the chief.

Bhūmādevī’s stotra. After Narakāsura’s death, Bhūmādevī came before Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. The Vishṇu Purāṇa records her stotra as one of the richest passages of the Pañcamāṃśa. She said that her son, born of her union with Varāha (the third avatāra of Bhagavān Vishṇu), had been given great powers and had in the end misused them. She did not plead for his life, which was already ended. She offered thanks instead: “You gave him birth through me in the Varāha avatāra. You have now taken him back through the Kṛshṇa avatāra. Both acts were yours. I was the instrument of both. May I always be your instrument.” She then gave back the earrings of Aditi, Varuṇa’s umbrella and the great Vaijayantī garland. She asked Bhagavān Kṛshṇa to bless Narakāsura’s son Bhagadatta, who was made king in his father’s place.

Kṛshṇa and Satyabhāmā on Garuḍa. The Vishṇu Purāṇa records that Satyabhāmā rode with Bhagavān Kṛshṇa on Garuḍa through the whole battle. She watched, encouraged him, and played her own part as the śakti (power) without whom the power of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa could not be fully shown in the battle.

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 59
  • Vishṇu Purāṇa, Pañcamāṃśa, Chapter 29