Devāntaka’s Second War
Devāntaka’s brother Narāntaka had been killed. Devāntaka then made war on Kāśī to destroy Mahotkaṭa (Gaṇeśa in the Kṛta yuga). This is the last great war of the Kṛta yuga in the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa. It ends when Devāntaka breaks off one of Mahotkaṭa’s tusks, and Mahotkaṭa picks it up and kills Devāntaka with it at ushākāla (the first light before dawn). The Purāṇa tells it in Chapters 62–70 of the Krīḍā Khaṇḍa.
Devāntaka vows revenge
Narāntaka’s severed head fell into Raudraketu’s courtyard. Devāntaka saw the death of his elder brother, and his grief turned to rage. He vowed to march on Kāśī and with his own hand destroy Mahotkaṭa and the city that had killed his brother.
This was not blind anger. Devāntaka prepared step by step, and he added supernatural strength to his army. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 62)
The first campaign and the Ashṭasiddhi army
Devāntaka’s army surrounded Kāśī. Mahotkaṭa rode a lion, with Siddhi and Buddhi at his sides. He told Siddhi to make the Ashṭasiddhi army: eight warrior forms matching the eight siddhis (powers): Aṇimā, Mahimā, Garimā, Laghimā, Prāpti, Prākāmya, Īśitā and Vaśitā. These eight warrior-śaktis fought Devāntaka’s army in named combats. Many asuras fell. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 63)
Śukrācārya, the teacher of the asuras, was there. He used his Mṛtasañjīvanī knowledge to bring the fallen asuras back to life. In reply, the Ashṭasiddhi named Īśitā made a kṛtyā, a female spirit called up by tantra. She swallowed Śukrācārya whole and set him down in the land of the mlecchas (the foreign peoples). This took him off the battlefield.
Even so, Devāntaka entered the fight himself and overpowered the Ashṭasiddhis. Then Buddhi, the consort of Mahotkaṭa, used a special śakti-weapon that swallowed Devāntaka’s army into her womb. But Devāntaka himself slipped out and withdrew in shame. He saw that an ordinary battle would not defeat Mahotkaṭa. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 64–65)
The tāntric revival: Raudraketu’s yajña
Devāntaka told his father Raudraketu that he had been beaten. Raudraketu did not advise giving up. He turned to tantra. He gave Devāntaka Śiva’s Aghora mahāmantra, one of the strongest and most fearful of Śiva’s secret mantras. It belongs to the Aghora form of Śiva, which dissolves all differences, even the difference between life and death. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 66)
Raudraketu then carried out the rite. He made a five-preta āsana (a seat of five corpses, the tāntric throne of power). The offering was the flesh of the one for whom the rite was done. In the last act, the pūrṇāhuti (full offering), Raudraketu beheaded his own son Devāntaka and put his head into the sacred fire.
Śiva was pleased by this extreme act of tāntric devotion, in which a father offered his own son as the highest offering. He appeared and brought Devāntaka back to life, with new supernatural power. A divine black horse came out of the fire, and Devāntaka mounted it to return to the war.
The weapons of sleep and illusion
In the second part of the war, Devāntaka used weapons of another kind:
- Nidrāstra: the weapon of sleep. He aimed it at Mahotkaṭa’s army and all of them fell into deep sleep. The whole defending force of Kāśī lay unconscious.
- Gāndharvāstra: a weapon of illusion linked with the gandharvas. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 67)
Devāntaka also did abhicāra, a māraka prayoga (a rite of death magic). With offerings of human flesh he called a terrible śakti out of the fire and sent its force against Mahotkaṭa.
Kāśirāja woke Mahotkaṭa. Mahotkaṭa then broke the Gāndharvī māyā (illusion) with the Ghaṇṭāstra (the bell weapon) and the Khagāstra (the bird weapon). (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 68)
The māyā-Aditi
Raudraketu made one more move to shake Mahotkaṭa’s mind. He made a māyā-Aditi, a false likeness of Mahotkaṭa’s own mother Aditi, and put it in Devāntaka’s hand. The sight of his mother in the enemy’s power was meant to unsettle Mahotkaṭa and bring on doubt or grief in the middle of the battle.
An ākāśavāṇī, a divine voice from the sky, told Mahotkaṭa that the Aditi in Devāntaka’s hand was not real. Free of the distress, Mahotkaṭa could act with a clear mind. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 68)
The same voice told of the one weak point in Devāntaka’s protection. Śiva’s vara kept Devāntaka from being killed by any deva, human, animal, nāga or asura, and in day, night or the usual twilight times. But there was one moment that the vara did not name: ushākāla, the time before dawn, the first light before the day has begun. Only at that moment could Devāntaka be killed.
The tusk and Devāntaka’s death at dawn
Mahotkaṭa waited for dawn. At ushākāla, in the first grey light, he met Devāntaka in a last single combat.
In the heat of the fight, Devāntaka broke off one of Mahotkaṭa’s tusks. This was an act of great bodily force: the asura, fighting for his life, broke the tusk of the avatāra himself.
Mahotkaṭa did not hesitate. He reached down and picked up his own broken tusk, and with it he killed Devāntaka. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 69–70)
What looked like a loss, the loss of a tusk, became the weapon of victory. Gaṇeśa’s images show one whole tusk and one broken tusk.
Celebration and new names
When Devāntaka was dead, the devas celebrated with joy. The three worlds were freed from the last of the great asuras of the Kṛta yuga.
In honour of the victory, Mahotkaṭa was given three new names: Upendra, Dharaṇīdhara (“the bearer of the earth”) and Hṛshīkeśa, a name also used for Bhagavān Vishṇu. Kāśirāja embraced Mahotkaṭa, full of relief and devotion. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 70)
Sources
- Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 62–70 (Chapter 62: the vow; Chapter 63: the Ashṭasiddhi army; Chapters 64–65: the first campaign; Chapter 66: the Aghora mahāmantra and the yajña; Chapter 67: Nidrāstra and Gāndharvāstra; Chapter 68: Kāśirāja, the Ghaṇṭāstra, the Khagāstra and the māyā-Aditi; Chapters 69–70: the tusk, the death of Devāntaka and the new names)