Tārakāmaya Yuddha (Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa)

The Tārakāmaya war was the best known war of the devas and asuras in Satyayuga. It came after the death of the asura Vṛtra. It began when Candra, the Moon, carried off Tārā, the wife of Bṛhaspati, the teacher of the devas. The three worlds split into two sides. Asuras led by Maya and Tārakāsura, with Śukrācārya, fought the devas led by Indra and Bhagavān Vishṇu. The war ended when the huge asura Kālanemi took control of the whole cosmos and Bhagavān Vishṇu slew him with the Sudarśana Cakra.

The Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa also tells, inside this account, of Aurva’s fire-son and of the birth of Budha from Candra and Tārā.

Candra’s pride and the carrying off of Tārā

The war began with the pride of Candra. He had performed a great Rājasūya yajña (fire ritual). The ṛshis Atri, Bhṛgu and Vasishṭha, Brahmā, and Bhagavān Vishṇu himself took part in it. The three worlds honoured Candra with rich gifts. He became drunk with the power of his rule, and his mind left the path of dharma.

On the advice of Aṅgiras, Candra carried off Tārā, the wife of Bṛhaspati. The devas and the brahmarshis begged Candra to give Tārā back, but he refused. Bṛhaspati, burning with just anger, stood before Candra, yet Candra would not give way.

The two sides form

Because Candra would not free Tārā, the three worlds divided.

• On the side of the devas: Bṛhaspati joined with Rudra. Rudra strung his Ājagava bow and stood firm for Bṛhaspati. Rudra was also a disciple of Aṅgiras, and so he took Bṛhaspati’s side.
• On the side of the asuras: Śukrācārya was also a disciple of Aṅgiras. He took the side of Candra and gave the asuras his support.

The war that followed was terrible, and the armies on both sides were broken. The surviving deva warriors who had stood with Candra fled to Brahmā and gave themselves up to him. Brahmā stepped in. He made Śukrācārya and Rudra lay down their arms, and he made Candra give Tārā back to Bṛhaspati.

The birth of Budha

When Tārā came back, she was found to be with child. Bṛhaspati blamed her: “You are my wife. You should not carry another’s child.” Tārā was full of shame. She gave birth in silence in a grove of reeds. The glow of the newborn child amazed all the devas and ṛshis. They pressed Tārā: “Is this child the son of Candra or of Bṛhaspati?” Tārā stayed silent out of fear. Even the infant got ready to curse (śāpa) his mother for her silence. Brahmā himself ordered her to speak the truth. At last Tārā said softly: “This child is Candra’s son.”

Candra took the shining child on his lap and named him Budha. Budha always rises in the direction opposite to the Sun. He later became the husband of Ilā, the daughter of Svāyambhuva Manu, and he became the father of Purūravas. From Purūravas the whole Candravaṃśa (the Moon’s line) comes.

After these events Candra fell ill with the wasting disease called kshaya. His father, Atri Maharshi, cured him, and his glow came back.

Bhagavān Vishṇu appears amid terrible signs

The Tārakāmaya war proper began after the death of the asura Vṛtra. The whole host of rākshasas, drunk with the fury of war, turned on the devas, gandharvas, yakshas and nāgas alike and drove them from the field. The beaten devas ran to Bhagavān Vishṇu for refuge.

At that moment the whole cosmos showed its pain. Clouds rained burning coals. Darkness shut in the sky. Seven winds crashed against each other with great force. Lightning and comets fell. Boiling water poured from the sky. Flying vimānas (celestial vehicles) plunged up and down. Every direction was swallowed in blackness. It seemed that creation itself was coming to its end.

Then Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared before the devas. His dark body cut through the darkness with its own splendour. He wore pure yellow silk (pītāmbara) and golden ornaments. He carried the Nandaka sword, the śaṅkha (conch), the cakra (discus) and the gadā (mace). His divine chariot was high in the air, with Garuḍa on its banner. When the devas and ṛshis saw him, the giver of fearlessness (Abhaya-dāta), they shouted joyfully: jaya, jaya (victory, victory). The darkness broke. The clouds melted. A gentle wind rose. The Sun and the Moon shone clear again.

The asura armies gather

The dānava and daitya commanders heard that Bhagavān Vishṇu had promised the devas his protection. They gathered their armies with great energy.

• Maya, the master builder of the asuras, took the field in a huge golden chariot. It was twelve hundred arms wide, covered with the skins of great cats and blazing with gems.
• Tārakāsura himself rode in a broad battle car.
• Virocana carried his gadā.
• The asura Hayagrīva drove a chariot pulled by a thousand horses.
• Varāha the rākshasa and Khara advanced at the front of the rākshasa host, with their weapons flashing and their war-cries roaring.

The deva armies took their places under Sahasrāksha Indra, who rode Airāvata. Yama stood to the south, Varuṇa to the west and Kubera to the north. Sūrya moved through the deva host on his chariot. Bṛhaspati blessed the army of the devas, and Śukrācārya blessed the army of the asuras.

The battle: Maya’s māyā and the answers to it

The war was terrible. The asuras struck with iron clubs (parīghas) and hurled mountain peaks, and the deva host was beaten and bleeding. Maya made a darkness by māyā (magic power) that froze the deva ranks. Indra answered with his Tāmasa weapon (Tāmasa-astra) and filled the field with unnatural darkness. Under that cover the devas rallied and struck the asuras down in heaps.

Maya then drove away Indra’s darkness with a māyā of his own, and the fallen asuras rose again. His mountain-like weapons of māyā threatened to wipe out the devas altogether. Then Bhagavān Vishṇu gave orders to Agni and Vāyu. Together they swept through the asura ranks like the fires of the end of the world. They burned the asuras’ vimānas, overturned their formations, and reduced the mountain māyā to nothing.

The fire of Aurva

In the same account of the war, Varuṇa tells Indra about the brahmarshi Urva, also called Aurva. Aurva had done such fierce tapas (austerity) that all creation was scorched. The ṛshis urged him to have children and keep his line going. Aurva refused. He said that the true dharma for those who live in the forest is celibacy and renunciation. Then, by Brahmā’s grace, Aurva brought forth from his own body a fire, a son blazing like the fires of dissolution. Brahmā declared that this fire-child would live in the ocean with the face of a horse, as Baḍavāgni, and would consume everything at the time of pralaya (the dissolution of the world).

Hiraṇyakaśipu saw this wonder. He bowed down before Aurva and received from him a māyā born of fire. No other fire could touch it. It would protect his kin and destroy his enemies. Varuṇa then told Indra that this asura māyā could be stopped by water-born Candra with the help of the creatures of the sea. Candra agreed and rained down hailstorms, while Varuṇa let loose his pāśas (nooses). The asuras were frozen and helpless, and they fell.

Kālanemi seizes the cosmos

The deva armies were routed again. Then the terrible asura Kālanemi entered the battle. His body was as wide as the three worlds. He walked with his head touching the sky and his feet crushing the earth. Mountains shattered when they touched his body. He took control and did these things:

• He drove all the dikpālas (guardians of the directions) from their posts.
• He took away Candra’s light.
• He removed Sūrya from his work.
• He brought Vāyu under his rule.

He became a second Brahmā and did the work of creating and sustaining. The devas were fully beaten down.

Kālanemi marched straight at Bhagavān Vishṇu. He declared that it was Vishṇu who had killed Hiraṇyakaśipu, Kālanemi’s own father, in the form of Narasiṃha. It was Vishṇu who had taken the three worlds from Bali in the form of Vāmana. It was Vishṇu who had ruined countless asura lines with his Sudarśana cakra. Kālanemi struck Bhagavān Vishṇu on the chest with his hundred arms. Maya, Tāra and other asuras poured their weapons on Bhagavān Vishṇu from every side.

Bhagavān Vishṇu stood unmoved, like a mountain. Garuḍa went forward against Kālanemi. Kālanemi hurled his gadā and wounded the great eagle. When Bhagavān Vishṇu saw Garuḍa struck, he took up his cakra, and his eyes blazed red with anger. Bhagavān Vishṇu and Garuḍa both made their bodies grow until they filled the sky. Kālanemi’s hundred arms grew too, until they filled the ten directions. Ṛshis and gandharvas sang hymns of praise.

The Sudarśana Cakra and the death of Kālanemi

At that highest moment the whole cosmos entered the form of Bhagavān Vishṇu. The upper worlds were in his crown, the cloud-filled sky in his clothes, the earth in his feet, and the ten directions in his arms. His Sudarśana cakra blazed with the light of a thousand suns. Its rim was gold and its hub was diamond. No weapon equals it, and it can take any size and shape its master wishes. No enemy has ever been safe from its terror.

With a great laugh (aṭṭahāsa), Bhagavān Vishṇu let the cakra go. In one sweep it cut off all of Kālanemi’s hundred arms and all his hundred heads. The asura fell dead but stayed standing for one moment. Then Garuḍa, fast as a storm wind, struck him with his chest and brought him crashing to the earth.

The devas, ṛshis, gandharvas and apsarases burst into praise. The rest of the asuras were seized, some by their matted hair and some by the throat, and thrown to the earth. The few who lived scattered in terror.

After the war

With the war won, Brahmā, the brahmarshis, the devarshis, the gandharvas and the apsarases gathered before Bhagavān Vishṇu. Brahmā said: “None but you could have slain that rākshasa. Come, let us all go to svarga.”

Bhagavān Vishṇu put the order of the cosmos right again. He set Indra and Varuṇa in their own quarters, Yama in the south and Kubera in the north. He declared that Candra would again rule the nakshatras (the stars of the Moon’s path), Sūrya would again measure time, and Agni would again receive the offerings of the brāhmaṇas. He warned the devas never to trust the asuras. He promised that whenever the asuras made them afraid, he would come back and take the fear away. Then Bhagavān Vishṇu went up with Brahmā to Brahmaloka.

The asuras who fell in this war, Kālanemi among them, were born again as the asuras of Mathurā and Dvāravatī. Kālanemi was born as Kaṃsa. Hayagrīva was born again as Keśi. Other leaders came back as Cāṇūra, Mushṭika, Pralamba, Dhenukāsura and Pūtanā. All of them were to be slain once more by Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, the fullest avatāra of Vishṇu.

Sources

• Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Hari Vaṃśa Parva, Chapter 25 (Candra’s pride, the carrying off of Tārā, the two sides, the birth of Budha)
• Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Hari Vaṃśa Parva, Chapter 42 (Bhagavān Vishṇu appears)
• Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Hari Vaṃśa Parva, Chapter 43 (the asura commanders)
• Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Hari Vaṃśa Parva, Chapter 44 (the deva armies)
• Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Hari Vaṃśa Parva, Chapters 45–46 (the battle and Maya’s māyā)
• Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Hari Vaṃśa Parva, Chapter 45 (the fire of Aurva)
• Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Hari Vaṃśa Parva, Chapters 47–48 (Kālanemi, the Sudarśana cakra, the aftermath)
• Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Hari Vaṃśa Parva, Chapter 54 (the rebirth of the asuras)