Amṛtamathana (Matsya Purāṇa)

The Matsya Mahā Purāṇa tells the Amṛtamathana, the churning of the ocean, in Chapters 248–251. It starts with the cause: the Saṃjīvanī vidyā (the knowledge that brings the dead back to life) that made the asuras almost impossible to kill. It follows the repeated defeats of the devas and Brahmā’s advice to churn the Kshīrasāgara (the Milk Ocean) for amṛta (the nectar of immortality). The mountain Mandara is the churning rod, Śesha is the rope, and Bhagavān Vishṇu steadies the mountain. From the ocean come Candra, Lakshmī, Surādevī, the white horse, the Kauśtubha gem and the Pārijāta tree. Then comes the Kālakūṭa poison, which Bhagavān Śiva drinks to protect all creation. The account ends with Rāhu’s trick, his head cut off, and the great battle of devas and asuras for the amṛta.

Śukra’s Saṃjīvanī and the defeats of the devas

The Matsya Purāṇa begins not with the decision to churn but with its cause. Śukrācārya, the ācārya (teacher) of the asuras, had received from Bhagavān Śiva the highest Saṃjīvanī vidyā, the knowledge that could bring the dead back to life. With this, the asuras were as good as immortal in battle. Every dānava or daitya killed in a fight was brought back to full life and health by Śukra’s vidyā.

The devas had no such power. Battle after battle, their armies lost fighters who could not be healed. Indra’s gaṇas fell. The Ādityas, Vasus, Rudras and Maruts were beaten back. The three worlds came under Bali’s rule, and the devas, with no worlds of their own and no shelter, fell into distress. (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 248)

Brahmā’s plan

The devas, led by Indra and joined by Brahmā, went to Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa in his home, Vaikuṇṭha. They found him resting on his golden couch, with Lakshmī at his feet and Garuḍa fanning him with his great wings. The devas praised him with a stotra (hymn of praise) and told him their distress.

Brahmā then gave the remedy. The Kshīrasāgara must be churned for amṛta. The mountain Mandara, one hundred thousand yojanas wide, would be the churning rod. The great Śesha (Ananta) would be the rope coiled round it. The devas and asuras together would pull the rope by turns and so churn. Bhagavān Vishṇu himself would hold the mountain steady.

For this plan the asuras had to join in too, since the strength of the devas alone was not enough without the dānavas pulling at the other end. Bali heard the plan and agreed gladly: even if it meant working beside the devas, the amṛta was worth it.

Śesha and Kūrma stepped forward: Śesha to be the rope and Kūrma to be the support beneath the mountain. The devas and asuras went together to Bhagavān Vishṇu’s home. (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 248)

The churning begins

The whole company went to Mandara. They wound Śesha’s coils round the mountain and took their places. The devas stood at the tail end of the great nāga, afraid of the poison from his open mouth. Rāhu (Saiṃhikeya) and the chief dānavas stood at the head end. Bali himself held the serpent’s many-hooded head in his left hand and the rest of its body in his right.

Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa held Mandara steady with both arms, like a churning staff. Then, shouting for victory, the devas and asuras together began to churn the Kshīrasāgara. They churned for one hundred divine years.

The churning was huge. As the mountain turned, herds of elephants and lions fell from its sides. Tens of thousands of creatures, bears, boars, śarabhas and every animal of the forest, were destroyed. The flowering trees on Mandara’s slopes crashed into the sea. The rubbing of the trees made fire, which blazed around the mountain like lightning around a dark cloud and burned the falling elephants and lions. Indra took the form of a rain-cloud and put out the blaze with cool showers.

As the churning went on, the waters of the ocean, mixed with the resins and essences of all the trees and herbs, turned first into cream and then into butter (ghṛta). Brahmā sat on the shore and urged the tired churners on: “Those who keep going in great undertakings always win lasting śrī (prosperity). Do not stop.” (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 248)

The first gifts from the ocean

As the ocean was churned, wonderful things rose from its depths one by one.

Candra

First came Candra, the moon, bright as a hundred suns yet gentle in his light, with cool and peaceful rays.

Lakshmī, Surādevī, and the white horse

From the changing ghṛta rose Lakshmī in white clothes, and beside her Surādevī, the devī of wine, also called Vāruṇī. The Śveta-aśva, the divine white horse, also came out of the churning waters.

Kauśtubha and Pārijāta

The Kauśtubha gem, which was to adorn the chest of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, rose shining like the disc of the sun. With it came the Pārijāta tree, heavy with blossoms. (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 249)

The Kālakūṭa

After the good gifts came the disaster. A terrible smoke rose from the ocean and filled every direction, so strong that no being could bear it. The devas and asuras choked on its fumes and fell in a faint, clutching their heads. The smoke grew into raging fire, and then took the form of a huge serpent-like being, the Kālakūṭa. It blazed like the fire at the end of the world, was dark as eye-paint ground on a stone, wore golden ornaments and a yellow garment, and yet spread terror. It roared like a thousand thunderclouds.

The sight of it alone destroyed beings. Some fainted, some vomited foam, some fell into the sea. Even the hundred-petal radiance of Bhagavān Vishṇu himself was darkened by the Kālakūṭa’s breath. The Kālakūṭa said: “I have risen from the churning of the ocean by these devas and dānavas, who are enemies and yet churn together. I have risen to destroy them all. I can kill all beings in an instant. Devas and Indra, you cannot swallow me. Swallow me, if you can.”

The devas were terrified. They took shelter with Brahmā and Vishṇu and went together to the mountain home of Bhagavān Śiva. (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 249)

The stotra to Bhagavān Śiva

At Bhagavān Śiva’s home in the cave of Mandara, Gaṇeśvara announced them and, by Śiva’s grace, let them in. They entered a chamber of gold set with pure gems. In front of Mahādeva, the devas and asuras together offered a stotra of many names. They called him:

Virūpāksha, Tīkshṇanettra, Pinākahasta, Kāmarūpin, Śūlahasta, Daṇḍahasta, Trailokyranātha, Bhūtasamūhamūrti, Surārihantā, Somasūryavahninētra, Brahma-Vishṇu-Rudra-rūpin, Brahman, Vedharūpa, Viśvarūpin, Sāṃkhyayoga, Bhūtaśambhava, Manmatha-dehanāśaka, Kālakshayakara, Ramhorūpa, Devadeva, Vasurētorūpa, Ekavīra, Sarvapiṅgajaṭājūṭa, Hartā, Kartā, Tripurāghātin, Śuddhabodha-prabuddha, Muktikevala-rūpa, Lokatrayavidhātā, Varuṇa-Indra-Agni-rūpa-Ṛg-Yajuḥ-Sāma-rūpa, Purusha, Īśvara, Āgrya, Ugra, Vipra, Vedanētra, Satvarajastamōrūpa, Anityabhāsa, Nityacarātmaka, Vyaktarūpa, Avyaktarūpa, Vyaktāvyaktarūpa, Bhaktārtināśaka, Nārāyaṇapriya-Umāpriya, Śarva, Nandimukhāñcita, Ṛtumanvantarakalpavṛkshamāsadīnātmakanānārūpa, Muṇḍarūpa, Varūtharūpa, Pṛthudaṇḍin, Kapālahasta, Digambara, Śikhaṇḍin, Dhanvin, Rathin, Yatī, Brahmacārin, Śiva and Devadeva.

Then they bowed down before him. Bhagavān Śiva was pleased and asked them the cause of their trouble. (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 249)

Bhagavān Śiva drinks the Kālakūṭa

The devas told him how the Kālakūṭa had risen and said it would destroy all beings. Even Bhagavān Vishṇu had been darkened by its breath. They begged: “You are our refuge. You burned Manmatha, and you give joy to all the deva-gaṇas. Save us from this poison.”

Bhagavān Śiva, who once took out the eyes of Bhaga at the Daksha yajña, smiled and answered: “I shall drink this terrible poison. Whatever else is hard to do, I shall do that too for you all. Be free of worry.”

Brahmā and all the devas trembled with thanks and reverence. Bhagavān Śiva mounted his bull Nandin and rode to the Kshīrasāgara. He stood a little behind the Kālakūṭa’s shadow so that it did not touch him directly. He took it up in his left hand and drank it.

The Kālakūṭa went into Śiva’s throat and stayed there. Pārvatī saw the danger and at once caught his throat so that the poison could not go down further into his body. For this reason Śiva’s throat turned blue, and he has the name Nīlakaṇṭha (the blue-throated one). (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 249)

The amṛta appears and Rāhu’s trick

With the Kālakūṭa gone, the churning started again. After more churning, the amṛta at last rose from the ocean. The devas began to drink it with joy.

At that moment Rāhu, a dānava, took the form of a deva and slipped into the line of the devas to drink the amṛta. The trick nearly worked. Rāhu swallowed the nectar, and it had just reached his throat. Candra and Sūrya saw this and at once told Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa.

In that same moment Bhagavān Vishṇu raised his supreme Sudarśana cakra and cut Rāhu’s head from his body. The cakra passed through Rāhu’s neck just as the amṛta had barely reached his throat. Rāhu’s huge head, crowned with ornaments and wet with blood, fell with a sound that shook the earth like a mountain peak crashing down.

From that time Rāhu’s severed head is the lasting enemy of Candra and Sūrya, who exposed him. Even now he seizes them from time to time (this is how eclipses come). Rāhu’s head had taken the amṛta as far as the throat, so it became immortal. It cannot be finally destroyed, and it takes its revenge through the cycles of time in the sky. (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 250)

The battle for the amṛta

The asuras saw Bhagavān Vishṇu act against Rāhu and saw the devas drinking the amṛta and keeping the dānavas out. They burst into fury. A great battle broke out between the devas and asuras on the shore of the ocean. Nara and Nārāyaṇa came to the fight.

Bhagavān Vishṇu called up the Sudarśana cakra. It blazed like the sun, never failed, had boundless tejas (radiance) and destroyed enemies. The cakra spun through the dānava armies like fire through dry grass, cutting off limbs and heads. The heads fell like mountains, with their gem-studded crowns rolling.

The asuras, broken and bleeding, their huge bodies falling like red peaks, fled. Some went into the earth and some into the depths of the ocean. The devas won.

When the battle was over, the devas respectfully put the mountain Mandara back in its proper place. The amṛta was safe. The devas gained the immortality they had sought. (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 250)

Sources

• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 248 (Śukra’s Saṃjīvanī and the defeats of the devas, Brahmā’s plan, the churning begins)
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 249 (the first gifts, the Kālakūṭa, the stotra to Bhagavān Śiva, Śiva drinks the Kālakūṭa)
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 250 (Rāhu’s trick, the battle for the amṛta)
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 248–251 (the whole Amṛtamathana)