Bāṇa and the Burning of Tripura

Nārada tells this account to Yudhishṭhira in the Svarga Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa. Bāṇa, a dānava, had a great fortress-city called Tripura that flew in the sky. The account tells how Bhagavān Śiva destroyed it and ends with the rise of the Jvāleśvara liṅga at Amarakaṇṭaka. Here the burning begins when the ṛshis and devas come to Śiva together for help, and Śiva uses a cosmic chariot made from all of creation.

The dānava Bāṇa and his fortress

Tripura was Bāṇa’s great city in the sky. It was both his pride and his weapon of terror. It was a hundred yojanas wide and two hundred long, and it moved through the sky by the force of Bāṇa’s tejas (radiance). Its men were equal to the devas in splendour, and its women rivalled the apsarās in beauty. The people were so radiant that their combined śakti (power) kept Tripura afloat above the earth.

Bāṇa himself wore garlands, earrings (kuṇḍalas), armlets (keyūras), a crown (mukuṭa) and necklaces of jewels (ratna-hāras). He was fearful in strength and drunk with power.

The petition to Śiva

All the groups of ṛshis, the Maruts, and Indra with all the devas were overcome with fear. They could find no way to turn. They came before Mahādeva and cried out: “O Virūpāksha! We stand in terror. Protect us, O Prabhu Śiva.”

Śiva asked the cause of their sorrow and the source of their fear. The ṛshis answered that it was Bāṇa in his Tripura. His dreadful force had made them run to Śiva as their only refuge. Śiva comforted them: “I shall do all you ask. Do not grieve. I shall soon bring you joy.”

He went to the banks of the Narmadā and thought about how to kill Bāṇa and destroy Tripura.

Nārada’s mission

Śiva thought of Nārada and called him. Nārada came and asked why he was called. Śiva told him: “Go quickly to Bāṇa’s Tripura. The men there are like devas, and the women are like apsarās. Their tejas is what keeps the city in the air. O Nārada, go there and teach them a different mantra (anya mantra).” The plan was to weaken the tejas of the people of Tripura by gentle teaching that turned their faith away from the path that kept Bāṇa strong.

Nārada went quickly to Tripura. Bāṇa received him with full honour. He rose from his seat, gave arghya and pādya (water offerings for a guest), and welcomed him warmly.

Then Bāṇa’s wife Anaupaymā spoke to Nārada. She asked: “O Bhagavān Nārada! By which vratas (vows), niyamas (rules), dānas (gifts) and tapas (austerities) are the devas made content? Please teach me, out of kindness.”

Nārada answered by teaching the puṇya (merit) of giving a cow made of sesame (tila-dhenu-dāna). He named the sacred tithis (lunar days): ashṭamī, caturdaśī, dvādaśī, saṃkrānti and vishuva. He told of the fruits for women who fast (upavāsa) on these days: they reach svarga and are freed from the dosha (fault) of Kali.

Anaupaymā offered Nārada gold, jewels, gems and cloth. He refused. He told her to give them to a worthy brāhmaṇa instead, and said that for one of his conduct only bhakti was to be grown.

Having taught them in this way, and having turned the hearts of the women of Tripura away from the source of their śakti, Nārada went back. The change of heart in the women of Tripura made a breach (dosha) in the fortress.

The cosmic chariot

With the moral and spiritual strength of Tripura now weakened, Śiva took his place at the Maheśvara site on the Narmadā bank and made the cosmic war chariot. He made:

Mount Mandara his bow
Vāsuki the bowstring
Vaiśākha the stance for loosing the arrow
Bhagavān Vishṇu the arrow itself
Agni the arrowhead
Vāyu the feathers of the arrow
The four Vedas the horses of the chariot
All the devas the body of the chariot
The Aśvinī devas the two wheels
Cakradhara (Bhagavān Vishṇu) the axle
Indra at the tip of the bow
Kubera (Vaiśravaṇa) in the arrow
Yama on the right hand
Kāla on the left hand
The gandharvas along the rims of the wheels
Brahmā the charioteer

This chariot, which holds all the devatās within it (sarvadevatātmaka ratha), was made ready. Śiva stood without moving for a thousand years. He was waiting for the moment when all three of Bāṇa’s cities would line up as one target.

The dahana (the burning)

When the three cities at last came together into one, Śiva released the arrow. At that moment the women of Tripura lost their tejas completely. The city shook with thousands of utpātas (evil omens). Storm winds rose like the saṃvartaka wind of pralaya (the dissolution of the world), and fires broke out everywhere. Trees burned and towers fell. Animals, birds and sleeping families were burned. The streets filled with smoke so thick that one house could not be seen from the next.

The women of Tripura wept and cried to Agni. They said he was cruelly burning them though they were innocent, and that even mlecchas (foreigners outside the Vedic way) show kindness to women. Agni answered: “I do not move by my own will. I act under another’s command.”

Hundreds of turrets broke apart. The divine mansions set with jewels were turned to ash. Great ponds full of lotuses and water birds were burned up. Palaces the size of mountains fell like clouds with no water. The people cried, “Deva daveśa, protect us!” The dānavas burned in their hundreds and thousands, holding one another in the fire.

Bāṇa’s Toṭaka stotra and Śiva’s vara

Bāṇa watched his city burn. He took the Śiva liṅga that he had worshipped and put it on his head. He left behind all his wealth and his women and walked out of the city gate alone. He set up the liṅga at a place near the ruins and prayed to Śiva in the Toṭaka metre:

Śiva śaṃkara sarvakara — to the source of all auspiciousness, obeisance.
Bhavabhīma maheśvara — to the terrifying Maheśvara of saṃsāra, obeisance.
To the one who burned the body of Kusumaśara (Manmatha), to the destroyer of Tripura, to the one who crushed Andhaka — obeisance.
O Bhagavān Śiva, on whose head the crescent moon rests — grant that I, fallen and afflicted in hundreds of bodies, may have my path of pāpa (sin) turned. Let me remember you always, with my son, wife and wealth.

Bāṇa confessed his pāpa. He spoke of his bondage to the wealth of others (parā-dhana), the wives of others (parā-dāra) and the defeat of others (parābhava), his pride, and the delusion of wealth that does not last. He asked Śiva to cut the bonds of mada (pride) and moha (delusion) and lift him out of the saṃsāra-sāgara (ocean of rebirth).

Śiva was moved. He appeared to Bāṇa and said: “Vatsa (my child)! Do not fear. Stay here in this golden house with your sons, grandsons, wives and kinsfolk. From this day you shall not be killed even by the devas.”

Having received this vara (boon), Bāṇa became akshaya (undecaying), avyaya (unchanging) and nirbhaya (fearless), and he wandered the worlds in that state.

The Jvāleśvara liṅga at Amarakaṇṭaka

After giving the vara, Śiva drew back the cosmic fire. Of the three burned cities, one fell at Śrīśaila and another fell on the Amarakaṇṭaka mountain. The flames that rose from the fallen city climbed up to touch the sky. Devas, asuras and kinnaras all cried out in wonder.

At the place where the city fell at Amarakaṇṭaka, Śiva made the flames stand still (stambhita) and set up the Jvāleśvara liṅga there. This liṅga, born from the fire of the burning of Tripura, became a famous tīrtha on the Amarakaṇṭaka mountain.

Sources

Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Svarga Khaṇḍa, Chapter 14 (Bāṇa’s fortress; the petition to Śiva; Nārada’s mission)
Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Svarga Khaṇḍa, Chapter 15 (the cosmic chariot; the burning; Bāṇa’s stotra and vara; the Jvāleśvara liṅga)

Bāṇa and Tripura Dahana