Madhu-Kaiṭabha Vadha (Padma Purāṇa)
This is how the Padma Mahā Purāṇa tells the killing of the two first asuras, Madhu and Kaiṭabha. At the start of creation Brahmā rose from the lotus in the navel of Bhagavān Vishṇu and was ready to begin his work. Then two terrible asuras came out of the wax of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s ears. They threatened Brahmā. Bhagavān Vishṇu woke, fought them and killed them on his thighs, and the earth was made from their meda (fat).
Birth from Bhagavān Vishṇu’s ear-wax
Brahmā had just come out of the lotus in the navel of Bhagavān Vishṇu and was ready to create. At that moment two beings came into being from a strange source: the wax of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s ears, as he lay in yoganidrā (yogic sleep).
Madhu rose from the tamas-guṇa gathered in that wax. He was dark, dull, heavy and dense. Kaiṭabha rose from the rajas-guṇa. He was restless and violent, driven by passion and hunger for power. They were not made in the usual way. They came forth by themselves from the very qualities that make up the darker side of the material world.
The threat to Brahmā
Madhu and Kaiṭabha were huge and terrible to look at. Their eyes blazed, their voices were loud, and they were fierce from the first moment. They turned on Brahmā and threatened to destroy him, and with him the chance of creation. Brahmā had only just come out of the lotus and could not defend himself against such forces. Fear seized him, and he cried out to Bhagavān Vishṇu.
Brahmā’s stuti and Bhagavān Vishṇu’s waking
Brahmā offered a heartfelt stuti (a hymn of praise and prayer) to Bhagavān Vishṇu. He begged him to wake from yoganidrā and guard creation from the two asuras. The stuti called Bhagavān Vishṇu the Supreme, the protector of dharma and the destroyer of the forces of adharma.
Bhagavān Vishṇu heard Brahmā’s plea. He woke from yoganidrā and saw the two asuras threatening his lotus-born son.
The long battle
Bhagavān Vishṇu fought Madhu and Kaiṭabha fiercely. The battle was long. The two asuras were very strong, for they were born from the guṇas of the cosmic dissolution, and they fought with great fury. The fight lasted an immense time. Ordinary weapons and ordinary strength could not easily overcome these first forces.
Death on Bhagavān Vishṇu’s thighs
At last Bhagavān Vishṇu overpowered both asuras and killed them on his own thighs. The Purāṇa marks this unusual manner of death as important. He laid them on his thighs (uru) and struck them there, and so ended them.
The earth from the meda
The earth was formed from the bodies of the slain Madhu and Kaiṭabha, from their meda (fat, marrow, body substance). The huge bodies of the two first asuras melted into the elements and became the raw matter of the world of earth. For this reason the earth is also called Medinī, from meda.
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 40