Jalandhara War

Jalandhara was an asura born from the fire of Bhagavān Śiva’s anger. He rose to rule the three worlds, defeated the devas and even Bhagavān Vishṇu, and then set his heart on taking Pārvatī from Kailāsa. The Yuddha Khaṇḍa of the Śiva Purāṇa tells this war in Chapters 1 to 24 of the Rudra Saṃhitā. It shows Śiva as the supreme victor. Jalandhara could not be killed as long as his wife Vṛndā stayed faithful to him (her pativrata, the vow of a devoted wife). Only Śiva could end him.

Jalandhara’s birth and rise

Once the devas angered Mahādeva. The flame of his third eye blazed out and, carried by Gaṅgā, it entered the great ocean. The ocean received this divine fire, and from it Jalandhara was born. He was a being of great power, the son of Samudra (the deva of the ocean) and the child of Śiva’s own anger. Brahmā named him Jalandhara, “he who holds the water”, because he was born in the ocean.

The asura Maya built a great city of gems for Jalandhara in the ocean itself. Śukrācārya became his guru. Jalandhara married Vṛndā, the daughter of Dharmadhvaja. She was a pativratā (a wife of unbroken devotion to her husband), and her faithfulness was so complete that it became a shield. While she stayed faithful, Jalandhara was almost unbeatable.

Through the vara (boon) of Brahmā and the power of Vṛndā’s pativrata together, Jalandhara conquered the three worlds. He drove the devas out of their places in svarga (heaven). He took all wealth, including Lakshmī herself, from the home of Vishṇu. The Śiva Purāṇa tells this in Chapters 1–6.

The devas ask for help and the first great war

The devas were shamed. Led by Indra, they went to Śiva on Kailāsa and then to Vishṇu in Vaikuṇṭha. They asked for the end of Jalandhara. Śiva agreed to fight, and the great war began between the armies of Śiva and the army of Jalandhara.

In the early part of the war the forces of Jalandhara kept winning. The reason was that Śukrācārya used his Mṛtasañjīvanī Vidyā, the knowledge that brings the dead back to life, to raise the slain asuras again and again. In one event Jalandhara lifted the mountain Droṇa and threw it into the ocean, scattering the army of the devas. In another, Jalandhara sent the asura Ghasmarā as his dūta (messenger) to Śiva with a proud ultimatum.

The devas sang a stotra (hymn of praise) to Vishṇu. In it they named his avatāras: Matsya, Kūrma, Varāha, Vāmana, Paraśurāma, Rāma, Kṛshṇa, Jina (Buddha), Kalki, Kapila and Vyāsa. They prayed that he would step in. Lakshmī begged Vishṇu not to put himself in danger. But the prayer of the devas won, and Vishṇu entered the battle. The Śiva Purāṇa tells this in Chapters 7–16.

The battle with Vishṇu

The fight between Vishṇu and Jalandhara was fierce. In the end Jalandhara broke Vishṇu’s Śārṅga bow, and Vishṇu was left without his weapon for a time. Jalandhara did not fight on to the death. He made a strange demand instead. Vishṇu must live in Jalandhara’s city in the ocean, together with Lakshmī, as if he were a subject of the asura king, and the devas must stay under the rule of the asuras. This was the height of Jalandhara’s power.

With Vishṇu held in the ocean city, the devas had no hope. Then Nārada came to the court of Jalandhara. He praised Jalandhara very highly. But he added that, for all his glory, Jalandhara did not have the best wife in the three worlds, the divine Pārvatī, the wife of Śiva on Kailāsa. These words set Jalandhara on fire, and he made up his mind to take Pārvatī. The Śiva Purāṇa tells this in Chapters 17–18.

The birth of Kīrtimukha

Jalandhara sent Rāhu as his dūta to Śiva, with the demand that Śiva hand over Pārvatī. The moment Śiva heard this, a great flame of anger blazed out from his forehead. From it was born Kīrtimukha, a fearful lion-faced being with a huge hunger. Kīrtimukha seized Rāhu, who cried out for his life. Śiva told Kīrtimukha to let Rāhu go. He explained that a messenger is like a brāhmaṇa and must not be harmed.

Kīrtimukha, still burning with hunger, asked how he was to feed himself. Śiva told him to eat his own body. Kīrtimukha ate himself from the feet upward and stopped only when his face alone was left. Śiva was moved by this act of total obedience. He blessed Kīrtimukha and declared that Kīrtimukha must always be at the entrances of Śiva’s shrines and temples, and that no pūjā of Śiva is complete without first honouring Kīrtimukha. This is why the fierce face is carved above the doorway of Śiva temples. The Śiva Purāṇa tells this in Chapter 19.

The march on Kailāsa and the great battle

Jalandhara did not turn back. He gathered his huge army and marched straight to Kailāsa to take Pārvatī by force. Nandīśvara, Vighneśvara (Gaṇeśa) and Kārttikeya came forward to guard Kailāsa. In the battles that followed, Kālanemi fought Nandī, Śumbha fought Gaṇeśa, and Niśumbha fought Kārttikeya. Jalandhara struck down even Vīrabhadra with a pariha weapon. The great bhūtas came to strengthen Śiva’s side.

Then Śiva himself entered the battle. But Jalandhara used a trick, Gāndharvamāyā, an illusion made by the arts of the gandharvas. With this māyā he drew Śiva’s attention away. While Śiva was looking elsewhere, Jalandhara took the exact form of Śiva and went toward the cave where Pārvatī was staying with her companions.

Pārvatī knew at once that he was a false Śiva. The all-knowing Devī saw that this was not her husband. She fled straight away to Lake Mānasa, and from there she called Vishṇu to her. It was Pārvatī herself who told Vishṇu that Jalandhara could be beaten only by breaking the shield of Vṛndā’s pativrata, because as long as Vṛndā stayed faithful, Jalandhara could not be killed. The Śiva Purāṇa tells this in Chapters 20–22.

The breaking of Vṛndā’s pativrata

The breaking of Vṛndā’s pativrata by Vishṇu is told as a very sad event inside the larger need to destroy Jalandhara. A separate account gives the full story. Here it is in short.

Vishṇu went to Vṛndā. Through a series of illusions he showed her terrible dreams of Jalandhara’s head and limbs cut off. Then he appeared as a tapasvin (an ascetic) who seemed to bring “Jalandhara” back to life. This “Jalandhara” was really Vishṇu in disguise. In this way he deceived Vṛndā into contact with him. At the moment the deceit took place, her pativrata was broken. When she knew it was Vishṇu, she was struck with grief and anger. She spoke a śāpa (a curse) on him in two parts. First, he would become stone (the Śālagrāma). Second, he would suffer separation from his wife, which points ahead to the Rāma avatāra. After cursing Vishṇu, Vṛndā gave herself to the fire. Her last tearful moments, and her tejas entering Pārvatī, are told with deep feeling in the Purāṇa.

From Vṛndā’s body or her tejas, three sacred plants arose by the grace of the divine women of the cosmos. They are Dhātrī (the āmalakī tree, carrying a part of Sarasvatī), Mallī or mallikā (jasmine, carrying a part of Lakshmī), and Tulasī (carrying a part of Gaurī). These three plants are therefore very holy and are forever joined with Vṛndā’s tapas and Vishṇu’s grace. Tulasī is Vishṇu’s most loved plant, because Vṛndā was Vishṇu’s greatest devotee even as she cursed him. The Śiva Purāṇa tells this in Chapter 23.

Jalandhara’s death

The moment Vṛndā’s pativrata was broken, the shield around Jalandhara vanished. His Gāndharvamāyā also ended. Śiva was now fully present and nothing stood in his way. He made the Sudarśana Cakra, drawing it out from the tip of his own toe as it touched the ocean. It was a cakra so splendid that it surpassed all weapons. Even when he faced this weapon, Jalandhara still boasted that nothing could beat him. But with one stroke of the cakra, Śiva cut off Jalandhara’s head.

Jalandhara’s blood fell into the ocean and was changed. It became what is called the Mahāraurava-naraka (hell) bhakta-kuṇḍa, a pool in that dark world linked with those who dishonoured bhaktas (devotees). Jalandhara’s own tejas, the divine fire within him, which was in truth Śiva’s own anger, went back into Śiva. So Jalandhara, born from Śiva’s anger, returned to Śiva at his death, and the whole round was Śiva’s own līlā (play). The Śiva Purāṇa tells this in Chapter 24.

After the victory: the praise of the devas and the glory of Tulasī

After Jalandhara was beaten, all the devas gathered before Śiva and sang a great stotra of praise. In it they named many Śiva-bhaktas as examples of his grace. They were Dāśārha, Mitrasaha, Saumī, Vimarshaṇa, Candrasena, Śrīkara, Satyaratha, Dharmagupta, Śucivrata, Citravarmā, Candraṅgada, Mandara, Bhadrāyu, Śambara, Sudharma, Bindugu, Śarada and many others. Śiva gave varas (boons) to the devas who had gathered.

Vishṇu’s moha (confusion), brought on by the events of the war, was then cleared when a great Mūlaprakṛti stotra was sung. A voice from the sky (ākāśavāṇī) declared that Gaurī, Lakshmī and Sarasvatī are not three different devīs. They are three forms, each of one of the three guṇas, of the one supreme Devī Mūlaprakṛti. The rules for the pūjā of Tulasī were then set out. They tell how Tulasī is to be watered, how she is to be offered to Vishṇu, and why the month of Kārtika is very holy as the month of Tulasī. The Śiva Purāṇa tells this in Chapters 25–26.

Sources

• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1–6 (Jalandhara’s birth and rise)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapters 7–16 (the devas’ petition and the first war)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapters 17–18 (the battle with Vishṇu; Nārada at Jalandhara’s court)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapter 19 (Kīrtimukha)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapters 20–22 (the march on Kailāsa)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapter 23 (Vṛndā and the three plants)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapter 24 (Jalandhara’s death)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapters 25–26 (the praise of the devas and the glory of Tulasī)