Tārakāsura Birth and Tapas

Tārakāsura was a daitya who became the ruler of the asuras. His father was the daitya Vajrāṅga and his mother was Vārāṅgī. Brahmā had given Vajrāṅga the vara (boon) of a mighty son, so that Vārāṅgī’s humiliation at the hands of Indra could be avenged. What follows is the child’s birth, the great tapas (austerity) he did, and the vara he won from Brahmā.

The thousand-year womb

After Vajrāṅga received Brahmā’s assurance that a mighty son would be born from Vārāṅgī, Vārāṅgī conceived. She carried the child in her womb for a full thousand years.

The birth and the shaking of the worlds

At the end of the thousand years, Vārāṅgī gave birth. The moment the daitya-emperor was born, the whole universe was shaken.

The earth trembled completely.
The great oceans heaved and swelled.
The mountains shifted from their places.
Terrifying winds rose in all directions.
The ṛshis who were doing japa (silent repetition of mantras) fled in fear, like animals struck by a hunter’s blow.
The sun and the other luminaries lost their light.
Snow fell from the sky in all directions.

The great asuras came to see the birth with great joy. The asurī women sang and danced. A grand mahotsava (festival) rose among all the asuras. Meanwhile Devendra and all the devas fell into despair.

Tāraka is crowned and speaks to the daityas

The terrifying and very powerful daitya-lord was recognised as soon as he was born. The great asuras, Kuraṅga, Mahisha and the other daitya chiefs, crowned him with the abhisheka (anointing). He took his seat in the kingdom of the asuras.

Through his power the armies of the three worlds came to serve him. Sūrya and Candra went before him like lamps and torches. Vāyu attended him with fans. The grahas (planets) read out his orders as proclamations. He was very beautiful and splendid, wearing golden arm-ornaments and great crowns, and he was fragrant with rare incense.

When he was fully settled in his kingdom, Tāraka called the daityas together and spoke to them.

“Asuras! Hear my words. By the dharma of our birth, our enmity with the suras has grown without end and without settlement. I mean to meet the suras’ attacks and win. But I tell you plainly: to face the devas, tapas alone is enough. So, mighty ones, I will first do the most severe tapas. Through that tapas we will conquer the suras and enjoy all three worlds. A man with a right plan gains lasting prosperity. A man of scattered effort cannot even guard what he already has.”

The asuras were amazed. They praised Tāraka and said, “Well said! Well said!”

The tapas at Pāriyātra mountain

Tāraka went to the northern side of Pāriyātra mountain. There was a very beautiful cave-sanctuary, full of these things:

Flowers of every season blooming at the same time.
Many herbs for healing, shining with light.
Rocks with mineral springs seeping out in many colours.
Hidden chambers of unusual shapes.
Groves with birds of many kinds.
Sacred pools and ponds.

In this cave Tāraka did the hardest tapas ever recorded for a daitya. He took the Paśupati-dīkshā, the initiation into Bhagavān Śiva’s Paśupati way of worship. He began japa of the pañca-mantras, the five sacred mantras of Bhagavān Śiva. Then:

For many years he did tapas in the middle of five fires, eating nothing.
Every day he cut off a part of his own flesh and offered it into the fire.
In time all his flesh was gone and he was only a skeleton.
Even so, his tapas went on. He had become a mass of tapas.
His tejas (radiance) grew so fierce that all creatures everywhere felt scorched and burned.
Suras and asuras alike were seized by alarm.

Brahmā appears and Tāraka asks for the vara

Brahmā was very pleased with Tāraka’s tapas. He came down to the mountain top and spoke to him.

“My child! Rise from your tapas. Nothing is now beyond your reach. Ask for any vara you wish, whatever is in your mind.”

Tāraka stood and folded his hands before Brahmā.

“O Brahmā, by our nature and by the dharma of our birth, we daityas have been in endless enmity with the devas. The cruel devas have destroyed our people without mercy. I wish to raise up those who were destroyed. So grant me this: let no living creature slay me, not by weapons however strong, not by devas, not by anyone. This alone is in my mind. I want no other vara.”

Brahmā answered that this could not be granted in full. The śruti (the revealed scripture) declares that whoever is born must die, and not even the creator can give deathlessness. He told Tāraka to think well and to ask for freedom from death at the hands of all except one chosen source, the one from whom he was willing to risk his death.

Tāraka thought, and then named his condition.

“Grant me avadhyatva (freedom from being slain) by all beings and all weapons, except by a seven-year-old child. Only a seven-year-old may slay me. No one else can.”

Brahmā granted it and said, “Tathāstu” (so be it). The child born of Bhagavān Śiva is the one who later fulfilled this condition.

Tāraka rules the three worlds

With the vara granted, Brahmā went back to svarga and Tāraka returned to his kingdom. The asura kings came to him as birds gather round a tree full of fruit. Brahmā had already pointed out a place north of the sea-shore, where a magnificent palace grew among trees that bore fruit in every season.

Tāraka’s full splendour now showed itself. Radiance, yoga, steadiness, intelligence and unbroken wealth all came and surrounded him. He wore golden arm-ornaments and great crowns and was anointed with the scent of dark aloe-wood (kālāguru).

He sat on a great throne. Apsarases danced before him and gandharvas sang his glory. Sūrya and Candra stood by him as torch-bearers. The grahas read out his orders as proclamations. All the asuras gathered round him with joy, and Tāraka announced that he meant to conquer the three worlds.

He spoke to them.

“Those who waste their lives in pleasure, with women, with gambling, with wine, lose their manhood even if they are born to power. Such a life wastes the whole span of life. Whoever does not fulfil his parents’ wishes, remove his relatives’ grief, and earn fame and dignity is as good as dead while he lives. So, to conquer the deathless suras and to take the wealth of the three worlds, bring my eight-wheeled chariot and the whole unbeaten daitya army!”

Sources

Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 15