Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa

Caṇḍa-Muṇḍa

Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa were two rākshasa heroes, the ministers of Mahishāsura, always named together. The Vāmana Purāṇa calls them rākshasas, asuras and daityas by turns. It was they who first saw Kātyāyanī Durgā on the peak of the Vindhya mountain and carried word of her to Mahisha, and so set going the war in which Mahisha fell. They escaped that war and hid in the ocean, came out to join Śumbha and Niśumbha, and told Śumbha of the Devī as a jewel among women. When Śumbha’s armies were broken, they leapt at the Devī themselves. Caṇḍamārī, born from a strand of the Devī’s sheath, pursued them, bound them with the nāga Karkoṭaka and brought them back, and Durgā Devī severed their heads. From the garland of their heads Caṇḍamārī received the name Cāmuṇḍā.

On the Vindhya peak

While the great munis sang stotras to her, Kātyāyanī Durgā climbed the highest peak of the Vindhya and stood there, resolved to slay the rākshasas. On that peak Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa saw her, seated as a tapasvinī (one who performs tapas). At once they came down from the mountain, went to their mansion and spoke to Mahishāsura, king of the rākshasas: “Master, why do you sit at ease with folded arms? Come to the Vindhya and see. There is a jewel of a maiden there, the most beautiful in the three worlds, surpassing the women of the devas.” In their own words they praised her form: her hair conquered the clouds, her face scorned the moon, her three eyes mocked the three sacred fires, and the conch said to her throat, “I am your servant.” She held many weapons in eighteen arms. “We looked at her closely,” they said, “yet we could not learn whose daughter she is, who she is, or what she is. She is a priceless jewel come down from the sky to the earth. Go yourself and see her on the Vindhya peak.”

Hearing them, Mahisha decided at once. He commanded Caṇḍa, Muṇḍa, Namara, Biḍālanetra, Piśaṅga, Bāshkala, Ugrāyudha, Cikshura, Raktabīja and others. Sounding their war drums, they left svarga, which Mahisha then held, came to the Vindhya on the earth and pitched their camps at the foot of the mountain.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 19–20

The flight to Pātāla

When the Devī had crushed Mahisha under her feet and cut off his head, cries of “hā hā” rose in the rākshasa armies. Beaten to the edge of death by the pramatha gaṇas of Bhavānī, the rākshasa heroes Caṇḍa, Muṇḍa, Maya, Tāra, Asiloma and others fled in fear to Pātāla loka. Afterwards, still afraid of the Devī, Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa hid in the waters of the ocean.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 21, 29

With Śumbha and Niśumbha

The dānava brothers Śumbha and Niśumbha, having conquered the three worlds, came to the earth and met Raktabīja, the minister of Mahishāsura, on the bank of the Narmadā. Raktabīja told them that his master’s ministers, the heroes Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, were hiding in the ocean for fear of the Devī. While they talked, Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa left their dwelling in the water, came there and took shelter with Raktabīja, and asked him softly with whom he was speaking.

Raktabīja said that these two were the mighty daityas Śumbha and Niśumbha, and that with their help he would conquer the woman who had killed Mahisha and marry that jewel among women. Caṇḍa answered: “Do not say so. That jewel of the three worlds is fit only for our master Śumbha. Let us arrange her for Śumbha, and the beautiful Kauśikī for Niśumbha.” So Śumbha sent his messenger Sugrīva to the Devī on the Vindhya with the words: “He has heard from Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa that you are a jewel among women.” The Devī answered that she would marry only one who defeated her in battle.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 29

The battle and their death

Dhūmrāksha, sent by Śumbha with six hundred akshauhiṇīs, was burned to ash with his whole army by the Devī’s huṃkāra. Then Śumbha sent the daitya Ruru with a countless army of elephants, horses, chariots and foot-soldiers. The Devī’s lion and the bhūta-gaṇas of the mountain caves cut that army down, and the wounded dānavas ran crying to their leaders, Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa.

Seeing their forces in distress, those great asuras blazed with rage and leapt at the Devī like moths leaping into a fire. As they came, the Devī’s brows drew together, and from her forehead sprang Kālī, terrible in form yet auspicious, holding the khaṭvāṅga and the sword, wearing a garland of human heads, and she began to destroy the enemy host. Durgā struck down Ruru with the khaṭvāṅga.

Then Durgā cut her sheath from ear to feet and plaited it into a braid. One strand she flung to the ground, and from it rose a fierce form, half black and half white, with hair dripping oil, who shouted, “I will slay at least one great daitya!” She was named Caṇḍamārī. The Devī commanded her: “Kalyāṇī, go, bind Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa and bring them here. I myself will slay them.”

Caṇḍamārī pursued them. Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa ran towards the south, their clothes falling from them. She mounted a donkey swift as Garuḍa and followed; on the way she tore the horn from Pauṇḍra, the buffalo of Yama, and held it like a black serpent of death. The two daityas left the earth and fled along the path of the sky, and she sprang after them. On the way she saw Garuḍa about to eat the great serpent Karkoṭaka; at the sight of her Garuḍa shook with fear and all his feathers fell from him. Caṇḍamārī took the feathers and the nāga Karkoṭaka, caught Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, who were trembling with fear, bound them with Karkoṭaka and brought them to the Vindhya. She offered the Devī the sheath, offered Caṇḍikā a matchless garland of the rākshasas’ heads adorned with Garuḍa’s feathers and a waist-belt of lion skin, and drank the rākshasas’ blood to her fill. Then Durgā Devī severed the heads of Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, whom Caṇḍamārī had brought before her, as she had said she would.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 29

The name Cāmuṇḍā

Śushkarevatī Devī made a head-wrap from their serpents and brought it with Caṇḍamārī to Kauśikī: “Bhagavatī, accept this excellent head-wrap made of the heads of the daityas, together with the king of the nāgas.” The Devī placed it on Caṇḍamārī’s head and said: “You have done a fearsome deed. Wearing this garland of the heads of Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, from today you will be renowned by the auspicious name Cāmuṇḍā.” Then the Devī sent Cāmuṇḍā against the rest of the enemy, and she destroyed them all.

When Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa had been killed and their army scattered, Śumbha and Niśumbha sent Raktabīja to battle with thirty crore akshauhiṇīs. After the victory the devas praised the Devī on the Vindhya, and among her forms they named her Caṇḍamuṇḍā.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 29–30

Sources

• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 19–21, 29–30