Mahiṣāsura

Mahiṣāsura is the buffalo asura (mahiṣa means buffalo) whom the Devī slew. He conquered the three worlds and drove the devas out of svarga. The Purāṇas tell of his birth, his rule and his death in more than one account. Each account below is given as its text tells it.

In the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa

The Setu Māhātmya of the Brahma Khaṇḍa tells his story as the background to the founding of Devīpattana and the Dharma Puṣkariṇī.

Birth

Mahiṣāsura was born to a daughter of Diti, the great mother of the daityas and dānavas. This daughter did hard tapas (austerity), and by its power Mahiṣāsura was born, an asura of great power. He joined the nature of the asuras to the form of a buffalo. He was a form of tāmasic (dark) force. The text tells this in Chapter 6.

Conquest of the three worlds

Mahiṣāsura grew so strong, through the tapas of his birth and the blessing of his origin, that he conquered all three worlds: bhūloka, antarloka and svargaloka. He drove Indra out of svarga and took his place as king of the devas. The devas could not stand against him in battle, and they had to flee from their homes. The devas, led by Indra and Brahmā, went to Brahmā, then to Viṣṇu and Śiva, and asked to be freed from Mahiṣāsura’s tyranny. This is in Chapter 6.

The making of Mahādevī

The devas could not beat Mahiṣāsura one by one. So they joined their divine tejas (shining energy) together to make one being strong enough to destroy him. The joint tejas of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, Indra and all the devas took the form of Śrī Mahiṣāsuramardinī Devī, the Mahādevī as the destroyer of Mahiṣāsura. Each deva gave her weapons from his own store. She was given all the divine powers. This is in Chapter 6.

Death at Dharma Puṣkariṇī

The Devī fought a great battle with Mahiṣāsura. The deciding fight took place at the Dharma Puṣkariṇī on the Gandhamādana mountain in the Setu-kṣetra. This holy lake later became the starting point of Rāmasetu. The Devī slew Mahiṣāsura there. She restored the order of the cosmos and freed the devas. The place where the Devī slew Mahiṣāsura became known as Devīpattana, the city or home of the Devī. This is in Chapter 7.

In the Varāha Mahā Purāṇa

The Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, in Chapters 89 to 93, says that his origin lies in a śāpa (a curse) and a wonderful birth. In this account he is slain by Vaiṣṇavī.

The family line

Mahiṣa’s envoy Vidyutprabhā tells the chain of events to Vaiṣṇavī.

In the first creation there was a ṛṣi named Supārśva. He was born in the waters and was a close friend of the muni Sārasvata. Supārśva had a son called Sindhu-dvīpa, who had great teja (radiance) and strength. Sindhu-dvīpa did hard tapas in the great city of Māhiṣmatī and fasted completely.

By the power of this tapas a daughter was born to him, named Māhiṣmatī. She was the elder sister of Vipracitti, a leading asura. Her beauty had no equal, and she was like a maiden of the devas.

The śāpa of Ambaru Muni

One day Māhiṣmatī went wandering with her friends. Without noticing, she came to the āśrama (hermitage) of the muni Ambaru, in the valleys of the Mandara mountain. The āśrama was beautiful. It was full of sweet-smelling trees: campaka, nāgapuṣpa, gandha wood, sāla and sarala, and lovely gardens.

She looked at the āśrama and thought, “My friends honour me above all. I shall frighten this ascetic and play freely in this place.” With this proud thought, she and her friends took the shape of she-buffaloes (mahiṣī) with sharp horns, and went into the āśrama to cause fear.

The muni Ambaru saw with his jñāna-dṛṣṭi (inner sight) who she was. His anger rose, and he gave this śāpa:

“O wicked one! Since you assumed buffalo-form to frighten me — be a buffalo for a hundred years!”

Māhiṣmatī and her friends shook with fear. They fell at his feet again and again and begged him to end the śāpa. The muni felt pity and changed it:

“O good one! You will obtain a son in this form, and at that point the curse will end. My word is not false.”

The birth of Mahiṣāsura

In her buffalo form, Māhiṣmatī went to the banks of the holy river Narmadā, where the muni Sindhu-dvīpa had done his famous tapas. There a daitya maiden named Indumatī, of rare beauty, was bathing in the river without clothes. The great ascetic saw her.

The muni, overcome, let fall his seed (śukra) into a stone vessel (pāṣāṇa-droṇa). The seed was bright, sweet-smelling like the devas, and of rare quality. Māhiṣmatī and her friends saw it, and she said, “I shall drink this water.” She drank the muni’s seed from the vessel. By the seed of the ṛṣi she conceived and gave birth to a son.

The son had great wisdom, huge strength and courage, and was fit to add to the line of Brahmā. His name was Mahiṣa.

His nature and varas

Mahiṣāsura is described as:

• Kāmarūpī, able to take any form at will
• Mahābala, of huge strength
• Brahmā-varada-mada, proud of the varas (boons) he had from Brahmā. They made him unbeatable even by Śiva armed with the Pināka bow.

He built his fort in the ocean, in the city called Mahiṣa (Mahiṣa-pura), ringed with gardens of jewels. Hundreds of crores of rākṣasas served him. He was like a second Namuci in splendour and wealth. Nārada visited him and described the unmatched beauty of Vaiṣṇavī. Mahiṣa became fixed on winning her, and he planned his whole campaign around this wish.

The war on the devas

Mahiṣāsura gathered an army of four parts under his general Virūpākṣa. His chief ministers were Alaṃśarman, Praghasa, Vighasa, Śaṅkhakarṇa, Vibhāvasu, Vidyunmāli, Sumāli and Varjanya. They advised him on strategy. He first sent his envoy Vidyutprabhā to Vaiṣṇavī with an offer of marriage. She refused it, firmly and with dignity, through her door-keeper Jayā.

Mahiṣa then called out his armies and rode a mad elephant toward Mount Meru. His attack on Indra’s realm was decisive:

• Eight rākṣasas drove back the eight Vasus: Añjana, Nīlakukṣi, Meghavarṇa, Valāhaka, Udarākṣa, Lalāṭākṣa, Subhīma and Svarbhānu.
• Twelve rākṣasas drove back the twelve Ādityas.
• Eleven chiefs of the asuras overcame the eleven Rudras: Kāla, Kṛtānta, Raktākṣa, Haraṇa, Mitrahā, Anila, Yajñahā, Brahmahā, Goghnā, Strīghna and Saṃvartaka.
• Mahiṣa himself fought Devendra face to face.

The devas killed countless rākṣasas, but in the end Indra was beaten and fled. All the devas were scattered, struck by spears (śūlas), paṭṭiśas and clubs (mudgaras), and took refuge in Brahmaloka. Mahiṣa, with Brahmā’s vara, could not be beaten even by Śiva himself.

His death at the hands of Vaiṣṇavī

When all the devas were beaten, Nārada went to Vaiṣṇavī and begged her:

“The asura Mahiṣa has defeated all the devas. He is attempting to possess you. The devas entreat you — stand firm and slay him.”

Vaiṣṇavī called out her kanyā-gaṇas (troops of maidens), who destroyed the army of the asuras. Mahiṣa took his gadā (mace) and rushed at the maidens himself. When she saw him, Vaiṣṇavī showed her twenty arms, bearing twenty weapons. She mounted her lion and called on the nearness of Rudra. She and Mahiṣa fought for ten thousand divine years (daśa-sahasra-divya-varṣāṇi). The whole brahmāṇḍa (cosmos) shook.

At last, on the Śataśṛṅga mountain, Vaiṣṇavī set her foot on Mahiṣa, pierced him with her spear (śūla) and cut off his head with her sword (khaḍga). At the moment of her blow, a shining puruṣa came out of Mahiṣa’s body and rose to svarga. This showed his liberation by the grace of the Devī.

The gathered devas praised Vaiṣṇavī with warm stotras:

“O Viṣṇuśakti! You have slain Mahiṣāsura. Namaskāra to you!”

In the Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa

The Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa gives a long account of his birth, wars and death, in Skanda 5.

Birth and origin

The Devī Bhāgavata gives him a strange family line. The daitya Rambha, a mighty asura, fell in love with a she-buffalo (mahiṣī), and they were joined. Enemies later killed Rambha. The mahiṣī was overcome with grief and burned herself on his funeral fire (sahagamana). From that holy fire two beings came out: Mahiṣāsura, the buffalo-man, and Raktabīja. So Mahiṣāsura had both a daitya and an animal in his line. He could change between human and buffalo form at will. This is in Chapter 2.

Tapas and the vara

After this strange birth, Mahiṣāsura did hard tapas and went to Brahmā to ask for varas. He wanted to be safe from harm, and asked that no man, no animal and no bird should be able to slay him. Brahmā gave this vara. In his own mind Mahiṣāsura dismissed the idea that any woman could threaten him, for he thought women weak by nature. This mistake in his thinking led to his end at the hands of the Devī. This is in Chapter 2.

Conquest of the three worlds

With his vara, Mahiṣāsura raised huge armies and marched against the three worlds. His generals were hard fighters: Cakṣura, Biḍāla, Tāmra, Asiloma and Durmukha among others. He conquered the earth and then moved against svarga itself.

In the war on the devas, even the joint forces of Viṣṇu and Śiva were not enough against him and his armies. The Devī Bhāgavata says that Viṣṇu was struck senseless in battle and that Śiva also could not overcome Mahiṣāsura. The devas were driven out of svarga and lost their duties in svarga. They had to wander the earth in shame. This is in Chapters 5 to 7.

The making of the Devī

The devas could not win by their separate powers. They went first to Brahmā, then to Kailāsa, and last to Vaikuṇṭha. Bhagavān Viṣṇu proposed that all the devas join their divine teja (gathered radiance) into one form. Each deva sent out the gathered power of his own nature. The tejas joined, and from them a divine being appeared: Devī Mahālakṣmī, with eighteen arms. She held the three guṇas and all three varṇas in herself together. Each deva then gave her his strongest weapon, the power of his mount and his own divine quality. Armed in this way, the Devī got ready to meet Mahiṣāsura. This is in Chapter 8.

His attempts to win the Devī

Mahiṣāsura’s spies brought word of the Devī’s coming and described her beauty and power. He first tried to win her as a wife through envoys. His messages mixed praise, boasts of his conquests and real wonder. She refused every offer. She said she would take as husband only the one who beat her in open battle.

His ministers gave mixed advice. Some urged battle. Others urged him to retreat or to talk. His generals Baṣkala and Durmukha were slain by the Devī in the first fights. Tāmra and Cikṣura fell next, then Asiloma and Biḍāla.

Mahiṣāsura himself came in human form to woo her. He made a long speech about the greatness of love over conflict. He told the account of Maṇḍodarī, a woman who was sorry for her proud refusal of a worthy suitor. The Devī met his fine words calmly and plainly. She repeated her one condition: battle or withdrawal. This is in Chapters 9 to 17.

The last battle and his death

When talks failed at last, Mahiṣāsura fought the Devī directly. He could take many forms, and he did so one after another in the fight. He passed through a human form, a lion, an elephant, a śarabha (an eight-legged beast) and last his own buffalo form. At each change the Devī met him with fitting weapons and the steady help of her lion. Her generals, the asura Durdhara, Trinetra and Andhaka, fell in the early part of the battle.

The last blow came when Mahiṣāsura, in buffalo form, mocked the Devī and boasted that she would soon lose. The Devī drank the divine wine from a golden cup and laughed. She took up the Sunābha, a divine cakra with a thousand spokes, and declared his end. She hurled the cakra. It cut off Mahiṣāsura’s head cleanly. His trunk reeled and fell. Rivers of hot blood ran down the mountainside. The remaining dānavas fled in fear to Pātāla. The devas, siddhas, gandharvas, kinnaras and ṛṣis, who had watched from the sky, broke into joyful cheers. This is in Chapter 18.

After his death

After Mahiṣāsura was beaten, the devas praised the Devī with a long stotra. They named her the true cause of creation, support and dissolution, and the power behind Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva. She then went away to Maṇidvīpa.

While she was gone, the devas set Śatrughna on the throne of Mahiṣāsura’s old kingdom as its king. Śatrughna was a king of the solar dynasty and the ruler of Ayodhyā. With just rule back, dharma, plenty and the order of the cosmos returned to the earth. This is in Chapters 19 and 20.

In the Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa

The Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa tells his death in Chapter 233 of the Pūrvārdha. It shows the event as the first great deed of Skanda after his formal consecration as Devasenāpati.

Indra and the devas came to Skanda and praised him with a stotra. Śiva himself then appeared and consecrated Kumāra as the Devasenādhīśvara, the supreme commander of the armies of the devas. With this power, Skanda slew Mahiṣāsura and thousands of allied asuras in battle. Any asura whom Skanda could not himself slay, Śiva destroyed with his śūla. Father and son worked together. The joint campaign wiped out the forces of the asuras and brought joy back to the three worlds. Śiva then went back to Kailāsa.

In the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa

The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, in the Devī Māhātmya (Chapters 82–83), records the classical account of his destruction at the hands of the Devī, whom the joint teja of all the devas made.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Setu Māhātmya, Chapters 6–7
• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 233
• Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 89–93
• Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 5, Chapters 2–18, 19–20
• Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Devī Māhātmya, Chapters 82–83