Vajrāṅga

Vajrāṅga was the son of Diti and the prajāpati Kaśyapa. He was born after ten thousand years of tapas (austerity), with limbs as hard as vajra (the diamond thunderbolt), which no weapon could cut. The Skanda Mahā Purāṇa calls him a daitya, and the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa calls him a dānava.

Diti wanted a son to defeat Indra. Vajrāṅga did defeat him and brought him before his mother, but he let Indra go when Brahmā asked. He then chose tapas over conquest. His wife Vārāṅgī, whom Brahmā gave him, was harassed by Indra while Vajrāṅga did tapas. Out of care for her, Vajrāṅga asked Brahmā for a son, and Brahmā said that a son named Tāraka would be born. This is how Tārakāsura came to be born.

Birth and family

The Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 14, tells of his birth. Vajrāṅga was born of Diti, one of the thirteen wives of Kaśyapa Prajāpati. Diti’s earlier sons, Hiraṇyakaśipu and Hiraṇyāksha, had both been killed by Bhagavān Vishṇu. She was full of grief and a wish for revenge. She went to Kaśyapa and begged for another son who would defeat Indra. Kaśyapa agreed on one condition: she must keep a vow (vrata) for a thousand years with perfect discipline (niyama). She did this at Pushkara.

Indra was always watchful. For nine hundred years he served Diti with great devotion and won her trust. At last she fell asleep in an inauspicious posture, with her head at her feet and her hair touching her legs. Indra entered her womb and cut the unborn child into forty-nine pieces with his vajra. He told the grieving Diti that the forty-nine pieces were the Maruttas and that she had broken her ritual purity by the way she lay.

Diti was heartbroken. She went back to Kaśyapa with a second request, a son who could not be harmed by the weapons of any of the devas. Kaśyapa said, “Do tapas for ten thousand years. From that tapas a son will be born whose limbs are as hard as vajra (vajrasāramaya-aṅga) and who cannot be cut by any weapon. He will be called Vajrāṅga. He will have deep regard for dharma.” Diti went to the forest and finished this tapas.

At the end of ten thousand years, Diti gave birth to Vajrāṅga. He could not be destroyed, he was supremely strong, and he was born knowing all the śāstras. His body was like packed vajra. No weapon in the three worlds could cut him. He came to his mother with respect and asked how he could serve her. Diti said, “Defeat Indra.” Vajrāṅga agreed and left for svarga.

The Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 145, tells it this way. Indra cut Diti’s unborn child into forty-nine pieces, and these became the forty-nine Maruts. Diti was struck with grief and went to her husband Kaśyapa Prajāpati with a new request. She wanted another son who could overpower Indra. Kaśyapa told her to keep purity of conduct for ten thousand years. He promised that a son would be born to her whose every limb would be as unbreakable as vajra. Diti kept the austerities as told. At the right time Vajrāṅga was born, and from the moment of his birth he knew the use of all weapons.

Capturing Indra and setting him free

In the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 14, Vajrāṅga beat Indra’s whole army in a fight with his bare hands (bāhuyuddha). He seized Indra by the leg and dragged him before his mother, as a lion drags a deer. Indra cried out in fear.

At that moment Brahmā and Kaśyapa arrived. Brahmā said to Vajrāṅga, “My child, set this Indra free, for he has come to you for mercy. A true hero’s greatness is not in killing an enemy who has given up. It is in the generosity of setting him free after beating him. This is the greater victory. Do as I say and let him go.”

Vajrāṅga freed Indra at once. Then he said what was really in his mind: “Pitāmaha! I have done what my mother commanded. But I do not want Indra’s kingdom. The three worlds of svarga, with all their pleasures, mean nothing to me, like a garland another has already worn. Tell me, what is the essence of all these worlds?”

Brahmā answered, “Tapas. There is nothing greater. By tapas everything is gained. You are fit for tapas.”

Vajrāṅga said, “Then I wish to do tapas. By your grace, may no obstacle come to me in it.”

In the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 145, Diti told Vajrāṅga at once to take revenge. He was to go to Svarga and kill the enemy who had destroyed her children. Vajrāṅga obeyed without delay. He went up to Svargaloka, bound Indra with his inescapable pāśa (noose) as a hunter binds a deer, and brought the captive king of the devas before his mother. Diti was delighted, for it seemed that defeating the ruler of svarga was a small matter.

At that moment Brahmā and the great Kaśyapa arrived. They said to Vajrāṅga, “What do you gain from this? Release Indra. A man who has been captured and shamed in public is as good as dead, and shame is itself a kind of destruction for a high being. Release him.” They also reminded him of the natural love between the children of Kaśyapa in all lines.

Vajrāṅga was born for revenge and was a great dānava, yet he listened with dharma in his heart. He bowed to Brahmā as a son does and said, “I have no wish to quarrel with Indra. My mother commanded me and I carried out her command, and that is all. I wish to do tapas. That is my only desire. O Bhagavān Brahmā, grant me the freedom to do austerities without obstacle.” Brahmā smiled and granted his wish.

Vārāṅgī, the gift of Brahmā

In the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 14, Brahmā was moved by Vajrāṅga’s rare nature. Here was a daitya who wanted nothing from victory except the right to turn away from the world. Brahmā made a beautiful young woman and gave her to Vajrāṅga as his wife. He named her Vārāṅgī. She was bright to look at, good by nature and wholly given to Vajrāṅga’s welfare. Brahmā then left with Kaśyapa, and Vajrāṅga went to the forest with Vārāṅgī to begin his tapas.

In the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 145, Brahmā made a beautiful lotus-eyed maiden and named her Varāṅgī, and gave her to Vajrāṅga as his wife. Then the Creator left.

The long tapas

In the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapters 14 and 15, Vajrāṅga did tapas in four stages.

• He stood with raised arms for a thousand years.
• He stood on his head for a thousand years.
• He did pañcāgni-tapas, sitting among five fires, for a thousand years.
• He stood in water for a thousand years.

After four thousand years he had become a mass of tapas. His tejas (radiance) was so fierce that all creatures everywhere felt scorched by it. Even the suras and asuras were alarmed.

All these years Vārāṅgī sat on the shore of the same lake doing her own tapas in silence, keeping a vow of mauna (silence). Indra feared the power of Vajrāṅga’s tapas. So he began to trouble the unprotected Vārāṅgī in many forms over many years: as a monkey, a goat, a snake, a lion, a wolf, fire and wind. Vārāṅgī bore it all without breaking her silence and without a moment of anger.

In the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 145 and 146, Vajrāṅga went to the forest with Varāṅgī. With a pure heart he did very severe tapas over twenty-four thousand years. For eight thousand years he stood upright. For eight thousand years he kept his head bowed with his body among the five fires (pañcāgni). For eight thousand years he ate no food. Then he did a further thousand years of tapas under water. All this time in the water, Varāṅgī stayed on the bank of the lake, keeping her own great vow of silence and austerity.

During Vajrāṅga’s tapas in the water, Indra came and troubled Varāṅgī. He took the form of a monkey and broke the vessels and tools of her āśrama. He frightened and shamed her with insults she could not answer. When Vajrāṅga came out of the water, he found his wife weeping under a tree, her hair untied and her eyes red. When she told him what Indra had done, Vajrāṅga was deeply shaken.

The vara of tapas and dharma

In the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 15, Brahmā was pleased with Vajrāṅga’s tapas and appeared before him. Vajrāṅga’s request for a vara (boon) amazed all who saw it. He said, “Pitāmaha! Let there be no āsura feeling (no asura impulse) in me. Let me have no interest in svarga. Let me have deep interest (āsakti) in tapas and dharma alone. This is all I ask.” Brahmā gave it with a moved heart and left.

The prayer for Tāraka

In the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 15, Vajrāṅga found his wife hiding behind a tree, weeping quietly, when his tapas ended. He went to her with deep gentleness. She told him what Indra had done: the years of torment, the fear, the burning of the āśrama and the blows. She said she had been close to giving up her life. She asked for one thing only: “If you have any pity, give me a son who will protect me from this ocean of sorrow.”

Vajrāṅga himself had no interest in power or fighting. Yet he saw that his duty as a householder (gṛhastha-dharma) came first. He thought, “A man who does not care for a grieving wife who depends on him, a wife who is the mistress of his home (gṛheśvarī), is no man at all.” He resolved to seek a son who would face Indra.

As soon as he began this new tapas, Brahmā appeared again and gave the vara without asking for the full austerity. He said, “Enough. Your son will be born. A great warrior named Tāraka will be born from Vārāṅgī. He will undo the hair of the wives of the devas.” So began the chain of events that led to the birth of Tārakāsura, then to the birth of Kumārasvāmi, and then to Tāraka’s death.

In the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 146, Varāṅgī told of her suffering and begged for a son who could protect her from such torment, a son able to conquer Svarga. Vajrāṅga stood before Brahmā with folded hands. He described Varāṅgī’s shame and asked Brahmā to grant her wish. Brahmā was pleased with Vajrāṅga’s truthfulness and self-control. He said, “A son will be born to you who will scatter the fine braided locks of the wives of the devas. He will be called Tāraka.” Vajrāṅga accepted this blessing with thanks and brought joy to Varāṅgī.

The Śiva Purāṇa account

The Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Pārvatī Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1 to 7, gives Vajrāṅga’s family and his part in the chain of events. His care for Vārāṅgī led to the birth of Tārakāsura. This was the first cause of all that followed: Tāraka’s conquest, the trouble of the devas, the birth of Pārvatī, her tapas, the wedding of Bhagavān Śiva and Pārvatī, and the birth of Kārttikeya. In this account, as in the Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Vajrāṅga’s duty as a householder in seeking a son to protect Vārāṅgī served in the end the need of the worlds for Kārttikeya.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapters 14–15
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 145–146
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Pārvatī Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1–7