Mandara

Mandara

Mandara is a great mountain, the abode of Bhagavān Śiva in the Vāmana Purāṇa. It is a white mountain, beautiful with lovely caves, which are the shelters of the pramathas, Śiva’s attendants. On its peak is a level stone platform, and its wide ground is smooth and soft with padmarāga (ruby) stones. Śiva himself says that Mandara was given to him by the wise Indra (Devendra), and that he will not give it to anyone without Indra’s leave. The Purāṇa calls it Mandaragiri, Mandara Parvata and Mandarācala.

On Mandara Bhagavān Śiva lived with Devī Satī, and there Satī gave up her body when she learned of Daksha‘s yajña. To Mandara the Saptarshis came to be sent to Himavān for the hand of Devī Pārvatī; from Mandara Śiva set out for his wedding, and to Mandara he brought his bride. Viśvakarmā built him a palace of gold there, and there Vināyaka came forth. The daitya Andhaka came twice to Mandara, blinded by desire for Devī Pārvatī: once to be thrown down by the Devī’s hundred forms, and again with all his armies, to be overcome by Bhagavān Śiva, his gaṇas and the devas. The Purāṇa also names Mandara among the mountains of Kumāra-dvīpa and of Himavān’s assembly, likens Urvaśī‘s girdled hips to Mandara wound by Vāsuki at the churning of the ocean, and tells that the Viśvarūpa of Vāmana covered Meru and Mandara with his thighs.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 1–2, 26, 40–42

Śiva and Satī on Mandara

Pulastya Maharshi begins the Vāmana Purāṇa for Nārada Maharshi with Mandara. Long ago, as the hot season drew near, Devī Satī (the text here also names her Haimavatī and Bhavānī) spoke to Maheśvara, who was seated on Mount Mandara: “Devādhipa, summer has come near, and you have no house in which we can live, sheltered from the hot winds and the burning sun.” Śiva answered that he was always without shelter and lived in the forest, and Satī spent the summer with him in the shade of the trees.

When the rains came, she described the season to him, the cold winds, the thunder and lightning, the dancing peacocks and the flooding rivers, and asked: “Śaṅkara, in such a fearsome season, build on this mountain peak a house where I may be happy and free from fear.” Śiva said that he had no wealth to build a house: he wore a tiger skin, the king of serpents was his sacred thread, the serpents Padma and Piṅgaḷa were his earrings, Kambala and Dhanañjaya his armlets, Aśvatara and Takshaka his bracelets, and the great serpent Nīla his waist-cord. Devī Satī lowered her eyes and asked how she could pass the rains under the trees. Then Śiva said she could make the clouds her seat, so that not a drop would fall on her, and he climbed with Dākshāyaṇī onto a high mass of cloud. So his name Jīmūtaketu, “he whose banner is the cloud”, became true.

When the rains had passed and the lovely autumn came, Hara came down from the clouds with Dākshāyaṇī and reached Mount Mandara. On a fine, level stone platform on the mountain’s peak, the radiant Śambhu dwelt joyfully with Satī.

Then Daksha began his great yajña and invited everyone except Satī and Śaṅkara. Jayā, the daughter of Gautama and Ahalyā, came to Mount Mandara with its beautiful caves and had darśana of Satī. Satī asked why she had come alone, without her sisters Vijayā, Jayantī and Aparājitā, and Jayā told her that all of them, the ṛshis, the devas and all beings of the fourteen worlds had gone to Daksha’s yajña, and asked why Satī had not been invited. Hearing these words, which fell like a thunderbolt, Devī Satī gave up her body there and then. Hearing Jayā’s cry, Śiva came, and from the hair-pores of his body the lion-faced Rudragaṇas came forth, with Vīrabhadra at their head, and went to Kanakhala to destroy Daksha’s yajña.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 1–2, 4

Brahmā comes to Mandara for Sūrya

When Sūrya threw down from the sky the city of Sukeśī, a devotee of Maheśvara, Bhagavān Śiva opened his third eye and looked at Sūrya, and Sūrya fell burning to the earth, between the rivers Varaṇā and Asī at Vārāṇasī. To protect him, Brahmā, the master of the devas, set out with the host of devas to Mount Mandara, the lovely abode of Śiva. There Brahmā gained Śūlapāṇi Mahādeva’s grace and brought him to Vārāṇasī, where Śiva touched Sūrya with his hand and named him Lola.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 16

The Saptarshis on Mandara

After Devī Umā’s tapas, Śiva bathed according to rule at Pṛthūdaka and, made holy by that bath, went with Nandīśvara and the other gaṇas to the great mountain Mandara. The king of mountains welcomed him and his pramatha-gaṇas with joy and wonder, and honoured them with roots, bulbs and fruits, divine waters and fragrant flowers.

Then Śaṅkara remembered the maharshis together with Arundhatī, and they came to the great mountain Mandara, beautiful with lovely caves. Hara, Tripurāntaka, welcomed them, honoured them and said: “By your coming this lord of mountains has become free from every pāpa (sin) and blessed. Rest on this wide and beautiful mountain ground, smooth and soft with padmarāga stones.” The maharshis and Arundhatī sat on the slopes of the mountain, and Nandīśvara, foremost of the gaṇas, offered them arghya and pādya and stood humbly. Śiva named the seven, Kaśyapa, Vasishṭha, Atri, Viśvāmitra, Gautama, Bharadvāja and Aṅgiras, and sent them with Arundhatī to Himavān to ask for Umā, Satī born again as his daughter.

When Himavān had given Kālī to Śiva in his assembly, and the maitra muhūrta had been fixed for the wedding, the Saptarshis went by the sky-path to Mount Mandara, bowed to Śiva and said: “Deva, you have become the bridegroom. Pārvatī has become the bride. The three worlds, with Brahmā at their head, will soon have your darśana.” Śarva honoured them all with Arundhatī. Then Brahmā, Vishṇu, Indra and Sūrya came to Śiva’s house on Mandara, bowed with bhakti and sat down, and Nandī and the bhūtagaṇas gathered around Girīśa.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 25–26

The wedding procession and Viśvakarmā’s palace

With Vīrabhadra at their head, the Śivagaṇas and the Pāśupata-gaṇas reached Mount Mandara with cries of “Jaya! Jaya!” From there Maheśvara went with the hosts of devas to the peaks of Kailāsa for the rite of marriage. When the wedding was complete, he received Himavān‘s honours and went back to Mount Mandara. Having honoured Brahmā, Vishṇu, Indra and the other devas who had come to his wedding and bidden them farewell, the Ashṭamūrti, he of the eight forms, made his dwelling on Mandara among his Śivagaṇas.

There Hara called Viśvakarmā and had him build a house. Viśvakarmā built a mansion of pure gold, laid out on the svastika plan, sixty-four yojanas in extent, with arches of ivory, windows and doorways set with pearls, rows of crystal steps, pictures of vaidūrya gems and seven wide halls, surpassing everything. Entering it, the Devadeva performed the yajña of the gṛhastha, following the way of the ancestors, and lived there long with Devī Pārvatī.

One day Śiva, in jest, called Pārvatī “Kālī”, the dark one. Devī Pārvatī answered that a wound made by harsh words does not heal, and with Śiva’s leave she went by the sky-path to a peak of the Himālaya to perform tapas. When Brahmā had granted her a body shining like molten gold, and Kauśikī had been born from her dark sheath, Umā came back to Mandara, bowed to her husband and stood humbly before him.

Then the Devādhideva dwelt with Pārvatī for a thousand years, and the three worlds were shaken and the oceans roared. Afraid for his lordship, Indra took the devas and Agni and camped on the peak of Mandara. Not daring to enter Śiva’s palace, they sent Agni, who took the form of a haṃsa, passed Nandīśvara at the door among a flock of haṃsas, and told Śiva softly that the devas were waiting. Śiva came out to them, granted their wish and released his tejas into the mouth of Agni. In that same house Vināyaka came forth from the paste of Devī Pārvatī’s bath, and Śiva gave him his name. Afterwards Pārvatī went with Śiva through the lovely valleys of Mandara.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 27–28

Andhaka and Gaurī’s hundred forms

Gaurī, the daughter of the mountain, was once seated with her companions on Mount Mandara when the daitya Andhaka came there with his daityas, Prahlāda among them. Seeing her beauty, Andhaka, blinded by desire, lost his reason. Prahlāda covered his ears and warned him that she was the Mother of the world, the wife of Śaṅkara, but Andhaka rushed towards her. Nandīśvara, vajra in hand, held back the daityas, until Andhaka felled him with an iron bar. Then Devī Gaurī took a hundred forms. Andhaka could not tell which of them was Gaurī, and the śaktis that sprang forth in her hundred forms crushed him with their weapons and threw him to the ground. The Devī sent the hundred forms out into the world as the Śatāvarīs, and Andhaka, waking from his swoon, slipped away to Pātāla.

The Purāṇa tells that this came about while Śiva was away from Mandara for tapas. In those days the devas went with Janārdana and Indra to Mount Mandara and found neither Śiva and Pārvatī, nor Nandīśvara, nor the bull; Vishṇu told them that their sight had been taken from them for their Śiva-droha, their offence against Śiva and the Devī. When the shaking of the worlds had ended, Śiva went back to Mandara, his own abode. When Prahlāda later told Andhaka of his birth, he said that after Śiva had given the blind child to Hiraṇyāksha, “Śaṅkara returned to his Mandarācala.”

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 33, 36–37

Andhaka’s war on Mandara

Refusing Prahlāda‘s counsel, Andhaka sent Śambara to Mandaragiri with a message for Śiva. He called Śiva a beggar and asked who had given him the lovely mountain, like svarga with its beautiful caves; if Mandara was so dear to him, let him hand over his wife. Hara answered, so that Pārvatī could hear: “Mandaragiri was given to me by the wise Indra. Without his permission I will not give it to anyone.” Then Andhaka, driven by Kāla, set out with all his armies for Mandaragiri to fight Hara.

At Śiva’s word Nandī called all the leaders of the gaṇas, and they came in thousands. On Mandara Śiva embraced the Mahāpāśupatas, taught the gaṇas that he and Vishṇu are one tattva in two forms, and showed them his form in which half was Vishṇu and half Śiva. Then all the gaṇādhipatis took their places on Mandaragiri in the order taught in the Veda. With the countless gaṇas of the colour of blue-black clouds standing around Śiva’s feet on every side, the great white mountain Mandara shone like Hara’s king of bulls, white as an autumn cloud, covered with a black hide.

Andhakāsura reached Mandaragiri, whose caves are the shelters of the pramathas, and the pramathas raised a roar like the roar of pralaya. Vināyaka came with his own pramathas to Mandara, best of mountains. Śiva set Mālinī, Jayā, Vijayā, Jayantī and Aparājitā to guard Devī Pārvatī in the house, mounted the bull and went out to battle. Indra drove to Mandaragiri and entered the enemy army. When the daitya army was broken, Śukra urged Andhaka to go home and fight Hara on Mandara another day, but Andhaka refused; his lamed horses took a whole year to drag his chariot to the army of the pramathas on the Mandara mountain. There Vishṇu slew his thousand horses, Skanda his charioteer, and the pramathas and devas broke his chariot. At the end Bhagavān Śiva, in his Bhairava form, held Andhaka up on his śūla, and Andhaka, after his stotra, was made the gaṇādhipati Bhṛṅgi.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 40–44

Mandara in the Purāṇa’s other accounts

• When Kāma sees Urvaśī, born from the thigh of Nārāyaṇa Ṛshi at Badarī, her girdled hips seem to him like Mandara wound round by Vāsuki at the churning of the Kshīrasāgara (Chapter 7).
• Among the many lovely mountains of Kumāra-dvīpa, besides the seven kula-parvatas, the Purāṇa names Mandara (Chapter 13).
• When Himavān called his mountain kinsmen to consider Śiva‘s request for Kālī, Mandara came with Meru and the other chief mountains and sat on the golden seats in his assembly hall. The mountains are named in this order: Udayācala, Hemakūṭa, Ramyaka, Mandara, Uddālaka, Vāruṇa, Varāha, Garuḍāsana, Śaktimān, Vegasānu, Dṛḍhaśṛṅga, Śṛṅgavān, Citrakūṭa, Trikūṭa, Mandarakācala, Vindhya, Pāriyātra, Malaya, Dardura, Kailāsa, Mahendra, Nishadha and Añjanācala (Chapter 26).
• In the time of the dānava Dhundhu, who seized Indra‘s throne, Hiraṇyakaśipu, relying on Dhundhu, showed his might and roamed the region of Mount Mandara, while the devas went away to Brahmaloka (Chapter 52).
• When Bali poured the water of the gift, Vāmana took a form made of the whole world: with his feet and calves he covered the sky, with his knees the Satya and Tapo lokas, and with his thighs Mount Meru and Mount Mandara (Chapter 65).

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 7, 13, 26, 52, 65

Sources

• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 1–2, 4, 7, 13, 16, 25–28, 33, 36–37, 40–44, 52, 65