Hinduism: A Short History (41 page)

First Devī uses the noose to capture Mahiṣāsura. He sheds his buffalo form. Devī uses her sword to cut down the lion form that he assumes. Then the demon assumes the form of a man with sword. Devī assails him with bow and arrows. The demon assumes an elephant form, and Devī cuts him down with the sword. Finally the demon résumés his buffalo form. In this form the final battle takes place: “Enraged, Caṇḍikā, the Mother of the worlds, quaffed a divine drink again and again and laughed, her eyes becoming red.”
⁴⁹
In this form she finally kills Mahiṣāsura in his buffalo form, pressing his neck with her foot and striking him with her spear, finally cutting off his head with her sword.

Thus the salvation of gods and men has been accomplished, and Devī receives praise from all the
devas
. In the course of this prayer all the essential qualities of Devī are mentioned, and the basic Devī philosophy comes to the fore: Devī is “the origin of the universe, the resort of all, the primordial
prakṛti.”
She is the “supreme
Vidyā
which is the cause of liberation.” She is
“durgā
, the boat that carries men across the difficult ocean of worldly existence,” she is “Śri who has taken her abode in the heart of Viṣṇu,” and she is “Gaurī, who has established herself with Śiva.” Devī offers a boon, and the
devas
choose the following: “Whenever we think of you again, destroy our direst calamities.” This feat of Mahiṣamārdiṇī is repeated in all ages; again and again Devī proves to be savior of gods and men by killing the demons. The
Devī Bhāgavata Purāṇa
⁵⁰
devotes a long section to the same theme adding many significant details. Thus before the fight with the
asuras
Indra approaches Viṣṇu and Śiva and Brahmā for help. They decide to fight against Mahiṣāsura and his generals, but, unable to defeat him, they return to their abodes. Only then does Devī come into existence, produced from the combined power and wrath of the gods. Mahiṣāsura first sends his messengers. In the discussions between Mahiṣāsura’s ambassadors and Devī she herself explains her nature, her function, and her origin. Mahiṣa repeatedly proposes marriage to Devī, but the enraged Devī only curses him. Devī first kills the messengers of Mahiṣa: Vaskala, Durmukha, Ciksurakhya, Tāmrāksa, Asiloma, Vidalaksa – and finally kills Mahiṣāsura himself. It is worth noting that there is no mention of the “buffalo-form” of the
asura
, nor of any changes of form. Devī is described as having eighteen arms all equipped with various weapons and instruments. After Mahiṣa has been killed the
devas
praise Devī, the “mother of gods.” Devī promises to help the gods in all their troubles in the future.

It is also noteworthy that, after having killed Mahiṣāsura, Devī withdraws to Manidvlpa, “her own abode,” situated in the Ocean-of-Nectar where Devī as
māyā-śakti
is ever sporting in different forms.
⁵¹
This may be the explanation of the various forms of the origin of Devī: because she resides in the Ocean-of-Nectar she emerges out from the churned ocean, and in one manifestation she is formed by the energy of the gods.

Devī Mahiṣamārdiṇī sets the pattern for the description of many other battles in which Devī kills demons who have terrorized gods and men. A story very similar to that of Mahiṣāsura is connected with the names of Śumbha and Niśumbha,
⁵²
two demons who had deprived Indra of his sovereignty and his share in sacrifice. They had also usurped the powers of Sun, Moon, Kubera, Yama, Varuna, Vāyu, and Agni. This time the
devas
, remembering the boon granted by Devī on the former occasion, go straight to Devī for help. The praises uttered on this occasion are centered on the “Devī who abides in all beings” as consciousness, as intelligence, as sleep, as hunger, as reflection, as power, as thirst, as forgiveness, as genus, as peace, as faith, as error, as mother.
⁵³
The
Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa
combines with this story the episode of the demon’s wooing of Devī, to become his wife: solicited by his servants Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, he sends Sugrīva as a go-between. Devī accepts the offer on one condition: she will marry the man who defeats her in battle.
⁵⁴
Śumbha dispatches Dhumralocana, the general of the
asura
army, to defeat Devī and bring her with him. With the sound
hum
Aṃbikā burns Dhumralocana to ashes. The lion upon which Devī rides destroys the
asura
army. The
asura
king then dispatches Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa to bind and carry off Aṃbikā. As soon as these come near to seize her, “Kālī of terrible countenance, armed with sword and noose, bearing a strange skull-topped staff, decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger’s skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep-sunk reddish eyes, and filling the regions of the sky with her roars, and impetuously falling upon slaughtering the great
asuras,”
issues out of the forehead of Aṃbikā, who herself remains “smiling gently seated upon a lion on a huge golden peak of the great mountain.”
⁵⁵
Kālī now cruelly kills the men and animals of the
asura
army. It is the same goddess of war we had met in the
Mahābhārata
. Kālī severs the heads of Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa and brings them to Caṇḍikā “as two great animal offerings in this sacrifice of battle.” The final victory over Śumbha and Niśumbha is reserved to Caṇḍikā herself. Caṇḍikā promotes Kālī to the position of Cāmuṇḍā. That is the sign for Śumbha to mobilize the entire
asura
army: “Seeing that most terrible army coming, Caṇḍikā filled the space between the earth and the sky with the twang of her bow-string. Her lion made an exceedingly loud roar and Aṃbikā magnified these roars with the clanging of her bell. Kālī, expanding her mouth wide and filling the quarters with the sound
hum
, overwhelmed the noises of the bow-string, lion and bell by her terrific roars.”
⁵⁶

This triad of Aṃbikā, lion, and Kālī is joined by the Śaktis from the bodies of Brahmā, Śiva, Guha, Viṣṇu, and Indra – each with the attributes and
vāhana
of the god from which she issued. From the body of Devī also a Śakti issues: “Caṇḍikā, most terrific, exceedingly fierce and yelling like a hundred jackals.”
⁵⁷
Śiva is sent by Śakti as ambassador to Śumbha and Niśumbha to offer the netherworld to them provided they return the Trilokas and the oblations to the gods. Each of the Śaktis helps in overpowering the
asuras:
Kālī pierces the enemies with her spear and crushes their skulls with her staff. Brahmāṇī robs them of their valor by sprinkling her water. Maheśvarī slays
asuras
with her trident, Vaiṣṇavī with the discus, Kaumārī with the javelin. Aindrī destroys
asuras
with the thunderbolt, Varahl tears their breasts open with her tusks, Nāraṣimhī claws and devours them. “Dazed by the violent laughter of Śivadūtī the
asuras
fell down on earth – she then devoured them who had fallen down.”

The
asura
army fled. One Raktabīja, however, advanced: whenever a drop of Raktabīja’s blood fell to the earth, another
asura
of his stature would rise. These battled the Mātṛs. “And those
asuras
that were born from the blood of Raktabīja pervaded the whole world; the
devas
became intensely alarmed at this.”
⁵⁸
Devī orders Cāmuṇḍā to drink the blood of the
asura
before it falls to earth and to devour the
asuras
that have come already into existence. Finally Devī kills him. Then Śumbha and Niśumbha advance in rage to kill Devī and the lion. Devī intercepts the weapons hurled against her with her own weapons. Śumbha is knocked down by the ax of Devī. Before Niśumbha falls under Devī’s trident Devī blows her conch, twangs her bowstring, and fills the four quarters with the sound of her bell. Her lion fills earth and sky with his roar, Kālī produces an enormous noise by striking the earth with both hands, Śivadūtī gives vent to terrible laughter. After Niśumbha is struck by Devī’s trident he regains consciousness, résumés fighting, is pierced by Devī’s arrow and another demon issues out from him whose head the Devī laughingly severs.

Another interesting feature of Devī philosophy is interwoven with the final killing of Śumbha: the demon challenges Devī by declaring that she is not fighting on her own but resorts to the strength of others. In order to show that she is alone in the world, she reabsorbs all those Śaktis who previously had been fighting separately. A fierce battle follows in which the Devī destroys the weapons of the
asura
by shouting the
mantra hum
. The fight is carried on not only on earth, but also in the sky. Finally Devī pierces Śumbha with a dart through the chest and throws him to the earth, which shakes at the fall. The result of this salvation wrought by Devī becomes apparent in universal relief: “When that evil-natured was slain, the universe became happy and regained perfect peace and the sky grew clear.”
⁵⁹

The classical symptoms of salvation are enumerated here. The
devas
who are reinstated in their positions praise Devī as saviour. She is addressed as the “cause of final emancipation,” as “the bestower of enjoyment and liberation,” as “intent on saving the dejected and distressed that take refuge with her,” as the one “who removes all sufferings,” as the one “who possesses the benevolence of saving the three worlds,” as “the one who took away the life of Vṛtra,” and as “the one who frees from all fear and from all evils.”
⁶⁰

Devī promises, to those who worship her, protection and the destruction of future demons: in the twenty-eighth Manvantara under Vaivasvata Manu, Śumbha and Niśumbha will be born again – the Devī promises to destroy them as Vindhyavāsinī, born of Yaśodā. The
dānavas
, descendants of Vipracitti, will be slain by her in an Atirudra form. She will then be called Raktadantā, because her teeth will become red from their blood. At the time of a drought of one hundred years Devī will be born of the
mūrtis
“but not womb-begotten” as the Śatākṣī; maintaining the world with life-sustaining vegetables born of her own body she will be known as Śākambharī. She will slay the
asura
Durgāma and will therefore be known as Durgādevī. She will slay the
rākṣasas
in the Himālayas for the protection of the
mūrtis
and will be known as Bhīmadevī. As Bhrāmaradevī she will kill the
asura
Aruna “for the good of the three worlds.”

Devī makes promises to those devotees who recite the above-mentioned hymns, and who remember her deeds. Those who observe the
Devī-vrata
on the eighth, ninth, and fourteenth
tithi
“shall not experience anything wrong, robbers or kings, of weapons, fire and flood.”
⁶¹
Devī promises never to forsake a place where her praises are sung. The blessings which are connected with Devī’s salvation are: enemies perish, welfare accrues, evil portents subside, the unfavorable influence of planets vanishes, a bad dream is turned into a good dream; it frees children from seizures, promotes friendship, destroys demons, goblins and ogres:

The chanting and hearing of the story of my manifestations remove sins, and grant perfect health and protect one from evil spirits ... He who is on a lonely spot in a forest, or is surrounded by forest fire, or who is surrounded by robbers in a desolate spot, or who is captured by enemies, or pursued by a lion, or tiger, or by wild elephants in a forest, or who under the orders of a wrathful king is sentenced to death, or has been imprisoned, or who is tossed about in his boat by a tempest in the vast sea, or who is in the most terrible battle under a shower of weapons, or who is amidst all kinds of dreadful troubles, or afflicted with pain – such a person, on remembering this my story, will be saved from his straits.

Very similar are the myths told in other Upa-Purāṇas concerning Devī killing demons – often the same ones as in the
Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa
. The greatest number of such accounts naturally occurs in the
Devī-Bhāgavata Purāṇa
. It describes at length how Devī kills Madhu and Kaiṭabha, Yudhajit and Śatrujit, how a war between Devas and Daityas is decided in favor of the Devas by Devī’s intervention; how Kṛṣṇa’s salvation from Kamsa’s sword is ascribed to the intervention of Devī Yogamāyā; how Devī kills Dhumralocana, Raktabīja, Śumbha, and Niśumbha, Taraka-Asura; and how Devī as Bhrāmarī again saves the gods from the Daityas.

In the
Devī Purāṇa
the fight between the demon king Ghora and Devī figures prominently. In connection with this myth the killing of various other demons like Durmukha, Kala, Bhairava, Suṣena, and others by various attendants of Devī is narrated. Finally, Devī kills Ghora, who is no other than Mahiṣa. The gods praise the goddess and offer buffaloes and he-goats to her.

An interesting feature occurs in the
Mahābhāgavata Purāṇa
that connects the Rama-Sītā story with Devī. Otherwise it contains no myth of Devī killing the
asuras
.

The
Kālikā Purāṇa
is also remarkably devoid of such myths. The
Śiva Purāṇa
narrates in the
Umāsaṃhitā
how Devī killed Dhumralocana, Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, and Raktabīja. She is also described as savior under the title of Śatakyā. In the
Rudrasāṃhitā
she is described as killing two otherwise invincible demons, Vidala and Utpala. The
Kāsīkhaṇḍha
of the
Skanda Purāṇa
contains an account of Devī battling with
asuras
.

It is quite impossible to bring all the different names and forms of Devī occurring in the Purāṇas into one system. The Purāṇas make several attempts to classify the Devīs but succeed finally only in pointing out that all the innumerable forms are but manifestations of the One Supreme Goddess. In fact, the various names are by and large merely local varieties of the goddess: one text in the
Devī Purāṇa
clearly states that Devī is worshiped as Maṅgalā in the region between Vindhyas and Malayās, as Jayantī in the coastal area between Vindhyas and Kurukṣetra, as Nanda between Kurukṣetra and Himālayas, as Kālīka, Tārā and Umā in the mountains, as Bhairavī in Jālandhara, as Mahālakṣmi in the Kola mountain, as Kāla-Rātrī in the Sakya mountains, as Aṃbā in Candhama-dana, as Ujjainī in Ujjayani, and as Bhadrākālī in Videha.
⁶³