On the ninth and concluding night of Navaratra, Durga slays demon Mahisha bringing peace and prosperity on the earth. This leads to the celebration of Dasara or Dussehera festival across India. The myth of Goddess and buffalo is prevalent in India from ancient times. While the main motif of Goddess killing demon Mahisha remains constant in the myth, the narrative changes from region to region. The following is the Tamil version of Goddess and buffalo myth, noted in Arunalachalam Puranam which differs from the popular version of the myth in Devi Mahatmya.

Once, while playing a game of dice Shiva and Devi (Parvati) quarrelled. Impulsively, Devi covered the eyes of Shiva and the whole world plunged into darkness. Shiva had to open his third eye so the world could be be restored to normalcy and sages could continue with the sacrificial rituals .

Shiva told Devi since she had brought the disaster upon the world, albeit for few moments by closing his eyes, she would have to go through a period of renunciation and cleansing to make amends for her impulsive action. Devi was thus sent to Kanchipuram to perform penance. Devi made a linga out of sand and started worshiping it.To test her devotion, Shiva flooded the earth, washing away the whole world, But Devi stayed firm by embracing the sand linga and salvaged it from disintegrating in the flood waters. Pleased by her devotion, Shiva directed her to Arunachalam mountain where she could continue her tapas.

Soon a congregation of gods from devloka approached Devi, complaining about the demon Mahisha who had created havoc in devloka. ” He takes hold of Adisesha by his head and tail and flings him like a sling rocking Vishnu and disturbing his sleep” said one god.  “He has stolen Agni’s ram” complained another , ” And of course he was seen riding Indra’s Airavat …” echoed the rest of the gods. Hearing these misdeeds Devi got angry and instructed Durga to kill Mahisha. Durga aided by Arunanayaki , Shaktis, and Bhairavas, along with the army of seven mothers engaged in a fierce battle with Mahisha. Finally Durga killed him by severing his head with her trident. But to the horror and amazement of all , as soon Durga pierced Mahisha’s neck, a crystal linga sprang out of his severed neck. Mahisha was actually a staunch devotee of Shiva.

Durga, handed over the crystal linga to Devi as a war trophy . But as soon as Devi took the linga in her hands it got stuck to her palm. Alas! Devi had committed a sin by killing the devotee of Shiva. To expiate herself from the sin of killing of Mahisha, she asked Durga to strike the Mountain ( Arunachalam ) with a sword. When Durga executed the command, water gushed out of the mountain in great force . Devi stood beneath the water spout till the linga got detached from her hand. She then circumambulated the mountain with the linga in her arms. Shiva was pleased by her devotion and granted her request to merge with his body by becoming the left half of Shiva.

Story Collected by : Vidya Kamat
Text Source: Tamil Temple Myth by David Dean Shulman
Location: Tamil Nadu
Image Copyright: Vidya Kamat

The tenth day of Navaratra is called Vijayadashmi or Dussehra, is celebrated as the day of triumph of Devi Mahishasurmardini over the asura, Mahisha. The story of Goddess Durga, or Katyayani and her victory is well known and popular. But very little is known about the asura she triumphed upon. Who was Mahishasura and what is his story?

Mahishasura is popularly represented in three forms – in his zoomorphic form he is shown as a buffalo, in the theriomorphic form he is supposed to have the body of a buffalo and the head of a man, and in anthropomorphic form he is shown in the form of a gigantic asura . Vamana Purana gives following account about the birth of Mahisha.

Sage Sindhudvipa, son of Suparshva was performing tapas on the Mandar mountain. Mahishmati the daughter of Viprachitti the asura and her gang of friends came strolling on a pleasure excursion to the vicinity of Mandara mountain. After a period of prolonged fun and frolic they decided to spend the night by the mountain. As they went around looking for an abode for their stay, they came across the beautiful hermitage of sage Sindhudvipa.

Mischievously they decided to threaten the occupant and take over the hermitage for their night stay. Thus they all assumed the form of fierce she buffaloes and attacked sage Sindhudvipa .
But sage Sindhudvipa was a seer, and through his yogic seeing he came to know that the buffaloes were none other than girls from asura clan. In a fit of anger, he cursed them to turn into she buffaloes for the rest of their lives. As soon as the girls heard the curse they realised the mistake of offending a formidable seer. They pleaded the sage to pardon them as it was just a prank, but alas! it was too late. Sindhudvipa finally took pity and gave a counter boon and said, they would return to their original form when Mahishmati the leader of the girl gang would give birth to a son.

Years passed, Mahishmati and her friends were once grazing on the banks of river Narmada.
Meanwhile, sage Sindhudvipa fell in love with a celestial nymph Indumati who was living by the banks of Narmada. The sage was so infatuated with Indumati that one day `he decided to meet her and express his love for her. But before meeting her he decided to take a dip in the river. Sindhudvipa was so excited with thought of meeting Indumati, that he dropped his seed into the river. When Mahishmati the buffalo drank the water from the same river, she swallowed the seed of Sindhudvipa and got pregnant. In due course she gave birth to a buffalo-son and named him Mahisha. Mahishmati and her friends were thus released from the curse of sage Sindhudvipa and gained back their original form.

Asura Mahisha grew up to become very intelligent and powerful asura on the earth. Eventually he became a threat to the existence of devas. To counter the threat of mahisha Gods decided to create Devi to destroy him. From the fire mountain formed out of the flames of anger from the eyes of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shankara emerged the Devi Katyayani, replendant as a thousand suns and having three eyes, with hair black as night and eighteen arms. Every god present there gave her a weapon for each hand. Shankara gave her trident, Vishnu a disc, Varuna gave her a conch , Agni gave her a dart, Yama gave her an iron rod, Vayu gave a bow, And Surya gave a quicker, Indra a thunder bolt, Kubera a mace, Brahma a rosary and water pot, Kala gave a sword and shield, Vishvakarma handed her battle axe and finally Himavan gave her a lion. Minor gods gave her different ornaments. Thus Devi-rupa or form was completed, and she went on to destroy Mahishasura.
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The story collected by : Vidya Kamat
Text: Elements of Hindu iconographyVo I part I by T. A. Gopinath Rao
Location: Pan India

Image copyright : Vidya Kamat