The legend of Mahishasuramardini - Lord Durga

The timeline of the legend of Mahishasuramardini from the Sanskrit books “Bhutala Pandya Charitam” and “Devi Mahatmya or Durga Saptashati or Chandi patha - It is part of the Markandeya Purana and estimated to have been composed between 400-600 CE”. It is said that very long ago (77 AD) Barkur was called as “Baraha Kanya Pura”. This Kingdom in South Canara (Tulunadu) was ruled by King Bhutala (or Bootala) Pandya. He had twelve wives and many children.

The king of demon, Kundodara Bhoota (Mahishasura) demanded a “Bali” (Sacrifice) of king’s son when the newly built ship was set out to sea. Even though he had twelve wives and lot of children they refused to give one. Then his sister agreed to sacrifice her son. The demon Kundodara was impressed, he not only spared the young boy’s life, but also ordered Bootala pandya to follow the Aliya-Santana, where in all the property would be inherited to his Nephew, and the laws of inheritance were written, as dictated by the demon Kundodara.

Later another similar demand was made by the demon, when Deva Pandya's ships had run aground in Kalyanapura. In order to slake the demon's thirst for human sacrifice, the king made another request from his wife to spare one of their sons. But his wife refused to comply again and publicly renounced all inheritance of the kingdom for her own sons and left the kingdom to live with her parents. Bhutala Pandya was summoned by the people, who wisely propitiated the demon Kundodara as Mahishasura, and built him a permanent abode in Someshwara. Kundodara then demanded of Deva Pandya that he should disinherit all his sons and name his nephew Bhutala Pandya as the successor.

Mahishasura is a Sanskrit word composed of mahisha meaning buffalo and asura meaning demon, or "buffalo demon". As legends have it, Mahishasura was a king of the buffalo race. He was a staunch worshipper of Lord Brahma. After years of penace by Mahishasura, Brahma was finally pleased and offered him a wish. Mad with power, Mahishasura demanded immortality. His wish was that he should not be killed by a "man or animal" on the face of Earth. Brahma granted him this wish, and then told him that a woman will be the end of him.

Mahishasura believed that there is no woman in the world who could cause him any harm. The legend continues, Mahishasura, high on the power of "immortality", attacked Trilok (the three worlds of earth, heaven and hell) with his army. His power knew no bounds as he defeated many Aryan kings in the northern kingdom of Aryabarta.

Later, as an Asura, Mahishasura waged war against the Devas, as the Devas and Asuras were perpetually in conflict. The Devas finally decided to wage a war on Mahishasura but due to Lord Brahma's boon nobody was able to defeat him. In the battles between the Devas and the demons, the Devas led by Indra were defeated by Mahishasura. The Deavs thus approached Lord Vishnu for help. After considering the situation, Lord Vishnu decided to create a female form to defeat Mahishasura. But since Lord Shiva is the god of destruction, they consulted him. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva combined all their powers together to give birth to Durga. Durga is an incarnation of Goddess Parvati, the daughter of Himavan, the lord of the mountains. She is the mother-goddess (Shakti), the power that runs the universe.

While many kings were defeated by Mahishasura, queen (Durga) later came to rule the northern part of Aryabarta. Goddess Durga then fought Mahishasura over a period of fifteen days during which he kept changing his shape to become different animals and misled her. Finally when he transformed into a buffalo,

Thinking that he couldn't be defeated by a woman, he sent out messengers to the queen to become his consort. The queen kept refusing but Mahishasura was not to back off easily and kept sending messengers. Meanwhile, the queen was planning an attack on the buffalo king.

Mahishasura's army was too worn out to protect themselves from the queen's army. Mahishasura thought that he could defeat queen Durga but she killed him with her spear, tore his chest and fed him to his pet lion. Mahishasura was defeated and killed on the day of Mahalaya.

Thereafter she is named Mahishasuramardini, meaning "the killer of Mahishasura". There is a temple dedicated to Mahishasura, who happened to be the Pandya king's family deity. Bhutala Pandya ruled for a period of seventy-five years in peace and his subjects were prosperous. The work, 'Bhootala Pandya Charitam', mentions about Pandya lineage having ruled Barkur for 259 years. The festival of Navaratri is still observed in Mysore (Mahishasur) in memory of the good works showered by goddesses Durga.

Mahishasura's legend is told in a major text of the Shaktism tradition known as the Devi Mahatmya. He is described as an evil being that can change his outer form, but never his demonic goals. According to Christopher Fuller, Mahishasura symbolically represents forces of ignorance and chaos hidden by outer appearances. The symbolism is carried in Hindu arts found in South Asia and southeast Asia (Javanese artwork, for example), where Durga is shown as serene, calm, collected and graceful symbol of good as she pierces the heart and kills the scared, overwhelmed and outwitted Mahishasura.