Mahishasura Mardini: The Devi Mahatmya and the Origins of Durga Puja

Mahishasura Mardini, "the slayer of Mahishasura", is a name of the goddess Durga. Her story is the main narrative behind Navratri and Durga Puja, and it appears in the Devi Mahatmya, also known as the Durga Saptashati, a 700-verse text within the Markandeya Purana.

The demon and the boon

Mahishasura was an asura, said to be able to take the form of a buffalo (mahisha). Through severe penance he won a boon from Brahma that no man or god could kill him. Confident, he attacked the heavens and drove out the gods led by Indra.

The birth of the goddess

Distressed, the gods approached Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The fury of the three combined with the radiance of all gods and condensed into a single luminous figure: Durga. Each deity gave her a weapon. Shiva gave a trident, Vishnu a discus, Indra a thunderbolt, Agni a spear, Varuna a conch, and the Himalayas gave her a lion to ride.

The battle

Mahishasura sent army after army and shifted shapes between buffalo, lion, elephant and human. Durga battled him, according to the text, for nine nights and days. On the tenth day, when he emerged from the buffalo form in human shape, she pierced him with her trident. His defeat restored the heavens.

What the story means

• The unique boon: Mahishasura asked for protection from men and gods, but not from a woman, a reminder that arrogance overlooks what it considers insignificant.
• Combined energies: the goddess is born from the collective power of all, suggesting that strength lies in unity.
• Shakti: the story is the foundation of Shaktism, which regards the feminine principle as the source of all energy.

How it appears in festivals

In Bengal, Durga is shown as a ten-armed goddess standing on a lion, her trident through Mahishasura, with her children Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartikeya. The scene, the hardest to sculpt well, is placed at the centre of each pandal. See Navratri across India for how the festival differs by region. At the end of the nine days, the victory is celebrated as Dussehra or Vijayadashami.

The fierce goddess takes other forms as well, including Kali and the nine forms described in The Nine Forms of Durga. Many temples, such as Mysuru's Chamundeshwari temple, are connected to the tale.