Background: devI mAhAtmyam is the canonical text of the shaktA (very loosely worshipping the mother goddess---shakti) tradition occurring in mArkaNdeya purANa. As with most hindu texts, this one is also written in the form of dialogues between different characters. The purANa itself is narrated by sage mArkaNdeya, and devI mAhAtmyam occurs in 13 adhyAyAs (chapters) totalling around 700 shlokas mostly in anushtubh chandas (meter). A few adhyAyAs are in trishtubh chandas. We learnt how to recite these charitrAs (episodes) as children. Since then, as per the usual recitation traditions, I’ve tried to recite it during the time of navarAtri each year. Some years I’ve not been able to recite at all and on some others, I’ve been able to only partially do it. This time though, I thought of paying closer attention the shlokas to compliment my other studies. Moreover, bhautikagnya was very interested in painting many scenes. So we decided to use this as an excuse to do a reasonably detailed study of the charitrAs. In this the focus will mostly be on the description and narration without going into shaktA philosophy or commenting on it. This is to limit the length and more importantly to hide our own ignorance of the philosophy.
First charitra, chapter 1: sage mArkandeya speaks about the story of a king called suratha (सुरथः नाम राज अभूत् समस्ते क्षिति मण्डले). suratha was a very powerful king, but all his enemies united against him and defeated suratha in a war. After losing his territories, suratha was forced to dwell in his capital city, which was the only territory left under his control. But even there, his ministers conspired against him and drove him away after taking away his treasury and army.
कोशः बलं च अपहृतं तत्र अपि स्वपुरे ततः | (sandhis will be split for easier parsing)
The king escaped with just a single horse and reached a dense forest where he located the Ashrama (hermitage) of sage medhas. He narrated his sad story and his worries about whether his kingdom would be well taken care of by multiple weak kings and treacherous ministers. While he was staying in the hermitage, a vaishya (businessman) came there (तत्र विप्र आश्रम अभ्याशे वैश्यं एकं ददर्श ह). He introduced himself as samAdhi (समाधिः नाम वैश्यः अहं उत्पन्नः धनिनाम् कुले). He too had a story of betrayal, where his own sons and relatives drove him away from his house due to their avarice for his wealth. Both the king and the vaishya were troubled about why they were so attached to material possessions. They were troubled about why they were unable to control their mind and were still concerned about the very same people who betrayed them. They asked the sage to help them in their moment of despair. sumedhas said--
महामाया प्रभावेण संसार स्थिथि कारिणा ||
it is due to mahA mAyA that whatever moves and does not move gets created
तन्नात्र विस्मयः कार्यः योग निद्रा जगत्पतेः |
she is the reason for the yogic dream of vishNu (jagatpati)
महामाया हरेः च इषा तया संमोह्यते जगत् ||
the great mAyA enchants the whole world
…
तया विसृज्यते विश्वम् जगत् एतत् च चराचरम् |
the entire world is created by her
सैषा प्रसन्ना वरदा नृणां भवति मुक्तये ||
but when she is pleased with anyone, she gives them mukti from this world
सा विद्या परमा मुक्तेः हेतु भूता सनातनी |
she is the greatest knowledge and the provider of mukti
संसार बन्ध हेतुः च सैव सर्वेश्वरेश्वरी ||
but she is also the cause for attachment and greatest among gods.
Struck by the greatness of the devI, the king wanted to know more about her. How did she come into being? What are her effects, actions and forms? He directs his questions to the learned sage medhas as follows:
यत् प्रभावा च सा देवी यत् स्वरूपा यत् उद्भवा |
तत् सर्वं श्रोतुं इच्छामि त्वत् तु ब्रह्म विदाम्वर ||
The rishi replied that the devi has always existed, but she has taken several different forms at several different times. She is said to be born whenever she takes a form in order to help the devas. He then goes on to narrate the charitrA of the vadha (killing) of the rAkshasas (demons) madhu and kaitabha.
madhu kaitabha vadha: At the end of a kalpa (cosmic cycle), the whole universe was just an ocean of praLaya (deluge). In this deluge, vishNu was in his yoga nidra when
तदा द्वौ असुरौ घोरौ विख्यातौ मधुकैटभौ |
two fierce asurAs called madhu and kaitabha rose
विष्णु कर्ण मल उद्भूतौ हन्तुं ब्रह्माणं उद्यतौ ||
from the ear wax of vishNu and threatened to kill brahmA who was seated on vishNu’s lotus.
Threatened thus, brahma then made a prayer to devi. There are several beautiful verses praising her greatness and beseeching her to wake up vishNu from his dream. brahma in one of the verses says,
प्रबोधं च जगत् स्वामि नियताम् अच्युतः लघु
“may the lord of the universe wake up soon”.
एवं स्तुता तदा देवी तामसी तत्र वेधसा |
Having heard brahma, the devI--who is the reason for vishNu’s nidra--frees vishNu from it
विष्णोः प्रबोधनार्थाय निहन्तुं मधुकैटभौ ||
for the purpose of awakening him and killing the asuras.
नेत्रास्य नासिका बाहुः ह्र्दयेभ्यः तथा रसः |
She leaves his eyes, limbs, heart and the ocean. She comes forth and awakens vishNu.
Now, although devI worship is certainly found in earlier works right from the shrutis, this really puts her at a very high pedestal. This is the reason why we consider this text as the canonical text of shakta tradition despite it being a later work. As a result, depictions of these episodes in the form of paintings, sculptures, and retellings in other languages are abundant. One such miniature is shown here (more information---
We notice in the miniature the consistency with the purAnNic description. The asurAs have appeared and seem to be conspiring, devI too has appeared and vishNu seems to have just woken up. One of vishNu’s hands is playing with his ear, and madhu kaitabhAs are supposed to have originated from his ear wax :) The purANa has no description of the asurAs and devi, apart from the asurAs having red, angry eyes. So there is a large scope for imagination.
पञ्च वर्ष सहस्राणि बाहु प्रहरणः विभुः ||
vishNu fought them with his hands for 5000 years (we notice in purANas and itihAsAs that the authors are not shy of using absolutely huge numbers.)
तथा इति उक्त्वा भगवता शङ्का चक्र गदा भृता |
Then the great vishNu fought them while carrying his conch, disc and mace
कृत्वा चक्रेण वै छिन्ने जघने शिरसी तयोः ||
Holding them between his legs, he cut their heads off with his disc.
The last line can be translated as “between his legs” or “on his thighs”. This gives rise to two ways of painting this scene. Some other depictions (everything from the web unless claimed otherwise):
A defaced sculpture from Kanpur (gupta empire)
(http://puratattva.in/2011/12/04/bhitargaon-the-glory-in-the-terracottas-1366)
At the end, vishNu actually talks the asuras into getting killed. In that sense, them lying on his lap shows that they were tricked.
The earlier mahAbhArata version
An earlier version of the madhu kaitabha charitra appears in adhyAya 203 of vanaparva in mahAbhArata. This is the parva where the paNdavas along with draupadi spend 12 years in exile. The parva is full of sub-stories and sub-sub-stories making it one of the longest parvas. Coincidentally, the madhu kaitabha charitra is recited by mArkaNdeya rishi in the mahAbhArata as well. The rishi visits the pANdavas while they are in the forest and yudhistra requests him to narrate several stories. While he recites the story of a powerful daitya called dhundhu, yudhistra asks him to recite his origins which leads to another sub-story. The rishi says:
एकार्णवे तदा लोके नष्टे स्थावरजङ्गमे | प्रनष्टेषु च भूतेषु सर्वेषु भरतर्षभ ||
Hey great one among the bharatas, this story belongs to the time of the great flood when things that move and do not move were submerged in one huge ocean.
सुष्वाप भगवान् विष्णुरप्सु योगत एव सः | नागस्य भोगे महति सेषस्यामिततेजसः ||
At this time, the great vishNu was in his yoga nidra on the great sesha nAga.
नाभ्यां विनिःसृतं दिव्यं तत्र उत्पन्नः पितामहः | साक्षात् लोकगुरुः बरह्मा पद्मे सूर्य समप्रभः ||
From his navel appeared the great father brahma, seated on a lotus and gleaming like another sun.
कस्यचित् तु अथ कालस्य दानवौ वीर्यवत्तमौ | मधुः च कैटभः च दृष्टवन्तौ हरिं प्रभुम् ||
Some time after brahma’s appearance, two powerful dAnavAs appeared and saw sri hari vishNu. (So in this version of the story, there are no details about how they exactly appeared.)
दृष्ट्वा पितामहम् च अपि पद्मे पद्मनिभ ईक्षणम् | वित्रासयेतामथ तौ ब्रह्माणम् इति तौजसम् |
They tried to trouble brahma who
अकम्पयत पद्मनालं ततः अबुध्यत केशवः ||
shook the stalk of his lotus and woke up kesava.
Again, this version is very simple without any involvement of devI. Her appearance only happens in devI mAhAtmyam which is centuries younger than mahAnhArata. But like before, vishNu battles and kills the dAnavAs. The famous mahAbhArata published by gIta press is full of beautiful illustrations and this charitra comes with the drawing shown in this page. There is much talking between vishNu and the rakshasas in the mahAbhArata version.
The uttarakAnda version: madhu kaitabha vadha also makes an appearance in the much later addition of uttarakAnda. In sarga 63, rAma gives a divine arrow to his younger brother and narrates the story--which is shorter and very similar to the mahAbhArata version. He says that the arrow was made by vishNu himself to kill madhu and kaitabha. As shatrughna prepares to battle a powerful demon called lavaNa in sarga 69, brahma tells the devas who are watching the fearsome battle:
वधाय लवणस्याजौ शरः शत्रुघ्नधारितः |
For the vadha of lavaNa, shatrughna holds a great arrow
तेजसा तस्य सम्मूढाः सर्वे स्मः सुरसत्तमाः |
whose radiance is befuddling even you.
एषः अपूर्वस्य देवस्य लोक कर्तुः सनातनः |
This is the arrow of the eternal one, the creator, and
शरः तेजोमयो वत्सा येन वै भयम् आगतम् |
you are shaking with fear by the mere sight of this brilliant arrow.
एष वै कैटभस्यार्थे मधुनश्च महाशरः |
This was made by vishNu to vanquish madhu and kaitabha.
In this study, we found out that the sequence of sargas leading to lavaNAsura’s vadha is very popular in kathakaLi performances, some of whose videos are available on youtube. For those who are wondering whether vishNu is called madhusUdana because of this charitra, you are correct.
bhautikagnyA’s own words on his miniature of the sumedhas, suratha, samAdhi conversation: I had originally intended to make this a large oil painting. In addition to time constraints, I also stumbled upon a number of miniatures illustrating the mahAtmyam itself and decided to make this a miniature (8in * 12in) too. Doing this made me truly understand the difficulties in miniature painting, and appreciate the artform better. I worked using soft pastels on Canson paper; the medium is very unforgiving, particularly when working so small and much care must be taken to retain highlights and cast shadows through the process.
