When the Gods Couldn't Win

Every god tried to defeat Mahishasura. None of them could. So they created Durga.

A buffalo demon named Mahishasura got a boon that no man and no god could kill him. So he chased every god out of heaven. The gods could not beat him. So they did something they had never done before. They put all their light together and out of it came a goddess no one had ever seen, riding a lion. Her name was Durga. She did what no god could.

A Buffalo on the Throne

In the kingdom of Swarga, the home of the gods, there is a beautiful golden throne. It belongs to Indra, the king of the gods. From this throne, Indra rules the rains, the lightning, and the storms. He carries the vajra, the strongest weapon in the universe, in one hand.

One day, that throne had somebody else sitting on it.

A huge half-buffalo, half-man creature was slumped on Indra's golden chair. His feet were on the cushions. His tail was flicking back and forth. He was eating grapes that the apsaras of Swarga had been told to bring him. He looked very, very bored.

His name was Mahishasura. Mahisha means buffalo. Asura means demon. And he had just done something nobody else in the universe had managed to do.

He had thrown the gods out of heaven.

The Boon He Asked For

To understand how a buffalo demon ended up on Indra's throne, you have to know about the boon.

Mahishasura was very strong, even before all of this. But he wanted to be unstoppable. So he sat down in a forest and did the longest, hardest tapas anyone could remember. He stood on one foot. He ate nothing. He prayed to Brahma for years.

Finally, Brahma came down and said, "You have earned a boon. What do you want?"

Mahishasura had thought about this for a long time. He gave Brahma a long list.

"I shall not be killed by any man." "I shall not be killed by any god." "I shall not be killed by any animal of the forest." "No weapon shall be able to break my body."

Brahma listened. He said yes.

What Mahishasura forgot to ask about, in his big long list, was a woman.

He thought a woman could not possibly hurt him. He did not even mention it. So Brahma's boon left it out too. The smallest gap in his list. He never even noticed.