Battle Between Mahishasura and Devi Was Called a Mahotsava. Do You Know Why?

The battle between Devi and Mahishasura’s army started.

Both sides showered shastras and astras upon each other.

What is the difference between shastra and astra? Regular arrows are called shastras. Arrows energized with mantras, such as Agneya, Vayavaya, and Pashupata, are called astras.

There is another meaning. Shastra refers to weapons that are not thrown or shot, such as swords or gada. Weapons that are thrown or shot, such as arrows, spears, and chakras, are called astras.

The sky was lit up due to the flames coming out of these arrows.

A commander of Mahishasura, called Chikshura, had chaturanga sena with him—an army comprising elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers. He was the first to fight with Devi.

The asura called Udagra came with 60,000 chariots and fought with Devi.

The asura called Mahahanu, accompanied by one crore chariots, fought with the Mother Goddess. Imagine, these were not just empty chariots—each one had a valorous senior warrior occupying it. Only senior warriors had chariots and charioteers. The regulars had to fight on foot.

The asura called Asiloma—his name itself means his hair was as big as swords—had five crore chariots accompanying him.

The asura called Bashkala, another commander of Mahishasura, fought with Devi. He had 60 lakh chariots with him, along with thousands of elephants and horses.

The asura called Bidala—named so because he had cat’s eyes—fought Devi with 500 crore chariots.

Not only these, but many other asuras also joined the battle.

Then, Mahishasura himself entered the battlefield, surrounded by thousands of crores of elephants, chariots, and horses. Elephants and horses were mounted, each carrying soldiers on top of them.

Many of the asuras fought with weapons called tomaras, bhindipalas, shaktis, masalas, khadgas, parashus, and pattishas.

• Tomaras are clubs with wooden stems.
• Bhindipalas are plain rods.
• Shaktis are spears.
• Masalas are rods with metallic ends.
• Khadgas are swords.
• Parashus are axes.
• Pattishas are curved swords.

Some of them threw spears. Some threw ropes to capture Devi. Others attacked her with swords.

Devi countered each and every one of them with her own weapons as if she was playing. There was no agitation on her face, no indication of any physical strain. There was not even anger on her face—she was simply playing, breaking every weapon aimed at her into two. The devas praised her, saying, ‘Look at her! She is behaving as if she is playing. She is enjoying it.’

She showered shastras and astras upon the asuras.

But her lion was not calm. He was in rage. He finished asuras as if a fire was raging through a forest.

From every exhalation of Devi, from every breath that she gave out, lakhs and lakhs of her own ganas emerged and started fighting the asuras. Many of them played instruments—mridangas, patahas, and shankhas—because this battle was a mahotsava.

The excitement was because Dharma was going to win in this battle. Evil was going to be subdued and eliminated. Divine order, wish, and will were going to be restored. The world was going to regain its balance as before. This was the reason for the excitement.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi