SLAYER OF DARKNESS

HARAD Navaratri begins today, commemorating the battle fought by the Goddess Durga against the titan Mahishasura, a shape-shifter long before the advent of the Harry Potter books.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

He was half-man, halfbuffalo, and kept changing his form in the fight until he was finally killed when Durga plunged a trident into his chest.

Mahishasura had gained a boon from Agni that no man could kill him. So, it had to be a woman, a possibility he found too absurd to remotely consider. He went on a rampage, terrorising the three worlds with his brutality. The celestials, led by Indra, were unable to vanquish Mahishasura. So, they strategised. They assembled in the mountains and decided to transfer their combined divine energies into the goddess Durga. Suitably armed, she set forth to challenge Mahishasura.

At first, he laughed at her, confident of his brute strength against a mere 'woman', failing to recognise her power as the Parashakti, or Supreme Goddess, for had he not beaten all the celestials soundly? When she didn't back down, he tried frightening her with threatening moves. Durga did not budge, only looked at him with calm contempt. Finally, he was forced to attack head-on, unable to believe that a feminine entity had the strength and skill to withstand him. In desperation, he tried to change from his original form, which was half-man, half-buffalo. In turn, he became a charging buffalo, a lion, a man and an elephant, before finally being killed. He returned in his dying throes to his original half-and-half form.