Bāṇāsura Vadham

Bāṇāsura was the powerful king of Sonitpur, in the land of modern-day Assam, and an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. Pleased with his intense penance, Shiva had blessed him with a thousand arms and personally assured him of protection in any battle. In his devotion Bāṇāsura used each of his thousand arms to play a different instrument for the Lord — the mridangam, celestial bells, the veena, conch shells — and whenever Shiva performed His Tandava dance, Bāṇāsura would accompany Him with a thousand instruments in perfect harmony.

But with this boon Bāṇāsura grew arrogant, and longed for a worthy opponent to prove his might.

Bāṇāsura had a beautiful daughter, Ushā, a devoted worshipper of Devī Pārvatī. Pleased with her devotion, the Goddess appeared to her and foretold that the man who would appear in her dreams would be her destined husband. One night Ushā dreamed of a prince of unmatched radiance, with broad shoulders and a slender waist, coral-like lips, a face like a lotus, and eyes that shone like the sun and the moon.

She confided in her friend Chitrālekhā, an artist gifted with the power to draw the perfect likeness of anyone described to her, and as Ushā described the man, Chitrālekhā sketched him. Comparing the drawing to the princes and warriors of Bharata, the two discovered that the man was Aniruddha, the grandson of Sri Krishna.

Chitrālekhā possessed another power — she could teleport to any place and bring back whomever she wished. That very night, at Ushā's request, she carried the sleeping Aniruddha from Dwārakā to Ushā's chambers in Sonitpur, unseen, for her father was a sworn enemy of Krishna. For days the two lived in secret, until rumors reached Bāṇāsura. Enraged, he stormed into his daughter's chambers, found Aniruddha there, and bound him with a thousand serpents, then sent word to Dwārakā boasting of what he had done and daring anyone to rescue the prince.

When the news reached Dwārakā, Krishna and Balarāma set out at once for Sonitpur on Garuḍa with their army, and upon arrival demanded that Aniruddha be released and Ushā given to him in marriage. Bāṇāsura refused and commanded his army to attack, but Krishna and Balarāma crushed his forces with ease. Seeing his army in ruins, Bāṇāsura invoked the protection of Lord Shiva, who first sent his Ganas and then came himself to face Krishna.

The duel between them was fierce, a cosmic clash that shook the heavens: Shiva hurled his trident, and Krishna shattered it with His mace; Shiva loosed celestial arrows, and Krishna answered with a shield of divine energy and arrows that shone like the sun. Shiva invoked a weapon of great destruction, and Krishna countered with the Vaishṇava Astra; and when Shiva at last released the Rudra-Jwaram, a deadly plague, Krishna answered with the cooling Vaishṇava-Jwaram, an antidote that neutralized the affliction.

Meanwhile Balarāma faced Kārtikeya, the son of Shiva, and struck him down.

Now bereft of all protection, Bāṇāsura stood exposed, and Krishna sent His Sudarshana Chakra after him. The discus pursued him relentlessly and, as he fled, severed nine hundred and ninety-six of his thousand arms, leaving him utterly humiliated. Defeated and stripped of his arrogance, Bāṇāsura fell at Krishna's feet and pleaded for mercy. Krishna, ever compassionate, spared his life on the condition that he surrender to dharma.

Bāṇāsura released Aniruddha and gladly agreed to his marriage with Ushā, and so, with peace restored, the two were united, fulfilling the prophecy of Devī Pārvatī.