Mahakaleshwar

Avanti, Suta says, is a beautiful city that bestows emancipation on all beings and is loved by Shiva. A foremost brahmana lived there, Vedapriya, who studied the Vedas, kept the sacrificial fire and worshipped a parthiva image of Shiva every day. He had four sons just like him: Devapriya, Priyamedha, Sukrita and Dharmavahi. By the power of their merit, happiness on earth increased, like the moon waxing in the bright fortnight.

On Mount Ratnamala lived a great asura, Dushana, who had a boon from Brahma and regarded the world as nothing. He had driven the devas out of their positions and shattered the dharma of the Vedas and the smritis everywhere, like a lion among hares. But he knew the Vedic way could still be seen in Avanti, and decided to destroy the brahmanas there.

He gathered his daityas and spoke bitterly: the brahmanas must give up Shiva's dharma and the Vedic dharma, or they would not be allowed to live. Four daityas then surrounded the city from four directions, like the fires of dissolution.

The brahmanas heard what was coming and were not shaken. They stayed fixed in meditation on Shiva, reasoning that if Shiva is in front of you, who can suffer. The frightened townspeople came to them and asked what to do. The sons of Vedapriya answered that they had no army and no weapons, that the dishonour was also a dishonour to the one who is their refuge, and that Shiva, affectionate to devotees, would protect them. They made a parthiva lingam and settled into dhyana.

Dushana saw them and ordered his men to kill and bind them. The brothers did not even hear him, absorbed as they were. Before he could strike, the ground where the lingam stood sank into a pit with a loud sound, and Shiva rose from it in a terrible form. He declared himself Mahakala, the one who rises against the wicked and is the refuge of the virtuous, and told Dushana to leave. Then he gave one humkara and reduced Dushana and his army to ashes. Some soldiers were killed and others fled. The text compares it to darkness vanishing at the sight of the sun.

The drums of the devas sounded, flowers fell, and Brahma, Vishnu and the others assembled to praise him. Shiva told the brahmanas to ask for a boon. They asked for liberation from samsara, and for Shiva to remain there for the protection of the world and to save all who see him. Shiva stayed in that pit as Mahakaleshvara, and his region extends one krosha in each of the four directions. The Purana says a person who sees him is not afflicted by miseries even in dreams, and that worship with a particular wish fulfils that wish and leads to emancipation in the next world.

The second chapter turns to King Chandrasena of Ujjayini, a Shiva devotee who knew all the scriptures. Manibhadra, a leader of Shiva's ganas and the king's friend, gave him the great jewel Chintamani, radiant as the Koustubha. Merely seeing or meditating on it was auspicious, and brass, copper, tin or stone that touched it turned to gold.

Every other king on earth coveted it. They asked for it, and Chandrasena, firm in his devotion to Mahakala, refused. They then gathered armies from all sides and besieged Ujjayini at its four gates. The king did not eat, but worshipped Mahakala day and night, with no other plan.

A widowed gopi was passing through the city with her five-year-old son. She saw the king's worship of Mahakala and went back to her tent. The boy, full of curiosity, found a stone, set it up near the tent as his own Shiva lingam, and imagined fragrances, ornaments, garments, incense, lamps and food. He worshipped with flowers and leaves, danced and bowed repeatedly.

When his mother called him to eat, he did not hear. She found him seated with eyes closed, struck him, dragged him by the hand, and when he still would not leave, destroyed the worship and flung the stone far away. The boy cried "Lord, my lord!" and collapsed on the ground in grief, senseless.

When he came to, he saw that by Shiva's favour the tent had become a temple of Mahakala, with golden doors, an altar of blue diamond, jewelled pillars and a crystal floor, and a bejewelled lingam at the centre. His worship materials were there too. He praised Shiva and bowed again and again. When he came out at sunset, his tent had become a golden house. His mother lay inside like a celestial woman. He woke her, and she embraced him.

The king came when his night rites were done and was overcome. There were great festivities. In the morning, the besieging kings heard of it from their spies and spoke among themselves: this king is Shiva's devotee and impossible to defeat, even the children of this city keep Shiva's vratas, so if we oppose him Shiva will be angry. They gave up their enmity, threw down their weapons, took Chandrasena's permission and entered the city, where they worshipped Mahakala. They also visited the gopi's house. They made the gopi's son the king of all the gopas in their kingdoms.

Then Hanuman, lord of the monkeys, appeared before them. He embraced the gopi's boy and told the kings that for embodied beings there is no destination other than Shiva, and that even one who worships Shiva without mantras can reach him. He said the boy would enjoy the world's pleasures and then be liberated, and that in the eighth generation of his line would be born Nanda, whose son would be Krishna, Narayana himself. From then on the boy would be called Shrikara. Hanuman taught him the methods of worship and vanished.

Chandrasena and Shrikara served Mahakala, and in time both reached the supreme destination.