Description of Tripura

Narada said

I have heard the excellent account that bestows bliss, of Shambhu becoming a householder and of Ganesha and Skanda. With affection, tell me now another excellent account: how Shankara Rudra played and killed the crooked. How did Bhagavan burn the cities of the gods' enemies? How did the valiant one bring down all three at once with a single arrow? Tell me all this of the moon-wearer's conduct. The lord plays in eternal maya and gives pleasure to the gods and rishis.

Brahma said

This is just what the excellent rishi Sanatkumara told Vyasa long ago when asked. I will tell it to you.

Sanatkumara said

Vyasa, wise one, hear the conduct of the moon-crowned one and how the destroyer of the universe burned Tripura with a single arrow. Shiva's son Skanda killed Tarakasura, and, lord among sages, Taraka's three sons, the daityas, were left in torment. The eldest was Tarakaksha, the middle one Vidyunmali, and the youngest Kamalaksha. They were always equal in strength, masters of their senses, well prepared, disciplined, truthful, firm in resolve and immensely valiant, but they hated the gods. They went to a cave on Mount Meru and did great and wonderful austerities. All three gave up pleasant enjoyments and no longer lived among desires; they gave up song, music and festivals. Taraka's three sons tormented themselves. In summer they overcame the sun's glare, lighting fires in all directions and standing in their midst, lovingly making offerings into the fire for their aim. The great heat made them faint and fall. In the rains they feared nothing and bore the downpour on their heads. In autumn, when food comes up, they were hungry but mastered hunger and thirst and held firm, giving the delicate, wholesome, excellent roots and fruits and drinks, high and low, to the hungry, while they themselves were like unmoving rocks, great-souled ones standing without support in the four directions. In late autumn they held to great fortitude on the mountain. When their bodies were coated in ice they wore wet clothes. In winter they covered themselves in thin silk and stayed submerged in water. None was distressed and they raised the intensity of their austerities by degrees. Aimed at Vidhatri, those three excellent sons did such austerities, observing fierce penances and fixed in their niyamas, and made their bodies suffer. For a hundred years they stood on one foot, then went through still harder austerities: for a thousand years they lived on air alone, a terrible penance, filled with great heat yet going on. They stood on their heads for a thousand years and for a hundred years stood with arms raised. So, seized by an evil wish, they went through such extremes, their attention steady, day and night. Sage, as they tormented themselves greatly a long time went by. In my view the sons of Taraka's minds had turned toward dharma and their atmans were immersed in the brahman.

Brahma, the great guru of gods and asuras, appeared before them. The immensely illustrious one was satisfied with their austerities and wished to give them boons. With sages, gods and asuras, he spoke assuringly, the grandfather of all beings.

Brahma said

Great daityas, I am satisfied with your austerities and will grant you everything. Tell me the boon you desire. Enemies of gods, why have you tormented yourselves so severely? Tell me. I am the creator of everything and so I always give everyone the fruits of austerity.

Sanatkumara said

Hearing him, all of them joined their hands and bowed to the grandfather, and slowly told him what was in their minds.

The daityas said

Lord of the gods, if you are pleased with us and boons are to be given, let it be that we cannot be killed by any embodied being. Lord of the universe, make our positions firm; let those who oppose us be unable to bring us down. Let us not die of old age, disease or such things. Let all of us be free of old age and death; that is our view. In the three worlds let us bring death to everyone else. What use is wide prosperity? What have we to do with fine cities, other vast pleasures, positions or prosperity? Brahma, if one is to be devoured by death on the fifth day, all this is futile. That is what we have decided.

Sanatkumara said

Hearing the ascetic daityas, Vidhatri remembered his own lord Girisha and replied.

Brahma said

Asuras, no one can be immortal. Do not ask for this. Ask for some other boon that pleases you. Whoever is born dies and is born again. No one on earth is free of old age and immortal, except Khandaparashu, the destroyer of Kala, and the supreme one; those two are beyond dharma and adharma, unmanifest yet with manifest forms. If austerities are done to oppress the universe, know that their fruits will go away; that is why austerities must be done rightly. So reflect on this with your own intelligence, unblemished ones. Gods and asuras cannot cheat death. That cannot be obtained or accomplished. But keep to sattva and ask for some means of death. Then you can separately guard against that means.

Sanatkumara said

Hearing Vidhatri, they thought for a muhurta, and then answered the grandfather of the worlds.

The daityas said

Illustrious one, for all our valour we have no residence, no place where we can live happily, safe from enemies. Grant us three wonderful cities built by maya, with every prosperity, which the residents of heaven cannot attack. Lord of the worlds, guru of the universe, on these three cities we will roam the earth.

Sanatkumara said

Tarakaksha said: "Let Vishvakarma build me a golden city that even the gods cannot enter." Kamalaksha asked for a very large silver city, and Vidyunmali happily asked for a large city of iron, as firm as the vajra. "Brahma, we will live in these three separate cities. They will join only at midday, in the Abhijit muhurta, when the cool-rayed one is in Pushya nakshatra and when the clouds of destruction called Pushkara and Avarta sport in the sky and shower down unseen. So they will join at the end of a thousand years and not otherwise. All the gods are in him, and he deludes all the gods and us. Let him come on an impossible chariot with all its equipment. When the three cities join, let him destroy them with an impossible arrow of a single joint. Krittivasa has never been our enemy and deserves honour and worship; how can he burn us? This is what we have decided, since such a situation is very rare in the world." Hearing them, Brahma, grandfather of the worlds, remembered Shiva and told them it would be so.

He instructed Maya to create the three cities of gold, silver and iron, and while Taraka's three sons watched, Brahma returned to his own residence in heaven. By austerities patient Maya made the cities: a golden one for Tarakaksha, a silver one for Kamalaksha and an iron one for Vidyunmali. They were excellent and fortified, in heaven, in the firmament and on earth respectively, though their movements could not be discerned. Concerned for their welfare, Maya gave the asuras the three cities and went home. Having them, Taraka's sons entered. Immensely strong and valiant, they enjoyed many pleasures there. The cities were strewn with wish-trees and full of elephants and horses, with mansions hung with nets of jewels and many vimanas in every direction bright as the sun's disc, handsome, ruby-set and moon-like, with divine palaces and turrets like the peaks of Kailasa. They were full of celestial women, gandharvas, siddhas and charanas. In every house stood a temple to Rudra and an agnihotra fire was kept. There were excellent brahmanas who knew the sacred texts and were always devoted to Shiva. There were very lovely ponds, wells, lakes and tanks, gardens and groves with trees that seemed to have come down from heaven, major and minor rivers always decked with the finest lotuses, many enchanting trees that gave every desired fruit, herds of frenzied elephants, very handsome horses, many kinds of chariots and ornamented palanquins, devices to tell time and separate places for sport, and many separate halls for Vedic study. Constant sinners could not see these places, even in thought or word. There were great-souled ones of auspicious conduct, and those who increased sanctity could be seen. Everywhere, wives devoted to their husbands purified those excellent places, good in conduct and serving their husbands, turned away from adharma. There were brave, fortunate daityas with their wives and sons, with brahmanas who knew the true meaning of the shrutis and smritis, all constantly following their own dharma. The men had broad chests and shoulders like bulls. Some were calm and believed in conciliation, not fighting; others were angry. Some were hunchbacked, others dwarfish. Some had eyes like blue lotus petals, some blue curly hair. They were protected by Maya, who had instructed all those eager to fight. The place was full of veterans of great battles. Having worshipped Aja and Shiva, they were pure in valour. It was full of sturdy asuras like Surya, the Maruts and great Indra. The dharma set out in the sacred texts, Vedas and Puranas was practised, and the dharma Shiva loves was always kept. Taraka's sons, the daityas, lived in those excellent places Maya had made, and took refuge in Shiva. They left all other places in the three worlds and entered these cities. Always following the path Shiva showed, they ruled a great kingdom. Sage, they lived there a long time doing auspicious deeds, ruling happily as their energies allowed.