Slaying of Dundubhi-Nirhrada

Sanatkumara said

Vyasa, listen: I will tell you how the moon-crested one killed the daitya Dundubhi-nirhrada. Hiranyaksha, Diti's strong son, was killed by Vishnu, and for some time Diti was in great misery. The wicked daitya Dundubhi-nirhrada, Prahlada's maternal uncle, an eloquent troubler of the gods who knew maya, comforted the grieving Diti and assured her. He then considered how the gods could be defeated. He said that brave Hiranyaksha, the great asura, and his brother had been killed by the gods, the daityas' enemies, through Vishnu's trickery. What was the gods' strength, what was their food, what was their support, and by what means could he beat them easily? After much thought he concluded that those revered as the best must be the cause. Dundubhi-nirhrada was exceedingly crooked and hated the gods, and he rushed after brahmanas to kill them. He reasoned that brahmanas are the reservoir of all the Vedas and the gods, with Vasava, depend on those words, so brahmanas are their strength. If brahmanas were destroyed the Vedas would be destroyed of themselves, and then the gods too; when sacrifices were destroyed the gods would get no food, grow weak and be easily beaten. Once they were beaten he would be revered lord of the three worlds, seize the gods' inexhaustible wealth and look on happiness in his kingdom with every thorn removed. Having decided this, the crooked, evil-minded one wondered where there were many brahmanas, strengthened by the energy of brahman, learned and studious and strong in austerity. Varanasi was surely the place with many brahmanas. He would destroy them and then move on to other tirthas, and wherever those revered as foremost lived, in tirthas and hermitages, they would suffer at his hands from now on.

As befitted his lineage, Dundubhi-nirhrada made up his mind so. Wicked and skilled in maya, he reached Kashi and killed brahmanas. When the best brahmanas went to the forest to gather kusha grass and kindling, the evil-minded one devoured all of them, then hid so no one could detect him. In the forest he pretended to be a forest-dweller, in water he took the form of an aquatic creature, and by maya he stayed invisible even to the gods. By day, when sages were meditating, he stayed among them, watching who entered and left the huts. At night, as a tiger, he ate many brahmanas, devouring them fearlessly without leaving even bones. So the evil one destroyed many brahmanas.

Once, on Shivaratri, a devotee in his own cottage had made offerings to the lord of the gods and was absorbed in meditation. Dundubhi-nirhrada, proud of his strength, approached in tiger form, resolved to devour him. The devotee was absorbed, his mind steady and eyes fixed on Shiva, and having spread astra-mantra around himself he could not be attacked. Shambhu knew everything. Hara appeared, resolved to kill the wicked-formed daitya, the three-eyed protector of the universe having determined to protect his devotee. As the tiger came to seize the man, Hara emerged from within the lingam the devotee had worshipped. The daitya grew to the size of a mountain, looked at the all-knowing one as insignificant, seized him, and, pressing him under his armpit, tried to crush him. The five-faced one struck him on the head with five fists as hard as the vajra, kind to his devotee. Hit by those blows and crushed under the armpit the tiger was badly hurt, his shrieks filled the space between heaven and earth, and he died. That great roar made the austere sages tremble. Following the sound in the night they came and saw Ishvara there with the king of deer under his armpit. All bowed to Sharva and praised him with cries of victory. The brahmanas said they had been saved from a terrible hardship, and asked the guru of the universe to be gracious and stay there in his own form under the name Vyagresha, to protect them, to make it the best of places, to protect those living in this tirtha from all other evil omens, and to destroy the wicked and free his devotees from fear. Chandrashekhara agreed. He added that if anyone, full of devotion, saw his form there, he would without doubt destroy all his evil omens and hardships, and that if a mortal, after hearing this account and remembering his lingam in the heart, entered a battle, he would surely win.

Then the gods, with Vasava, came, cried victory and arranged great festivities. Full of love they folded their hands, bowed, lowered their shoulders and praised the lord who is kind to devotees: by killing Dundubhi-nirhrada he had saved the gods, saving devotees was always his task, and he must always kill the wicked. Parameshvara agreed, pleased, and merged into the lingam. The astonished gods went home happy, and the delighted brahmanas also went back to where they had come from. This, Sanatkumara said, is the supreme account of how Vyaghreshvara arose. A man who hears it, has it heard, reads it or has it read gets all he desires, is freed from all miseries in the next world and attains liberation. This unmatched account of Shiva's play, its syllables like amrita, leads to heaven, fame and long life, increases sons and grandsons, bestows devotion, is blessed and auspicious, pleases Shiva, gives supreme knowledge and removes every aberration.