Sumbha and Nisumbha

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Durga fighting the rakshashas Shunga and Nishunga

In the Hindu text the Devi Mahatmyam, Sumbha and Nisumbha, also spelled as Shumbha and Nishumbha, were two Asuras that confronted, and were ultimately slain by, Devi. Some, such as John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff, see them as symbols of arrogance and pride which is ultimately overcome by the Devi's humility and wisdom.[1]

In the Devi Mahatmyam

The story of Sumbha and Nisumbha begins in the fifth chapter of the Devi Mahatmyam. The Devi relates how two brothers of Asura stock sought to conquer the Three Worlds by subjecting themselves to severe penance and purification rituals so that no man or demon could destroy them.[2] Sumbha and Nisumbha traveled to Pushkara, a sacred place, and remained there in prayer for ten thousand years. God Brahma saw the brothers' penitence, and was pleased, granting them the boon they requested.[3]

It was at this time that Chanda and Munda, two lesser Asuras in the service of Sumbha, encountered the Devi, and were overwhelmed by her beauty. They carried reports of this goddess to Sumbha, who sought to possess the Devi and her beauty. Sumbha sent the Sugriva to court the Devi, but she rejected his advances. It was then decided by the demonic brothers that if the Devi would not come willingly, they would have to abduct her. The demon Dhoomralocana and his retinue of sixty-thousand Asuras were sent to kidnap the Devi, but she and her lion-steed managed to slay the entire army. Next, Chanda and Munda were deployed, but the Devi destroyed them as well.[3]

Death

After these encounters, Sumbha and Nisumbha had no choice but to meet the Devi in direct combat. Although Brahma's boon had granted the brother's protection against men and demons, no such protection existed against goddesses. Nisumbha was the first to fall, after assaulting the Devi's lion.[4] After Nisumbha's death, a powerful demon emerged from his corpse, but Devi managed to dispatch this monster as well, by decapitating it. Upon seeing the death of his brother, Sumbha went after the Devi in a rage, but was ultimately cleaved in two by the Goddess' trident. With Sumbha and Nisumbha gone, the Three Worlds returned to their ordinary state of being, rid of a great evil.[5]

Mythology

After the death of Mahishasur, Shumbh and Nishumbh did penance to Lord Brahma, Brahma blessed them the boon of being killed by a woman, Shumbh and Nishumbh were crowned Kings and have attained supernatural powers and have also created an army. Lord Indra knew about Shumbh and Nishumbh's powers and has also sent in a large army against Shumbh and Nishumbh's army. The battle commenced between the demon brothers and Lord Indra who was fighting all alone with the demon brothers. Meanwhile, the demon army has destroyed all of the armies of Lord Indra. The Gods then gave the heavens to the demons, especially Shumbh and Nishumbh. The Gods then went to the Kailash Mountains and prayed to Parvati to destroy Shumbh and Nishumbh, Parvati became furious and she created an all-powerful Goddess by the name of Ambika, she has eight hands holding weapons and promises the Gods that she will destroy Shumbh and Nishumbh. Shumbh and Nishumbh were also associated by other demons like Dhumralochan, Chand-Mund, Raktabeej and Demon Messenger Sugriv. Goddess Parvati promises Ambika that later she will have to kill an endless army, other Goddesses will be assisting her. Ambika went to the forest and made trouble for the demons up in the heavens, Shumbh sent Demon-Messenger Sugriv to go see who's making trouble for Shumbh and Nishumbh, Ambika quickly disguised herself as a single woman, sitting on a stone. Sugriv came to the forest and saw the woman, he was mesmerized by her beauty and asked her politely, in a kind, respectful and sweet voice to come to Shumbh and Nishumbh at the heavens. The woman told him that she will marry the one who defeats her in a war. Sugriv understands, he tries to make her understand and convinces her but he fails. Sugriv conveys this to Shumbh and Nishumbh back at heaven, they were very angry and sent Dhumralochan and his army to get the beautiful woman at heaven with force. Later, the demon soldiers of Dhumralochan were singing his praises. The beautiful woman heard this, she took her warrior form having the same red saree and has eight hands holding weapons. She came to the battlefield and spotted Dhumralochan and his army. Dhumralochan's army attacked Ambika with their weapons. Ambika attacked them back with her own. Until it was finally time when Ambika uttered the word "Hum", that word incinerated Dhumralochan and his army, The Gods congratulated Ambika on killing Dhumralochan and his army. Shumbh and Nishumbh came to know about Dhumralochan's death, they were angry at this and sent Chand and Mund to kill Ambika. Chand is the brother of Mund, who has his head always banging from right to left and left to right. Meanwhile, the saints and Gods did prayers to Ambika to kill the demons and to give back Indra's heaven. The demons of Shumbh and Nishumbh reached earth and tried to kill the Gods and saints. Ambika appeared in her warrior form and killed the sent demons of Shumbh and Nishumbh. Chand and Mund came to Ambika with their soldiers. On seeing the uncountable number of soldiers, Ambika created a new Goddess by fire. She is portrayed wearing a girdle of severed human hands, a garland of human skull heads representing the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet or a garland or flowers, for her clothing, she wears tiger skin like Lord Shiva. She has three eyes that symbolizes past, present and future and sometimes, when she gets too furious, her eyes looked bright red. She has two dead heads for her earrings. She is often shown having four hands holding scimitar, demon head, trident and container, and often trident, sword or iron weapon and thorn like weapon made out of thorns, often she is portrayed having four hands holding scimitar or sword in the left hands and a severed demon head in upper and lower left hands while the remaining two on the right are the hand gestures of boon-conferrings and fear-dispellings. And now she has sharp claws like a lioness. She started to attack the demons by blowing a storm out of her mouth, turning them into ashes (burning them alive), beheading their heads, decapitating them by eating their skin alive, eating them alive, scratching them, choking them, stabbing their chests, drinking their blood, breaking their bones, breaking their necks, twisting their hands and legs and swinging them away. When Chand and Mund's army was gone, she beheaded them and presented them to Ambika. She gave the Goddess's name as Kali Chamunda now because she killed Chand and Mund. Shumbh and Nishumbh has gotten new news about the killing of Chand and Mund and their army. They were very angry and sent a new demon called Raktabeej, he has accumulated powers from the Gods. Meanwhile, the Trinity along with Indra, Parvati, Kartikeya and some incarnations of Vishnu by the names of Varaha and Narasingha appeared and created nine Goddesses by the names of Brahmani, Maheshwari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Narasinghi, Indrani, Shivadooti and Chamundai. All holding weapons or not holding weapons, riding a swan, bull, peacock, eagle and ram. When Raktabeej came with his army, he was terrified seeing the 9 Goddesses with Goddess Ambika, so was his army. the severe battle started when the nine Mother Goddesses with Ambika managed to kill Raktabeej's army, doing terrible things like blowing a storm out of their mouth, turning them into ashes (burning them alive), beheading their heads, decapitating them by eating their skin alive, eating them alive, scratching them, choking them, stabbing their chests, drinking their blood, breaking their bones, breaking their necks, twisting their hands and legs and swinging them away. Then Ambika cut off Raktabeej's head, but whatever the drop of Raktabeej's blood falls to the ground, another new Raktabeej arose, the other Goddesses, Ambika tried once again but no use. Ambika assigned Chamundai to drink the blood of Raktabeej from prohibiting it from falling on the ground. Ambika pierced her trident in his chest and Chamundai widened her tongue to an incredible size and ate the demons and Raktabeej up. The eight other Goddesses praised her. Back at heaven, Shumbh and Nishumbh got the news of Raktabeej's death. Later, Ambika and the nine Mother Goddesses were being confronted by Shumbh and Nishumbh, they came with a final large and endless army. The furious war began with Ambika and the demons attacking each other with opposite weapons. All bad weapons each demon warrior uses, all of the opposite weapons of the Goddess strikes the demon weapon and then breaks, this went on for quite some time. The demons then attacked her with a rain of arrows. About one hundred arrows flew up in the sky. Ambika used the same number of arrows and then, the demon arrows were broke by Chandika's opposite arrows. Again, this went on for quite some time. Ambika almost used all of her weapons like the trident, mace, discus, arrow, shield, sword, scimitar, battle-axe and weapon made out of thorns, which stabbed the demons real hard, some of them were beheaded, bruised and beaten with a beating stick. The lion of Ambika himself, with his paws and claws, managed to trample some or half of the unhurt demons by striking them with his paws, scratching them with his claws, ripping off their heads, make their armless, legless, headless, choking them, stabbing their chests, drinking their blood, breaking their bones, breaking their necks, twisting their hands and legs, swinging them away and doing more worse things to them. Ambika can see that her lion was a great demon-fighting warrior and congratulated him. But there were still the army of one hundred demon soldiers and countless demons. The nine Mother Goddesses were helping her too, Ambika managed to decapitate Shumbh with her sword and stab Nishumbh with her trident. All Gods, saints, sages, celestial beings, Yakshs, Yakshinis, men, women and children paid gratitude to Goddess Ambika and the nine Mother Goddesses for the killing of Shumbh and Nishumbh's demon army.

In popular culture

In Shashi Tharoor's satirical novel The Great Indian Novel, the story of Sumbha and Nisumbha is used both as a warning against the dangers of seduction, and as a metaphor for the collapse of the relationship between the five Pandavas.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hawley, John Stratton; Wulff, Donna Marie; Devī: Goddesses of India. Published by University of California Press, 1996: p. 68 ISBN 0-520-20058-6, ISBN 978-0-520-20058-6
  2. ↑ "The Devi Mahatmya Navrathri Katha - Chapter 1 to 13". S-a-i.info. Retrieved 2009-01-29. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The Devi". Sdbbs.tripod.com. Retrieved 2009-01-29. 
  4. ↑ "Sri Durga Saptasati or The Devi Mahatmya". Sivanandaonline.org. Retrieved 2009-01-29. 
  5. ↑ "Sri Durga Saptasati or The Devi Mahatmya". Sivanandaonline.org. Retrieved 2009-01-29. 
  6. ↑ Tharoor, Shashi. The Great Indian Novel. Viking Press: 1989. ISBN 0-670-82744-4

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