Long ago the gods beat the asuras in a great war. Three brothers, the sons of Taraka, then prayed so hard and so long that their bodies grew thin. Brahma, the Grandsire of all the worlds, was pleased and offered them a boon.
“Let no one ever kill us,” they asked. “No one can have that,” said Brahma. “Ask for something else.” So they asked for three moving cities: “When the cities join into one, only the god who pierces them with one arrow can end us.”
“Let it be so,” said Brahma, and he went back to heaven. The three cities would join into one after a thousand years. Full of joy, the brothers chose Maya, the asuras’ builder, who never grew tired.
Maya made a city of gold in heaven, a city of silver in the sky, and a city of black iron on the earth. All three cities went round and round in a circle.
Each city was a hundred yojanas long and a hundred wide. That is a very long way! Palaces stood close together, with tall walls and gateways, yet the streets were wide. The three brother-kings ruled them, one city each.
The three kings grew proud. “Who is this Creator?” they said. Asuras came from everywhere to live in the cities, and Maya gave each one whatever he wished. They feared nothing.
Proud of their boons, the asuras troubled all three worlds. They broke towns and cities, and they chased the gods away. They roamed as they liked through the forests of heaven and the quiet homes of the rishis, wise holy teachers.
Indra, king of the gods, came with the storm gods, the Maruts. He hurled his thunderbolt at the cities from every side. Not one city broke, for Brahma’s boon guarded them. Afraid, Indra went to Brahma for help.
Brahma said, “Whoever hurts you hurts me too. But those three cities can be pierced only with one arrow, and only Shiva can shoot it. Choose Shiva.”
So the gods went to Shiva, with Brahma leading them and rishis chanting the Vedas, the holy words. Each god saw Shiva in the form he had pictured in his own heart. Filled with wonder, they bowed their heads to the earth.
“Welcome,” said Shiva, smiling, and he raised them up. “Tell me why you have come.” Their hearts grew easy. They praised the blue-throated one, the three-eyed one who holds the trident. “Let your fears go,” said Shiva. “What shall I do?”
Brahma asked him to defeat the asuras. “I will not fight them alone,” said Shiva. “All of you together, fight them with half of my strength. Union is great strength.” But the gods said, “They are twice as strong as we are.”
“We cannot carry half of your strength. Take half of ours.” So Shiva took half of every god’s strength and became the strongest in all the worlds. From then on he was called Mahadeva. “Now make me a chariot, a bow and an arrow.”
The gods built the chariot from a piece of everything in the three worlds. The Earth, with her mountains and forests, was the chariot. The Sun and the Moon were its wheels. Golden Mount Meru was its flagpole, with lightning in its flags.
The arrow was made of gods: Agni, the fire, was its shaft, and Vishnu, who looks after the world, was its point. The bow was the Year with its six seasons. The four Vedas were the horses. The gods were full of wonder.
Shiva set his bull on the flag and put the fire of his anger into the arrow. The Wind blew sweet scents after him. As he climbed on, the earth trembled, and the rishis, the sky musicians and the dancers praised him.
Smiling, Shiva asked, “Who will drive my chariot? Find one greater than I am.” The gods went to Brahma. “Only you can drive it.” “I will hold the reins,” said Brahma. As he climbed up, the horses bowed their heads to the earth.
Brahma took the reins, and Shiva stood behind him with the arrow. “Do not worry,” Shiva told the gods. “Know that the asuras are already beaten by this arrow.” “It is true!” said the gods, and they were glad.
As the chariot set out, sky musicians played. “Excellent! Go to where the asuras are,” said Shiva, smiling. Brahma drove the horses as fast as the wind, as fast as thought. They seemed to eat up the sky! Shiva’s bull roared, filling every direction.
The three worlds trembled, and the chariot began to sink! The gods in the arrow, Brahma, Shiva and his great bow were too heavy. Then out of the arrow’s point, where Vishnu was, came Narayana as a bull, and he lifted the chariot up.
Shiva strung his bow. He set the arrow, joined with the great Pashupata weapon. Then he waited, thinking of the three cities.
And while he stood there holding his bow, the three cities came together into one, just as the boon had said! The gods were full of joy. “Jaya! Victory!” everyone shouted.
Shiva drew the great bow and let fly the one arrow, carrying the strength of the whole world. The three cities tumbled down towards the earth, and the asuras were swept away into the western ocean.
Then Shiva cooled the fire of his anger. “Do not burn the three worlds,” he said. The worlds grew calm again. The gods thanked Mahadeva and went home, with Brahma in front. Shiva had done what was good for all the worlds.
For grown-ups
Where this story comes from
This story is retold from the Mahabharata, Book 8, the Karna Parva, sections XXXIII–XXXIV, in Kisari Mohan Ganguli’s English translation (1883–1896). In the Mahabharata, Duryodhana tells it to King Shalya, to persuade him to drive Karna’s chariot as Brahma drove Shiva’s. Duryodhana says the rishi Markandeya told it to his father. The book leaves that frame out. Ganguli has no verse numbers, so every reference names the section and quotes his words. Ganguli calls Shiva by many names: Sthanu, Ishana, Bhava, Sankara, Rudra, Hara, Sarva, Maheswara and Mahadeva. The book says Shiva, and Mahadeva from page 13. He calls Brahma “the Grandsire” and “the Creator”. It is a faithful simplification. We shortened and left out parts, and we name them below. We did not add events, and we did not change anyone’s reasons. The dialogue is a plain rendering of Ganguli’s English, not a word-for-word quotation. Nine lines need a note.
1. The day and the lamps. Sections XXXIII–XXXIV name no day, no month, no full moon and no lamps. After the arrow, the gods shout “Jaya”, praise Shiva and go home (XXXIV). Many families keep the full moon of Kartik as Tripurari Purnima, the day of this victory, and many families light lamps then and at Dev Deepawali. That is later tradition. We did not find the text that first ties this story to Kartik Purnima, so we name none. We also read the Shiva Purana’s telling (Rudra Samhita, Yuddha Khanda, chapters 1 and 10–12, J. L. Shastri’s translation, 1950). It sets the joining of the cities “during midday at the time of Abhijit when the moon shall be in the constellation Puṣya” (chapter 1, verses 48–50), and the chapters we read do not name Kartik’s full moon or lamps.
2. The three brothers. Their names are Tarakaksha, who ruled the gold city, Kamalaksha, who ruled the silver city, and Vidyunmalin, who ruled the iron city (XXXIII). Page 5 calls them “the three brother-kings”.
3. “Moving” cities. The gold city was “set in heaven”, the silver city “in the welkin” (the sky), and the iron city “on the Earth”, “all in such a way as to revolve in a circle” (XXXIII). In this text the iron city is on the earth.
4. The thousand years. The brothers ask that the cities come together “after a 1,000 years” (XXXIII). At the moment of the shot the text says only that “the three cities during that time became united” (XXXIV). Page 22 does not say that the years had passed.
5. Soma. The text makes Agni the arrow’s staff, Soma its head and Vishnu its point (XXXIV). The passage does not say who Soma is, so the pages leave Soma out and say “the gods in the arrow”.
6. Narayana. The text says that “Narayana, issuing out of the point of that shaft, assumed the form of a bull and raised that large car” (XXXIV). The same section makes Vishnu the arrow’s point. Narayana is a well-known name of Vishnu, but this passage does not say so. Page 20 says only that Narayana came out of the point, “where Vishnu was”.
7. The horses. The text names the steeds twice. First “the Lords of the gods, of the waters, of the dead, and of treasures” are the steeds. Later the gods tell Brahma, “The four Vedas have become the four foremost of steeds” (XXXIV). Page 15 uses the second.
8. The end of the cities. The text says the cities “began to fall down towards the Earth”, and “Burning those Asuras, he threw them down into the Western ocean. Thus was the triple city burnt and thus were the Danavas exterminated” (XXXIV). Page 23 says the cities tumbled down and the asuras were swept away into the western ocean.
9. Climbing onto the chariot. In the text Shiva mounts the chariot, asks for a driver, and then mounts again after Brahma takes the reins and says “Ascend” (XXXIV). Page 16 shows him climbing on once; page 18 has him standing behind Brahma.
Read the full episode
Three things this telling leaves out, and why
- Hari’s lake (XXXIII). Tarakaksha’s son Hari wins a boon: a lake in which any slain Daitya comes back to life, “with redoubled strength”. It is a death-and-revival device, and the text never says what became of it. The text gives Brahma’s boons, not the lake, as the reason Indra’s thunder fails.
- The roar of the bull (XXXIV). Hearing the bull’s roar, “many of the descendants and followers of Taraka … breathed their last”. Page 19 keeps the roar that fills every direction.
- The horses and the bull’s hooves (XXXIV). Standing on the bull and the horses, Rudra “cut off the teats of the horses and clove the hoofs of the bull”, and the text says this is why cattle have cloven hooves. It is harm to animals and a side story, so we left it out.
- The wails and the burning (XXXIV). “Loud wails of woe were heard from those cities”, and Shiva burns the asuras. Page 23 says the cities tumbled down and the asuras were swept away. The text is plain that they were destroyed.
- Shiva’s wrath (XXXIV). The text says Shiva “became deprived of his senses in wrath”, that all creatures were frightened and that “frightful portents appeared”. Page 16 keeps the fire of his anger in the arrow, page 20 keeps the trembling worlds, and page 24 keeps how he cooled the fire.
- The darker words of the hymn (XXXIII). The gods praise Shiva as “Death’s self” and “destruction’s self”, and as the one who destroyed Daksha’s sacrifice. Page 11 keeps three of their words for him: blue-throated, three-eyed, holding the trident.
- “Flesh-eating” asuras and meat-eaters in the procession (XXXIII–XXXIV). The text calls the Danavas who came to the cities “proud and flesh-eating”, and it says Shiva was adored by his attendants “and by others that subsisted on meat” as the chariot set out. Left out as frightening at 6–9.
- The bowstring of night (XXXIV). The bowstring is the goddess Savitri, and then Shiva’s shadow, “Kala Ratri the Death-night”. Left out; page 15 keeps the bow, which is the Year.
The chariot (XXXIV) has about forty parts: the Mandara mountain is its axle, the river Ganga a part of its frame, the snake Vasuki its pole, the Himavat and Vindhya mountains its seat, the Udaya and Asta mountains two of its wheels, the points of the compass its ornaments, the seasons its Amukarsha, and the syllable Om stands in front of it. Pages 14–15 keep the Earth, the Sun and the Moon as wheels, Mount Meru and its lightning flags, the arrow, the bow and the four Vedas. The gods’ long request to Brahma to be the driver is one line on page 17. The gods’ hymn is three of its names on page 11. Indra (Sakra), the Maruts and the gods go to Brahma together (XXXIII); page 8 shows Indra going. The gods, the Siddhas and the great rishis all shout “Jaya” (XXXIV); page 22 says “everyone”.
The question children ask here
“Why do we light lamps on Kartik Purnima?” The Mahabharata tells the victory, but not the day. Here is what the text says, and what it does not:
- the Karna Parva tells how Shiva brought down the three cities, but it names no day, no month and no lamps (sections XXXIII–XXXIV);
- many families keep the full moon of Kartik as Tripurari Purnima, the day of Shiva’s victory over the three cities, and many families light lamps then and at Dev Deepawali. This is later tradition, and we did not find the text that first ties it to this story;
- the Shiva Purana chapters we read give a different time for the joining of the cities: midday, at Abhijit, with the Moon in Pushya (Rudra Samhita, Yuddha Khanda, chapter 1, verses 48–50).
“The Mahabharata tells how Shiva kept all the worlds safe. Many families light lamps on Kartik Purnima to remember it.”
A Sanatani Production
