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Markandeyapurana 87

English (machine translation) 87

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English

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87.1

The seer said: / Commanded then, those daityas led by Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, / furnished with a fourfold army, went forward with weapons raised.

87.2

Then they saw the Goddess, smiling slightly, stationed / upon her lion on a great golden peak of the lord of mountains.

87.3

Seeing her, they raised themselves up and made an effort to seize [her], / their bows drawn and holding swords, while others approached her.

87.4

Then Ambikā unleashed great wrath against those enemies, / and with wrath her face then became ink-black.

87.5

From the broad surface of her forehead, curved with a frown, immediately / emerged Kālī with a terrifying mouth, bearing a sword and a noose,

87.6

Carrying a strange skull-staff, adorned with a garland of human [heads], / clad in a leopard skin, exceedingly dreadful with shrivelled flesh,

87.7

With a very wide open mouth, fearful with her lolling tongue, / with sunken, blood-red eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roar.

87.8

Rushing forward with speed, slaying the great asuras, / she devoured that army in the host of the enemies of the gods.

87.9

Seizing with a single hand the elephants along with their rear-guards, / goad-holders, warriors, and bells, she cast them into her mouth.

87.10

Likewise, throwing a warrior with his horses, and a chariot with its charioteer, / into her mouth, she chewed them with her teeth most terrifyingly.

87.11

She seized one by the hair and another by the neck, / and having trampled another with her foot, she crushed another against her chest.

87.12

And the weapons and great missiles released by those asuras, / she caught in her mouth in fury and ground them up with her teeth.

87.13

She crushed the entire host of those mighty, evil-minded asuras; / she devoured some and struck others.

87.14

Some were slain with a sword, some struck with her skull-staff; / the asuras met destruction, crushed by the tips of her teeth in battle.

87.15

Seeing that great army of asuras brought down in an instant, / the great asura Caṇḍa [rushed toward] that terrible-eyed [goddess].

87.16

With terrible showers of arrows, the great asura [assailed] that fearful-eyed goddess, / and Muṇḍa covered [her] with thousands of discus-weapons hurled.

87.17

Those numerous discuses entering her mouth / appeared like so many solar discs entering the belly of a cloud.

87.18

Then, making a frightful roar, Kālī laughed dreadfully in great anger, / her terrifying mouth shining inside with dreadful fangs.

87.19

And mounting her great lion, the Goddess ran toward Caṇḍa, / and seizing him by his hair, she severed his head with her sword.

87.20

When his head was severed, the lord of daityas let out a terrifying scream; / by that great scream the three worlds were terrified.

87.21

Then, seeing Caṇḍa struck down, Muṇḍa rushed at her; / struck with her sword in rage, she felled him to the ground as well.

87.22

Then the remainder of the army, seeing Caṇḍa struck down / and the exceedingly valiant Muṇḍa as well, fled in all directions, stricken with fear.

87.23

And taking the head of Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa too, / Kālī approached Caṇḍikā and spoke, mingled with a fierce, loud laugh:

87.24

"Here I have brought you Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, the two great sacrificial beasts; / in the sacrifice of battle you yourself will slay Śumbha and Niśumbha."

87.25

The seer said: / Then, seeing those two great asuras, Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, brought before her, / the auspicious Caṇḍikā spoke charming words to Kālī:

87.26

The glorious Goddess said: / "Since you have approached having seized both Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, / therefore in the world, O goddess, you will be renowned as Cāmuṇḍā."

87.26.p1

Thus ends the eighty-seventh chapter, named 'The Slaying of Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa', in the Devīmāhātmya in the Sāvarṇi manvantara of the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.

87.26.p2

Eighty-eighth chapter - 88

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