Skandapurana 1.2.19

Nandikeśvara said:

Meanwhile, Mahiṣāsura, having heard from someone that she was staying there,

he who disregarded the enemies of the gods and had vanquished Indra,

the conqueror of all worlds, who inspired terror in the Siddhas and Vidyādharas,

who by a boon was difficult to subdue even by all weapons and missiles,

who was beyond the reach even of fierce curses,

served by arrogant Dānavas, Daityas, and flesh-eating demons,

the defiler of the wives of sages and destroyer of the path of righteousness,

exceeding in strength Puloman, Namuci, and even Vṛtra,

who had brought even Hiraṇyakaśipu under sway, like another Hiraṇyākṣa,

sent a certain female messenger to entice her.

Then she, wearing the garb of an ascetic woman, approached the mountain-born goddess

and spoke these improper words right in front of her female companions:

"O timid woman, why do you dwell here in this terrible forest full of enemies,

you who are worthy of sporting in lovely inner palace chambers?

Why has your mind today, indifferent to enjoyment in youth,

been turned toward austerity that is difficult even for the deities?

Abandoning a bed made of swan-down beneath a pearl canopy,

why, O tender-limbed one, do you sleep on rough stones?

Mṛḍa, dulled by austerity, has fortunately already been cast aside by you.

And there is none worthy of you among the sky-dwellers;

however, there is Mahiṣa, lord of the three worlds, sovereign of the Dānavas.

If you see him, fair-browed one, you will abandon your austerity in an instant.

Why conceal it? Having heard everything after a long time, indeed that lord,

afflicted by love, sent me as a female messenger to bring you [to him]."

While she was speaking thus exceedingly contradictory and improper words,

Vijayā, knowing the state of the Goddess's mind, drove her away.

And having taken a vow in extreme rage, that [messenger] of Daitya form

went and informed Mahiṣāsura of the whole affair.

He too, hearing all that, his eyes exceedingly red with rage,

wishing to seize the Goddess, arrived surrounded by tens of millions of Daiteyas.

With chariots, elephants, horses, and foot-soldiers on all sides,

he covered the earth, and the expanse of the sky with banners.

With war-cries and the sounds of musical instruments, the sky seemed to burst,

and the surface of the earth split open under the stomping of the Daityas' feet.

Karāla, Durdhara, his [general] Vicaṣṇu, Vikarālaka,

Bāṣkala, Durmukha, Caṇḍa, Pracaṇḍa, and the Asura Cāmara,

Mahāhanu, Mahāmauli, Ugrāsya, Vikaṭekṣaṇa,

Jvālāsya, and Dahana—these army commanders also set forth.

Hearing this clamor, the Goddess, alarmed by the disruption to her vow,

commanded Durgā for the destruction of the Daityas.

She, having mounted the king of beasts in a secluded valley of Aruṇādri,

descended upon the earth like Kālikā, with arms bearing blazing weapons.

She raised a lion's roar, lofty as the rumble of rain clouds,

her lips quivering at the corners, waving her sprout-like fingers.

The Mothers too angrily created the circle of Yoginīs from their own limbs

by the thousands, fit to slaughter the Daiteyas, for the Goddess's pleasure.

Some there, of red hue, bearing staves, riding on swans,

advanced with four faces whose lower lips quivered with rage.

Some set forth enraged, with flaming tridents in their hands,

with jingling ornaments, with ash-covered foreheads, mounted on bulls.

Others went forth accompanied by hosts, riding peacocks,

holding spears, staves, and gestures of fearlessness, by the hundreds, with six faces.

Others marched out, having mounted Garuḍa in intense wrath,

bearing conch and discus, as if [bringing] the sun and moon from the sky.

So too others set forth, mounted on tigers, having the luster of blue lotuses,

bearing snouts with deep grunting noises, and carrying pestle and plough.

With a thousand eyes red with rage, mounted on white elephants,

others advanced, bearing hundred-pointed thunderbolts.

Mounted on horses, some rushed forth resembling lightning,

bearing swords and shields, their faces tawny with rage.

And outside the hermitage, those [Yoginīs] forcibly held back

the sixty-four tens of millions of Asuras, like rays of the sun [holding back] masses of darkness.

Then, between the circle of Yoginīs and the army of Dānavas,

a terrible battle ensued, fist against fist, hair pulled against hair.

Heads of the Daityas severed by arrows shot by the Yoginīs

covered the surface of the earth on all sides like land-born [lotuses].

Rivers of blood flowed forth, with clinging hair as moss,

with writhing arrows as catfish, and with smiling lotus-faces of the goddesses.

Mounting the trunks of elephants as if they were palaces, female Piśācas,

performing fierce tāṇḍava dances, having drunk the wine of blood, shone forth.

With the skulls of heroic Daityas, [filled with] the liquor of blood of the sin-bearing Asuras,

the hosts of Yoginīs played tumultuous games like sporting ḍamaru drums.

Likewise, flocks of herons avoided entrails out of fear of snares;

jackals, though hungry, abandoned flesh studded with arrow-heads.

By the nectar of mandāra blossoms dropped by Siddhas and Vidyādharas,

the dust of the earth raised by the agitation in the battle was calmed.

The horses of the enemies, struck by weapons released by the Yoginīs

and hurled in great fury, sticking to their bodies, looked like porcupines.

Some with staves, others with sharp tridents, and some with spears,

others with discuses, some with ploughshares, and several with hundreds of millions [of missiles].

Other lords of the Dānavas were shattered by the swords of the Yoginīs;

they were brought to total annihilation, except for their army commanders.

Brāhmī herself, having advanced and joined battle, slew

Karāla with her formidable staff, blazing for a long time.

Māheśvarī, having waged battle for a very long time with her trident,

very wrathful, quickly severed the head of Durdhara.

Kaumārī lopped off the head of the Asura Cikṣura with her spear,

and Vaiṣṇavī severed the head of Vikarāla with her discus.

Vārāhī swiftly cut off the head of Bāṣkala with her pestle,

and Aindrī quickly made Durmukha lifeless with her thunderbolt.

And she whose name is celebrated from the destruction of those two,

Cāmuṇḍā cut down Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa with a curved sword.

The heroic Pracaṇḍa and Cāmara, Mahāmauli and Mahāhanu,

Ugrāsya and Vikaṭākṣa, as well as Jvālāsya and Dahana—

in fury followed Mahiṣāsura as he went to battle,

as the Asuras headed by Kālanemi [followed] Vipracitti.

Wearing helmets, chariot-warriors with good quivers and holding bows,

their armies raised up, flags fluttering, reached the battlefield.

Having filled the quarters all around with terrifying lion-roars,

raining arrows, they charged against the hosts of the Mothers.

And having fought with those mighty ones, unable to bear it,

they sought refuge with goddess Durgā, whose mount is a lion.

Having spoken of the invincible nature of that evil-minded deceptive buffalo,

all seven Mothers praised that goddess Durgā thus:

“In the form of Yoganidrā, in the lotus-eyes of Viṣṇu,

You dwell hidden playfully, O goddess, like a female bee.

If You had not so bewildered Madhu and Kaiṭabha, O Mother,

how could Viṣṇu have slain the two of them with their own consent?

If You had not been born as Kauśikī, the death of Śumbha and Niśumbha,

how then, O goddess, would the sovereignty of the world-guardians have returned?

O Dweller of the Vindhya, what fruitful austerity was performed by the Vindhya mountain,

where friendship with You can be attained even by Kirāta women?

The Kāpiśāyana wine presented by Kubera was drunk;

by You, O Mother, [pride] was removed from the Daityas whose pride was constantly subdued by juices.

You are the creative power of Brahmā, the sustaining power of Viṣṇu, the foe of Madhu;

and You prevail, O Mother, as the destructive power of Rudra as well.

Born to Yaśodā and Nanda by the name of Ekānaṃśā,

You will assist Hari in the destruction of Kaṃsa and other Asuras.

You are knowledge, You are Mahāmāyā, You are Lakṣmī, You are Sarasvatī;

You are the goddess Pārvatī as well; O Durgā, what indeed do You not become?”

Nandikeśvara said:

Having Herself granted fearlessness to the Mothers through this praise,

Durgā, delighted, set forth then to do battle with Mahiṣāsura.

[She killed] Pracaṇḍa with a curved sword, Cāmara with a javelin,

Mahāmauli with a dagger, Mahāhanu with an iron pot,

Ugravaktra with an axe, Vikaṭacakṣus with a spear,

Jvālāmukha with a mallet, and Dahana with a pestle.

Having slain [them], fighting Herself with fury before the buffalo [demon],

she uttered a terrifying lion-roar, her heart gladdened by her discus.

Then, exceedingly enraged, Mahiṣāsura pierced Durgā

with arrows on her broad forehead, her breasts, and her temples.

Then Durgā, with violent fury, struck the lord of the Asuras

on both arms, on the chest, and on the face with razor-sharp blazing arrows.

Then the Daitya struck Durgā on the face with three arrows,

on each of her arms with five, and on each of her eyes with two.

With one [arrow] his charioteer, with eight his chariot-horses, with three his bow,

and with four arrows Durgā cut down his banner.

Then the king of Daityas, on foot, hurled against Durgā

a blazing śataghnī resembling the staff of Death.

While the gods cried out in distress and the host of Mothers fled,

Durgā caught that [weapon] as it flew at her and seized it playfully.

A sword, a hook, a noose, a bhuśuṇḍī, a scimitar,

a spear, a dart, a mace, a discus, a javelin, a shield, an elephant goad,

an axe, a sling-staff, a paṭṭiśa, and a club—he

hurled toward Durgā, as a cloud at dissolution hurls lightning.

Catching the weapons of her enemy just as they flew toward her,

she shattered them with her hands at will, like a female elephant [breaking] a stalk of sugarcane.

The lion too, Durgā's mount, struck with the tip of his tail,

tore [him] with his fangs, striking with his lotus-like claws.

For a moment a lion, for a moment a boar, for a moment a tiger, for a moment an elephant,

and for a moment becoming a buffalo, the Daitya fought Durgā.

Then, as a buffalo, exceedingly enraged, with his two sharp horns

he struck both the lion and the Goddess again and again.

For a moment standing in mid-sky, for a moment reached to the earth's surface,

for a moment wandering across the directions, for a moment gone to invisibility.

Implored by the circle of the Mothers, Durgā,

smiling, pierced the buffalo-demon with her unerring trident.

As the Dānava fell, letting out a rattling groan,

she forcefully planted her foot upon his shoulder-base.

When life had departed from that enemy of the immortals through the crushing of his neck,

she took his severed head in her hand and then danced.

Thus when the buffalo-demon, the sole thorn to all the worlds, was crushed by Durgā in battle,

the gods danced, the great seers rejoiced, and the clouds rained divine flowers.

Thus ends the nineteenth chapter, named 'The Description of the Slaying of Mahiṣāsura by Durgā during the Goddess's Practice of Tapas', in the second half of the Aruṇācalamāhātmya, in the first Māheśvarakhaṇḍa of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].