Mudgalapurana 1.42: dambhāsuravijayo nāma dvicatvāriṃśo'dhyāyaḥ

Salutations to the glorious Gaṇeśa.

Mudgala said: / In the city of the Daitya Dambha, O lord of creatures, / all the highly fortunate people engaged in great festivities for some time.

Once, all the Daitya lords went there to the mighty one: / Suhuṇḍa, and also Huṇḍa, and Rukmaketu of great strength,

Madyapa, and Sakopa, and also the great Krodhāsura, / the mighty Kāmāsura, and also Rāsabhāsura—

these and many others, eager to destroy the gods, / bowed down to the resplendent Dambha and, noble-minded, said:

The Daitya lords said: / Why do you remain still, O great king? We, your servants, have come. / Eager to crush the gods, we shall conquer the three worlds.

All the Daityas, Dānavas, and Rākṣasas are under your command. / In the entire universe, none can be equal to your strength, O Dambha,

nor is anyone your equal in fame and majesty, O sovereign of the gods! / Command us, O mighty-armed one; we shall conquer the entire world.

Hearing the speech of the Daitya lords, the Daitya Dambha was exceedingly delighted / and spoke to those highly fortunate ones with a devoted mind:

Dambhāsura said: / Well said, O highly fortunate ones! This has also been resting in my heart: / together with you, I shall conquer the universe with all that moves and does not move.

Having spoken thus, O sage, the Daitya lord brought Śukra there; / taking his counsel, he marched out from that city.

Accompanied by a boundless army complete with four divisions, / all the kings on earth were conquered by the mighty Daityas.

Having conquered all the snakes in the nether worlds, they went to heaven; / there Indra, along with the foremost gods, fought against the asuras.

Because of him, all the Daitya hosts, terrified on every side, / were crushed and burned by terrifying thunderbolt strikes.

Abandoning the battlefield, all the asuras fled. / Then Dambhāsura fought there, proud of his strength.

With a strike of his discus he knocked the lord of gods unconscious; / the Daitya lord afflicted all the gods with arrows.

Regaining consciousness and longing to live, the lord of gods fled; / then the hosts of gods, overcome with fear, all followed him.

Mounted upon Airāvata, the Daitya sat upon the throne of the lord of gods; / entering the city of the immortals, he rejoiced, delighting his own kin.

Indra, with all the hosts of gods, went for refuge to Brahmā; / along with Brahmā he went to Viṣṇu, and with him he went to Śiva.

Filled with rage, Śiva arrived at the vanguard of the battle; / he challenged that mighty king of the Daityas to combat.

Then the Daitya Dambha, accompanied by Daitya chiefs, arrived, / his eyes reddened with rage, armored and full of strength.

Then a terrible battle took place, causing the hair to stand on end, / bringing mutual destruction to the Daityas and the gods.

For forty days a tumultuous conflict was waged in accordance with warfare's rules; / great rivers of blood arose, teeming with ghosts.

Then Dambha himself, enraged, crushed the gods with his arrows; / he made those lords of the gods unconscious and brought them to the ground.

Then Śambhu struck that mighty one with his trident; / the Daitya fell in a swoon, but rose again in an instant.

The powerful one hurled his discus and knocked Śaṅkara down; / the glorious Daitya Dambha rendered him unconscious for half a watch.

Seeing the marvelous great valor of the Daitya king, Śaṅkara, / having regained consciousness, fled into the forest together with the gods.

Seeing the lords of the gods departing, the Daitya leaders laughed; / filled with joy, they entered Amarāvatī.

Then he carefully stationed Daitya leaders in Satyaloka, / in Vaikuṇṭha, in Kailāsa, and in Amarāvatī.

He stationed Dānavas in the delightful cities of various gods; / and he himself, full of strength, arrived in his own city of Śobhanā.

Intoxicated [with pride], the mighty one ruled the three worlds; / then he commanded the Daitya lords to destroy sacrificial rites.

At his command, all the exceedingly terrible Daityas set out; / they bound Brahmins and others, and beat them forcefully.

The villains smashed the sacrificial enclosures and trees used in sacrifice; / they destroyed sacred bathing sites and shrines of the deities.

Thus, through various efforts, they brought about the destruction of ritual acts; / some twice-born were corrupted there, and some died at that time.

Some fled to the forest teeming with lions, tigers, and other beasts; / deprived of twilight prayers and other rites, the twice-born stayed there.

Neither svāhā nor svadhā was uttered there, nor the vaṣaṭ exclamation; / nor was the dharma of castes and stages of life observed while Dambha ruled.

The subjects on the face of the earth became mixed in caste; / then all the hosts of gods became terrified.

The gods, who partake of the fruit of ritual acts, when ritual action was destroyed, O Śaunaka, / were as if dead; nearly dead, all spoke to Brahmā:

The gods said: / To whom else shall we go for refuge, O god, except you, O lotus-seated one? / You are the creator, you are the disposer, and the sustainer of the life of all.

You are the refuge of all the gods; you alone are contemplated as Brahman; / therefore protect us, O lord of gods, from the supreme terror of Dambhāsura.

By him the three worlds, moving and unmoving, have been stripped of ritual action. / The gods were made by you, O one of great intellect, as consumers of the food of rites.

Due to the absence of rites in the world, we shall die, without a doubt. / Therefore, protect all the gods, O great-grandfather!

By you alone freedom from fear was granted, and by you we were protected. / Now, overcome by hunger, we shall die before your eyes.

Om tat sat. Thus ends the forty-second chapter, named 'The Victory over Dambhāsura,' in the account of Vakratuṇḍa, in the first section of the glorious and venerable Maudgala Mahāpurāṇa, an Upaniṣad of the Purāṇas.