Canto LXXXVII - The Devī-Māhātmya: The slaying of Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa

The goddess Kālī destroyed the second A sura army and also the generals Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa—Caṇḍikā gave Kālī as a reward the name Cāmuṇḍā.

The ṛṣi spoke:

Then at his command the Daityas, led by Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, and arrayed in the four-fold order of an army, marched with weapons uplifted. Soon they saw the goddess, slightly smiling, seated upon the lion, on a huge golden peak of the majestic mountain. On seeing her some of them made a strenuous effort to capture her, and others approached her holding their bows bent and their swords drawn.

Thereat Ambikā uttered her wrath aloud against those foes, and her countenance then grew dark as ink in her wrath. Out from the surface of her forehead, which was rugged with frowns, issued suddenly Kālī of the terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose, bearing a many-coloured skull-topped staff,^[1] decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger’s skin, very appalling because of her emaciated flesh, exceedingly wide of mouth, lolling out her tongue terribly, having deep-sunk reddish eyes, and filling the regions of the sky with her roars. She fell upon the great Asuras impetuously, dealing slaughter among the host, and devoured that army of the gods’ foes there. Taking up the elephants with one hand she flung them into her mouth, together with their rearmen and drivers and their warrior-riders and bells. Flinging likewise warrior with his horses, and chariot with its driver into her mouth, she ground them most frightfully with her teeth. She seized one by the hair, and another by the neck; and she kicked another with her foot, and crushed another against her breast. And she seized with her mouth the weapons and the great arms which those Asuras abandoned, and crunched them up with her teeth in her fury. She crushed all that host of mighty and high-spirited Āsuras; and devoured some and battered others; some were slain with her sword, some were struck with her skull-topped staff, and other Asuras met their death being wounded with the edge of her teeth.

Seeing all that host of Asuras laid low in a moment, Caṇḍa rushed against her, Kālī, who was exceedingly appalling. Muṇḍa the great Asura covered her, the terrible-eyed goddess, with very terrible showers of arrows and with discuses hurled in thousands. Those discuses seemed to be penetrating her countenance in multitudes, like as very many solar orbs might penetrate the body of a thunder-cloud. Thereat Kālī, who was roaring frightfully, laughed terribly with excessive fury, showing the gleam of her unsightly teeth within her dreadful mouth. And the goddess, mounting upon her great lion, rushed at Caṇḍa, and seizing him by his hair struck off his head with her sword. And Muṇḍa also rushed at her when he saw Caṇḍa laid low; him also she felled to the ground, stricken with her scymitar in her fury. Then the army, so much as escaped unslain, seeing Caṇḍa laid low and most valiant Muṇḍa also, seized with panic fled in all directions.

And Kālī, holding Caṇḍa’s head and Muṇḍa also, approached C’aṇḍikā and said, her voice mingled with passionate loud laughter—“Here I have brought thee Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, two great beasts; thou thyself shalt slay Śumbha and Niśumbha in the battle-sacrifice.”

The ṛṣi spoke:

Thereon, seeing those two great Asuras Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa brought to her, auspicious Caṇḍikā spoke to Kālī this witty speech,^[2] “Because thou hast seized both Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa and brought them, thou, O goddess, shalt therefore be famed in the world by the name Cāmuṇḍā!”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

For khaṭṭāṅga read khaṭvāṅga here and again in verse 14,

[2]:

Lalitam vacaḥ; a bon mot.