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War with Bhandasura

Mother appeared from the fire of their sacrifice and they narrated how they sent Kamadeva to shake Shiva’s penance for the purpose of slaying Tharama and he was turned into ashes and now has become Bhandasura

Om cid agni kuṇḍa sambhūtāyai namaḥ
(who was born in the fire pit of Pure Consciousness)
Om deva kārya samudyatāyai namaḥ
(who is intent on fulfilling the wishes of the gods. ( to kill Tharakasura)

Om udyad bhānu sahasrābhāyai namaḥ
(who has the radiance of a thousand rising suns.)
Om catur bāhu samanvitāyai namaḥ
(who is four armed with pasham, ankusham, ikshudandam and pushpabanam in each of the hands)

All the Gods praised Devi. Tharakasura had attained a boon that only the son of Shiva & Parvati can slay him. Lord Shiva was in His penance after His consort Goddess Sati burnt away Her body in the great sacrifice of Daksha. Goddess Sati has reincarnated as Mother Parvati. Parvati was assisting Lord Shiva and the Lord was in an unshakable penance. All the devas thought, how can Shiva and Parvati bear a child if the Lord continues his penance like this? They devised a plan to send Kama Deva (the God of desire) to interrupt Lord Shiva’s penance. Kama Deva went to Kailas and started shooting his floral arrow on Lord Shiva, the Lord was furious and opened His third eye and Kamadeva was burnt into ashes. The one who went to help devas is now nothing but dust. Gods were worried about thinking about the state of the one who went to help them.

A demi-god named Chitrasena gathered the ashes of Kamadeva and made a form out of it. Not only it didn’t resemble Kamadeva but was heavily deformed. Since Lord Brahma did not create this form, seeing the deformity Lord Brahma mocked at it saying “Bhanda, Bhanda!” as the form was such. Thus that deformed figure turned into a daemon named Bhandasura. Since this form was the creation of the gods, each of them blessed him with various powers and weapons. He made a huge city named Shoonyaka Nagara aka Shonitapuram. In the beginning, all the gods helped him, he was considered one among them. He had two brothers Vishukran & Vishangan. He had many sons. Unlike other asuras, they were devoted to Lord Shiva. They performed various sacrifices every day for the prosperity of their kingdom. Because of all these, they became highly powerful. It is an inherent quality of Asuras to harm Devas. Now, all this have started from trying a solution to slay Tharakasura but Bhandasura and his team have become more menace than Tharakusra. Nobody even bothered about Tharaka at the moment. All the Gods performed a strenuous and very long sacrifice and received the Grace of Mother Lalita. Mother appeared from the fire of their sacrifice and they narrated how they sent Kamadeva to shake Shiva’s penance for the purpose of slaying Tharama and he was turned into ashes and now has become Bhandasura. Mother has to slay him and bless us all. Mother assured tat She will slay Bhandasura.

Devi assured all the Gods to slay Bhandasura. They named Mother as Kameshwari, Lalitambika. Mother was married to Lord Kameshwara (Shiva). A huge kingdom was built and palace made of Chintamani (as mentioned in earlier episodes) were constructed for Devi. The city was named Sri Nagara as opposed to the Shunyaka Nagara of Bhandasura. All the devas were living in that city and after some time, Devi started to wage a war against Bhandasura. There were no devas other than Lord Kameshwara in Devi’s army. The entire army was created by Devi which came to be known as Shakti Sena.
Om bhaṇḍāsura vadhodyukta śakti senā samanvitāyai namaḥ
(who is endowed with an army of Shaktis intent on slaying Bhandasura.)

Goddess Sampatkari was in-charge of the elephantry.
Om sampatkarī samārūḍha sindhura vraja sevitāyai namaḥ
(who is attended by a herd of elephants ably commanded by Sampatkari.)

Goddess Ashvarudha was in-charge of the cavalry.
Om aśvārūḍhādhiṣṭhitāśva koṭi koṭibhir āvṛtāyai namaḥ
(who is surrounded by a cavalry of several million horses which are under the command of the shakti Ashvarudha.)

Om cakra rāja rathārūḍha sarvāyudha pariṣkṛtāyai namaḥ
(who shines in Her chariot Chakraraja, equipped with all kinds of weapons.)

Om geya cakra rathārūḍha mantriṇī pari sevitāyai namaḥ
(who is served by the shakti Mantrini riding the Geyachakra chariot.)

Om kiri cakra rathārūḍha daṇḍanāthā puras kṛtāyai namaḥ
(who is escorted by the shakti Dandanatha, seated in the Kirichakra chariot.)

Om bhaṇḍa putra vadhodyukta bālā vikrama nanditāyai namaḥ
(who delights in seeing the valour of the goddess Bala who is intent on killing the sons of Bhanda.)
As per the custom the sons of Bhandasura came for the war first. A war of unseen scale was fought.

Mantrinin Devi (The Chief Minister) killed Vishukran and Dandanatha Devi killed Vishangan, the brothers of Bhandasura
Devi’s daughter Bala Tripurasundari killed the sons of Bhandasura.