Dussehra is celebrated with much fanfare across India — especially in eastern parts of the country. The festival celebrates the victory of Goddess Durga over demon-king Mahishasura.
According to Indian mythology, Rambha — a demon king– fell in love with a female buffalo and they got married. They gave birth to a son and called him Mahishasura- a portmanteau of Mahisha (buffalo) and Asura (demon) for his father being an asura and mother a buffalo. Mahishasura was a staunch devotee of Lord Brahma. After years of worshipping the Lord, one day Brahma appeared before him and wished to give him a boon.
It was the day the demon king had been waiting for. The boon he asked for was for immortality. When denied immortality, Mahishasura wished that neither any man nor any animal should be able to kill him. The Lord granted the boon and disappeared. But before disappearing, he warned Mahishasura that he will be killed by a woman.
Knowing it that no woman on earth can kill him, Mahishasura went mad with the power. He not only attacked the three worlds of earth, heaven and hell but also waged a war against Lord Indra.
Having known it that they cannot defeat Mahishasura as he has the boon of Lord Brahma with him, all the gods then met Lord Vishnu and narrated their cause of fear and urged him to do something to get them rid of Mahishasura’s terror.
Lord Vishnu advised the gods to seek Lord Shiva’s help. Subsequently, Shiva — the lord of destruction — was consulted. The gods, putting their powers together along with Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva gave birth to goddess Durga and gave her weapons.
Lord Vishnu gave her his chakra, lord Shiva his trident and Lord Brahma gave her his ‘Kamandal’ full of holy Ganga water. She fought a battle with Mahishasura for a period of nine days and finally killed the demon king with her trident and freed the world from the tyranny of Mahishasura.
PNN