Andhaka, the Blind Son

A game of covered eyes

Once, on Mount Mandara, Śiva sat facing east, and Pārvatī, playfully, came from behind and covered his eyes with her hands. At once the whole world went dark — for Śiva's eyes are the sun and the moon. But his third eye still burned in his forehead, and its heat made Pārvatī's hands sweat.

From those drops of sweat, in that darkness, a child was born: dark, wild-haired, fierce-faced, and blind. He laughed, sang, wept and howled the moment he appeared. When Pārvatī took her hands away and light returned, the child looked even more terrible. “Whose is this?” she asked. Śiva smiled: “Ours. You made him when you covered my eyes.” Because he was born blind, in darkness, he was called Andhaka.

Given away

At that time the asura Hiraṇyākṣa was praying to Śiva for a son. Śiva gave him Andhaka. Hiraṇyākṣa raised the blind boy as his own and made him his heir. Later Hiraṇyākṣa dragged the earth down to the underworld and was killed by Viṣṇu as the boar Varāha; his brother Hiraṇyakaśipu met his end at the hands of Narasiṃha. Andhaka grew up among the asuras, mocked by his cousins as a blind king who had been handed the throne.

Tapas and pride

Stung, Andhaka went into the forest and performed austerities so terrible that he offered his own flesh into the fire. Brahmā appeared and gave him boons — sight, strength, and near-invincibility. Andhaka returned, conquered the three worlds and gave himself up to pleasure. Then his ministers told him of a woman on Mount Mandara more beautiful than any in creation. He did not know — or would not know — that she was Pārvatī, his own mother.

The guardian at the cave

Śiva had gone into the forest to perform the great Pāśupata vow, leaving Pārvatī in a cave on Mandara guarded by Vīraka, a devoted gaṇa. Andhaka came with his armies. For five hundred and five days and nights Vīraka held the cave mouth alone against the asura hosts. When Vīraka at last fell, Pārvatī called on the goddesses, and they came in their hundreds to fight beside her.

Blood that makes more demons

Then Śiva returned, and the real battle began. But every drop of Andhaka's blood that touched the ground became another Andhaka — thousands of them. At Śiva's bidding, a fierce goddess form — the Śiva Purāṇa says Viṣṇu himself took this form — drank the blood before it could fall. At last Śiva pierced Andhaka through the heart with his trident and lifted him high into the sky, impaled, like a withered tree on a pole.

The teacher swallowed

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the asuras kept rising again. Śukra, their teacher, knew the mṛtasañjīvanī vidyā — the secret of bringing the dead back to life — and every fallen asura stood up once more. Nandī reported this to Śiva, and Śiva sent him to fetch Śukra. Nandī seized the sage like a lion seizing a deer and carried him to Śiva. And Śiva simply swallowed him.

Inside Śiva's body, Śukra wandered for ages. He saw all the worlds there, and the battle with Andhaka, and could find no way out. He prayed to Śiva with a mantra — the Śiva Purāṇa gives its meaning — and at last Śiva released him through the way the seed leaves the body. So the sage came to be called Śukra. Śiva and Pārvatī accepted him as their son and sent him away in peace.

The blind one sees

Andhaka, hanging on the trident for untold years, was burnt clean by its fire. His body withered, but his pride withered with it. From the trident he began to praise Śiva, calling him by name after name. Moved, Śiva took him down, healed him, and made him one of his own gaṇas — a lord among his attendants. The child of darkness had come home.