Pārvatī's Ball

Two daityas and their boon

Sanatkumāra tells Vyāsa how Śiva once pointed out a pair of daityas with a mere sign and had his beloved kill them.

Long ago there were two very powerful daityas, Vidala and Utpala. From Brahmā they had won the boon that no man could kill them, and it made them bold and arrogant. By the strength of their arms they treated the three worlds as so much straw, and in battle they defeated all the gods.

Brahmā's word

The beaten gods took refuge with Brahmā, bowed to him with due respect and told him their trouble. Brahmā answered: “These two will certainly be killed by Pārvatī. Remember Śiva together with Pārvatī and be patient. The supreme Lord, kind to his devotees, will with the Goddess bring about your good very soon.”

Having said this, Brahmā thought of Śiva and fell silent, and the gods went home to their own worlds reassured.

Nārada's visit

Then, prompted by Śiva, the divine sage Nārada went to the daityas' house and described to them the beauty of Pārvatī.

The two heard him and were caught — deluded by māyā, tormented by desire, and set on carrying Pārvatī off. They began to wonder when and where fate would put her within their reach.

The game

One day Śiva was at ease, enjoying himself in play, and Pārvatī, for fun, began a game of ball with her companions close beside him.

The Purāṇa lingers on the sight. She tossed the ball upward, light and quick in every limb. Bees, drawn by the fragrance of her breath, circled her and made her eyes dart. The garland had slipped from her loosened hair; beads of sweat stood on the painted designs of her cheeks; the glow of her body showed through her bright bodice. Her lotus hands were red from striking the ball, and her brows moved like the tips of creepers as her eyes followed it. So the Mother of the world was seen at play.

Vidala and Utpala, travelling through the sky, caught sight of her with sidelong glances — and it was, the Purāṇa says, as though Death, already present, had taken the two of them into his lap.

The disguise and the glance

Proud of Brahmā's boon and struck by Kāma's arrows, the two wished to seize the Goddess. They quickly worked their sorcery, came down from the sky, and by illusion took the form of Śiva's gaṇas. In that guise the two — utterly wicked and restless in mind — came close to Pārvatī.

Śiva, destroyer of the wicked, knew them in an instant by their shifting eyes. He looked toward Pārvatī, the remover of distress; he had understood that these were daityas and not gaṇas at all.

Pārvatī understood the sign her husband made with his eyes.

One throw

The moment she read that glance, the Goddess — Śiva's own half — struck both of them at once with the very ball she was playing with.

Hit by the Great Goddess's ball, the two mighty villains spun round and round and fell — like ripe fruit shaken by the wind from a cluster on a palmyra palm, like peaks of Mount Sumeru brought down by a thunderbolt.

Kandukeśvara

Having killed the two daityas in the middle of their vile attempt, the ball took the form of a liṅga. From that time the liṅga has been known as Kandukeśvara, “Lord of the ball”. It removes all faults, the Purāṇa says, and it stands near Jyeṣṭheśvara.

Knowing that Śiva had manifested there, Viṣṇu, Brahmā, all the gods and the sages came. Seeing Mahādeva with Pārvatī, they joined their palms, bowed, and praised them with devotion in beautiful words. Then the gods and the people of Kāśī received boons from Śiva and, with his leave, went home.

Śiva, kind to his devotees and a knower of the finest play, sported with Pārvatī and then, content, returned to his own world with his gaṇas.

The liṅga called Kandukeśvara in Kāśī destroys the wicked, gives both enjoyment and liberation, and always fulfils the wishes of the good. Whoever gladly hears or tells, reads or teaches this wonderful story has neither sorrow nor fear; having enjoyed every good happiness here, that person reaches hereafter a divine state hard even for the gods to attain.

The close of the Rudra Saṃhitā

With this the telling ends. Sanatkumāra, the Purāṇa says, took leave of Vyāsa, was honoured by him, and went swiftly through the sky to Kāśī.

Brahmā then tells Nārada that he has now narrated the Yuddha Khaṇḍa and with it the whole Rudra Saṃhitā, which delights Śiva and gives enjoyment and liberation; one who reads it daily is freed from the trouble of enemies, gains every wish and afterwards liberation. Sūta adds that Nārada, having heard from his father Śiva's supreme glory and his hundred names, was fulfilled and became a follower of Śiva — and asks the sages what more they wish to hear.