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INTRODUCTION
251
sprang at Mahişa, her eye red with anger, and struck him with
her foot. Then, as he lay stunned upon the ground, she pierced
him with her trident and cut off his head.¹
In this account of the duel as given in the Märkaṇḍeya, em-
phasis seems to be laid on the efficacy of Candi's kick as the final
coup de grâce that ended the struggle. The same emphasis ap-
pears in the Candiśataka. As already pointed out, this little poem
consists merely of a series of stanzas of which nearly every one
contains a reference to, or pictures some incident in this battle
between Candi and Mahișa, the dominant thought that gives unity
to the whole being the glorification of the foot of Caṇḍī, and it is
the kick of the goddess, rather than the goddess herself, that is
praised in a majority of the stanzas as the conqueror of Mahisa.
Prominence is also given to the foot of Candi as Mahisa's
executioner in the following prayer addressed to Durga (Candi)
by a character in one of the anecdotes of the Kathäsaritsägara :-
namas tubhyam mahādevi pādāu te yavakäńkitäu
mrditasuralagnāsrapańkāv iva namāmy aham
paritratas tvayãā lokā mahişāsurasüdani²
Homage to thee, O Mahadevi (Candi); I worship thy feet that are stained
with lac-dye,
As if with the clinging, clotted blood [lit. mud of the blood] of the demon
that was crushed [by them]
The worlds were protected by thee, O Slayer of the Demon Mahişa.
1 For a picture of this combat, see E. B. Havell, Indian Sculpture and
Painting, plate 20, p. 61, London, 1908. Here is represented a stone relief,
found at Singasari (Java), and now in the Ethnographic Museum at
Leyden. It belongs to the period of Brahmanical ascendancy in Java, 950-
1500 A.D. The goddess is portrayed standing over the prostrate carcass
of a buffalo, under which form Mahişa had concealed himself, and having
seized the real dwarf-like person of the demon, who had issued from
the buffalo, is preparing to deal him his death-blow. A somewhat similar
picture is found in Moor's Hindu Pantheon, plate 19. According to an
account given in EI, vol. 9, p. 160-161, the cult statue in one of the temples
at Dantewarā (near Jagdalpur) shows the goddess, with eight arms, in the
act of slaying the buffalo-demon.
2 See Hermann Brockhaus, Katha Sarit Sagara, 7. 37. 44-46, Leipzig, 1862;
cf. C. H. Tawney, Katha Sarit Sagara (Engl. tr.), vol. I, p. 337, Calcutta,
1880.
251
sprang at Mahişa, her eye red with anger, and struck him with
her foot. Then, as he lay stunned upon the ground, she pierced
him with her trident and cut off his head.¹
In this account of the duel as given in the Märkaṇḍeya, em-
phasis seems to be laid on the efficacy of Candi's kick as the final
coup de grâce that ended the struggle. The same emphasis ap-
pears in the Candiśataka. As already pointed out, this little poem
consists merely of a series of stanzas of which nearly every one
contains a reference to, or pictures some incident in this battle
between Candi and Mahișa, the dominant thought that gives unity
to the whole being the glorification of the foot of Caṇḍī, and it is
the kick of the goddess, rather than the goddess herself, that is
praised in a majority of the stanzas as the conqueror of Mahisa.
Prominence is also given to the foot of Candi as Mahisa's
executioner in the following prayer addressed to Durga (Candi)
by a character in one of the anecdotes of the Kathäsaritsägara :-
namas tubhyam mahādevi pādāu te yavakäńkitäu
mrditasuralagnāsrapańkāv iva namāmy aham
paritratas tvayãā lokā mahişāsurasüdani²
Homage to thee, O Mahadevi (Candi); I worship thy feet that are stained
with lac-dye,
As if with the clinging, clotted blood [lit. mud of the blood] of the demon
that was crushed [by them]
The worlds were protected by thee, O Slayer of the Demon Mahişa.
1 For a picture of this combat, see E. B. Havell, Indian Sculpture and
Painting, plate 20, p. 61, London, 1908. Here is represented a stone relief,
found at Singasari (Java), and now in the Ethnographic Museum at
Leyden. It belongs to the period of Brahmanical ascendancy in Java, 950-
1500 A.D. The goddess is portrayed standing over the prostrate carcass
of a buffalo, under which form Mahişa had concealed himself, and having
seized the real dwarf-like person of the demon, who had issued from
the buffalo, is preparing to deal him his death-blow. A somewhat similar
picture is found in Moor's Hindu Pantheon, plate 19. According to an
account given in EI, vol. 9, p. 160-161, the cult statue in one of the temples
at Dantewarā (near Jagdalpur) shows the goddess, with eight arms, in the
act of slaying the buffalo-demon.
2 See Hermann Brockhaus, Katha Sarit Sagara, 7. 37. 44-46, Leipzig, 1862;
cf. C. H. Tawney, Katha Sarit Sagara (Engl. tr.), vol. I, p. 337, Calcutta,
1880.