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On the sacred shore of Pushkar, an ascetic had held his seat for years without moving. His lips never stopped shaping the Krishna mantra. When a full hundred thousand years of that chanting had passed, a blazing radiance broke from his forehead and spread through every quarter of the sky. The brilliance grew so unbearable that the gods, the sages, and even Manu himself rose to their feet in distress.
Who this ascetic was, Sanatkumara related to Vyasa. From Brahma came his son Marichi; from Marichi, Kashyapa; and in the line of Kashyapa’s wife Danu, a son named Dambha was born to Viprachitti, a man who had mastered his senses and worshipped Vishnu above all. For a long age no son came to him, and so, taking the Krishna mantra from his guru Shukracharya, he had begun this ferocious penance at Pushkar.
The gods’ alarm and Vishnu’s boon
Unnerved by the radiance, the gods put Indra at their head and went to Brahma. Brahma took them with him to Vaikuntha, where Lord Vishnu sat bearing conch, discus, mace, and lotus. Folding their hands, the gods cried out, “God of gods, we do not know where this fire has risen from. We come to you as your refuge; protect us.” Vishnu answered with a smile. “Do not be afraid. The hour of dissolution has not yet come. This radiance belongs to my devotee Dambha, who does penance out of longing for a son. I will grant him a boon and quiet it.”
With that, Vishnu came in person to Pushkar and said to Dambha, “Ask for your boon.” Dambha threw himself at his feet. “Ramanatha, lord of Lakshmi, give me a heroic son who will be your devotee and whom no one in the three worlds can defeat.” Vishnu said, “So be it,” and vanished.
Some time later Dambha’s wife conceived. The foremost among Krishna’s attendants was a cowherd named Sudama, who lay under a curse, and it was he who entered that womb. When the time came, a radiant boy was born. His father summoned the sages, had the rites performed in due order, and on an auspicious day gave him the name Shankhachuda. The child grew like the moon in its waxing fortnight and learned every branch of knowledge while still a boy.
When he came of age, on the counsel of the sage Jaigishavya, Shankhachuda too went to Pushkar and set himself to penance to win Brahma’s favor. Brahma appeared and said, “Ask for your boon.” Bowing humbly, he said, “Lord, let me become invincible to the gods.” Brahma said, “So be it,” and gave him the Krishna-kavacha, an amulet that grants every blessing and victory everywhere. Then he gave a command. “Near Pushkar, Dharmadhvaja’s daughter Tulasi is performing austerities. Go and marry her.”
Tulasi at Pushkar
Shankhachuda arrived where Tulasi sat lost in penance. Her beauty was ravishing. In a gentle voice he asked, “Lovely one, who are you? Whose daughter? What are you doing, sitting here in silence?” Tulasi replied, “I am the daughter of Dharmadhvaja, given to austerity, and here in this grove I do my penance. Who are you? Go peacefully to your own place, for womankind can cloud the mind of even Brahma and bind the thoughtful like a chain.”
At this Shankhachuda smiled. “Lady, not everything you say is true. Among all the faithful wives in the world, you stand foremost. By Brahma’s command I have come to take your hand by the gandharva rite. Have you not even heard my name? I am Shankhachuda, son of Dambha in the line of Danu. In an earlier age I was Sudama, the cowherd attendant of Hari; now, under a curse, I have been born as a lord of the danavas. By Krishna’s grace the memory of my former life stays with me.”
Hearing these truthful words, Tulasi was pleased and said with a smile, “Noble one, today you have overcome me with the purity of your thought. A man whom a woman conquers stays forever unclean, though he be a man; even gods and ancestors reproach him. I was only testing you, for a woman should choose the husband of her heart only after she has weighed him.”
Just then Brahma, maker of the worlds, arrived and said, “Shankhachuda, waste no more words in argument; take her hand by the gandharva rite. You are a jewel among men, and she a jewel among devoted wives.” Then, turning to Tulasi, he said, “Delight in his company for a long age. When his body falls he will find Krishna again in Goloka, and you will find the four-armed Lord in Vaikuntha.” With this blessing Brahma departed. Shankhachuda married Tulasi and brought her home to his father.
The demon kingdom and the gods’ plea
The moment Shankhachuda returned, the danavas and daityas broke into celebration. Putting their guru Shukracharya at the front, they anointed him king over the whole realm of the danavas. Then the mighty one began to strip the gods of every dominion across all the worlds. He took for himself the shares of the yajna and forced even great officers like Kubera, Soma, Surya, Agni, Yama, and Vayu to do his bidding. In all three worlds only the gods were wretched. Though born in a demon’s womb, he had none of a demon’s mind; he was Krishna’s ardent devotee, gentle by nature.
Robbed of their kingdom, the gods went first to Brahma and then, with him, to Vaikuntha, where they praised Vishnu and wept. Vishnu opened the secret to them. “I know all of this. In his former birth Shankhachuda was Sudama, my cowherd devotee. Krishna has already ordained his death by Rudra’s trident; leaving the demon’s body, he will become Krishna’s attendant once more. So do not be afraid. Come, let us both go to Shankara for refuge.”
Brahma and Vishnu reached Shivaloka, where Shankara sat with Uma upon a jeweled throne. Folding their hands, the two of them offered praise. “Friend of the helpless, tender to those who take refuge, deliver us.” Shankara smiled. “I know the whole story of Shankhachuda. I will slay him together with his soldiers; of this there is not the slightest doubt.”
These words filled the gods with the deepest joy. Then Shankara made his beloved Chitraratha, king of the gandharvas, his envoy and sent him to Shankhachuda. But Shankhachuda would not agree to return the kingdom without a fight, and he said, “Without doing battle with Maheshvara I will surrender neither the kingdom nor the dominions. Let Rudra do as he thinks fit.”
Shiva’s march and the battle
When the envoy returned with this reply, anger rose in Shankara. He ordered Virabhadra, Nandi, Kshetrapala, and the eight Bhairavas to arm themselves and stand ready. Prince Kartikeya and Ganesha came too, clad in armor, and Bhadrakali mounted her celestial chariot with her army and a wealth of divine weapons. Millions of ganas, the eleven Rudras, the eight Vasus, Indra, the twelve Adityas, and the other gods followed behind Maheshvara. Shiva came and stood beneath a splendid banyan tree.
On the other side, Shankhachuda said to Tulasi, “My lady, having heard news of war from the mouth of Shambhu’s envoy, I am ready to go; give me your leave.” Then he completed his morning rites, gave generous gifts, anointed his son upon the throne, steadied the weeping Tulasi, put on his armor, and set out for battle. With his army he took his stand on the bank of the Pushpabhadra, facing Shiva’s host.
Shankhachuda too sent an envoy. Maheshvara told him, “I take no one’s side; I am always bound to my devotees. In ages past it was at the gods’ prayer that Hari destroyed Madhu and Kaitabha and Hiranyakashipu, that I burned the Tripuras to ash, and that the Goddess killed Shumbha and the rest. In just this way, age after age, I come to war for the gods.” Hearing this, Shankhachuda gladly accepted the fight.
Then a terrible battle broke out. Indra closed with Vrishaparva, Surya with Viprachitti, and Vishnu with Dambha; the eleven Rudras grappled with eleven demon champions. On the field Bhadrakali gave so fearsome a lion’s roar and so wild a laugh that the danavas fell senseless. She loosed the Agneya weapon, the Narayana weapon, and the Brahmastra at Shankhachuda, yet he stilled each one by bowing to it or by answering it with its own counter-weapon. At last the Goddess struck him with her fist, spun him about, and flung him far, and even so Shankhachuda would not strike her, for he took her to be his mother.
Armor, chastity, and the trident
At that moment a voice sounded from the sky, and Bhadrakali withdrew from the fight. Now Shankara himself, knower of the truth, rode Nandi onto the field, taking Virabhadra and the Bhairavas with him. The instant he saw Shiva, Shankhachuda stepped down from his chariot, fell full length upon the earth like a staff, and bowed in devotion. Then he climbed back onto his chariot, took up his bow, and a rain of weapons began to fall between the two of them.
Then the voice from the sky spoke again. “Vyomakesha, as long as this man’s wife keeps her chastity whole and as long as he wears the Krishna-kavacha, his death is not possible.” At Shiva’s prompting, Vishnu put on the guise of an aged brahmin, approached Shankhachuda, and begged the armor from him as alms. Shankhachuda, devoted to brahmins and true to his word, gave away that divine amulet as though it were his own life. Then Hari took on Shankhachuda’s very form, went to Tulasi, and took from her the chastity she had kept.
Now Vishnu told Shambhu all that had happened. Then, for the killing, Shiva took into his hand a wondrous trident, blazing like millions of suns and swift as thought itself. At Shiva’s command the trident fell upon Shankhachuda and in that instant reduced him to a heap of ash. Its work done, the trident returned by the path of the sky. Kettledrums rang out in heaven, flowers rained down upon Shiva, and Shankhachuda regained his former form as an attendant of Krishna.
From Shankhachuda’s bones came forth the whole race of conch shells. The water of the conch is dear beyond measure to Hari and Lakshmi and is held auspicious for all the gods save Shankara; yet it is never offered to Shiva. Having slain Shankhachuda in this way, Shankara returned to Shivaloka with Uma, Skanda, and his ganas, and a perfect peace settled over the world.
Source: Shiva Purana (Gita Press, Sankshipta Shivapuranank), Rudra Samhita, fifth (Battle) Khanda