The Goddess Who Stood Alone — Shumbha and Nishumbha

This is the third and longest battle of the Durga Saptashati — chapters five to ten, with its hymns and blessings running to the thirteenth. It is honoured as the episode of Mahasaraswati, and it contains some of the most famous lines in all of Hindu scripture.

Ya Devi

Two asura brothers, Shumbha and Nishumbha, had taken the three worlds from the gods. Remembering the Goddess's promise after Mahishasura, the gods went to the Himalaya and praised her. Their hymn is the one every Navaratri ends up humming:

To the Goddess who abides in all beings in the form of consciousness — salutation to her, salutation to her, salutation to her, salutation again and again.

The verse repeats with intelligence, sleep, hunger, shadow, power, thirst, forgiveness, modesty, peace, faith, beauty, fortune, memory, compassion, contentment, mother, error — every state a being can be in. (DharmSetu has the verse with its meaning: [Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu](/mantras/ya-devi-sarva-bhuteshu).)

While they sang, [Parvati](/gods/parvati) came down to bathe in the Ganga and asked whom they were praising. Out of her own body came the answer: a radiant goddess, Ambika, who said, "They are praising me." Because she came out of Parvati's sheath (kosha), she is called Kaushiki — and Parvati, emptied of her, turned dark, and was called Kalika.

The proposal

Two of Shumbha's servants, Chanda and Munda, saw Ambika on the mountain and ran to their king: there is a woman in the Himalaya more beautiful than anything you own. You have every jewel in the three worlds. You should have her too.

Shumbha sent a messenger with a proposal. The Goddess listened politely. "All of that is true," she said. "But once, foolishly, I made a vow: I will marry only the one who defeats me in battle, who breaks my pride, who is my equal in strength. So let Shumbha come, or Nishumbha, and win me. What else can I do?"

The messenger was outraged. Shumbha sent his general Dhumralochana to drag her back by the hair. She destroyed him with a single sound — hum — and her lion destroyed his army.

Chamunda

Shumbha sent Chanda and Munda themselves. When the Goddess saw them coming, her face went black with anger, and out of her forehead sprang Kali — gaunt, dark, wearing a garland of skulls and a tiger skin, her tongue lolling, her mouth wide. Kali tore through the army, seizing elephants and chariots and stuffing them into her mouth. She killed Chanda and Munda and brought their heads to Ambika as a gift.

"Because you have brought me Chanda and Munda," Ambika said, "you will be known in the world as [Chamunda](/gods/chamunda)."

The Matrikas, and Raktabija

Now Shumbha sent his whole army. To meet it, the power (shakti) of every god came out in that god's own form, carrying that god's weapons and riding that god's mount: Brahmani on a swan, Maheshvari on a bull, Kaumari on a peacock, Vaishnavi on Garuda, Varahi with a boar's face, Narasimhi with a lion's, Aindri with a thunderbolt on an elephant. These are the Matrikas, the Mothers. And from the Goddess herself came Shivaduti — the one who sent Shiva as her messenger to the asuras with a last offer of peace. They refused it.

It was in this battle that the asura Raktabija fought — the demon from every drop of whose blood another sprang — and that Chamunda opened her mouth and drank the battlefield dry. That story is told in full for [Night 7 — Kalaratri](/learn/all/navaratri-night-7-kalaratri).

Nishumbha, then Shumbha

Nishumbha came next and fell. When his chest was pierced, another warrior came out of it shouting "Stop!" — and the Goddess laughed and cut off his head.

That left Shumbha, alone. He looked at the Goddess and her army of goddesses and sneered: "Don't be so proud of your strength, Durga. You fight leaning on the strength of others."

Her answer is the turning point of the whole book:

"I am alone here in the world. What other is there besides me? Look, you wicked one — these, my own powers, are entering into me."

And every goddess on the battlefield — Brahmani, Maheshvari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, all of them — went back into her body. Ambika stood alone.

They fought with every weapon, then in the sky without weapons, hand to hand. At last she threw him to the ground and pierced his chest with her spear, and he died.

What she said, and what she promised

The gods praised her as Narayani in the eleventh chapter's great hymn, and she gave them a promise in return: whenever the world is troubled by demons, she will be born again to end it — and she named the forms she would take. That promise, and the promises of the twelfth chapter to those who read this story with devotion, are why it is still read aloud every Navaratri.

To carry from this story: Shumbha thought the Goddess's strength was borrowed. It was never borrowed. The army was her; she had only let it stand outside her for a while. What looks like many is one.