Tarakasura is the demon whose career was, in a sense, over at the moment of his boon. Having won Brahma's favour by austerity, he asked that death come to him only from a son of Shiva, calculating shrewdly: Shiva, shattered by the death of Sati, had withdrawn into ascetic trance, and no son seemed possible. Thus secured, Taraka oppressed the gods and seized their portions, and the whole machinery of heaven had to be turned to the improbable task of getting the great ascetic married.
The story
The gods sent Kamadeva to stir desire in Shiva as Parvati, Sati reborn, attended him; Shiva burned the love god to ash with a glance, and it was finally Parvati's own austerities that won him. From their union came Karttikeya, also called Skanda and Kumara, nursed by the six Krittikas and made general of the divine armies. In battle the young god slew Taraka with his spear, fulfilling the boon's single condition. The prelude to this story, the burning of Kama and the winning of Shiva, is the matter of Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava, one of the summits of Sanskrit poetry.
Afterlives
Taraka's line carried the enmity forward: his three sons, Tarakaksha, Kamalaksha and Vidyunmali, obtained the three flying cities of Tripura, which Shiva himself destroyed with a single arrow. In the south, where Karttikeya is worshipped as Murugan, the destruction of the demon and his kin is celebrated at Skanda Shashthi, and the spear that did the work remains the god's emblem.
Further reading
- Bhattacharyya, N. N. History of the Sakta Religion. Munshiram Manoharlal, 1996
- Coburn, Thomas B. Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi-Mahatmya. State University of New York Press, 1991
- Kinsley, David. Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine. University of California Press, 1986
- Kinsley, David. Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas. University of California Press, 1997
- Sircar, D. C. The Sakta Pithas. Motilal Banarsidass, 1973
See also
This entry was last revised on 31 July 2026.