Vamana Purana — Skanda Slays Taraka & Mahisha, Shloka 118
Skanda’s Svastyayana and the Slaying of Taraka and Mahisha
तमाह शंभुर्व्रज दत्तमेतद् वरं हि चक्रस्य तवायुधास्य बाणस्य तद्बाहुबलं प्रवृद्धं संछेत्स्यते नात्र विचारणास्ति
tamāha śaṃbhurvraja dattametad varaṃ hi cakrasya tavāyudhāsya bāṇasya tadbāhubalaṃ pravṛddhaṃ saṃchetsyate nātra vicāraṇāsti
Śambhu sprach zu ihm: „Geh — diese Gabe hinsichtlich deiner Waffe, der Scheibe (cakra), ist dir gewährt. Die stark angewachsene Kraft der Arme Bāṇas wird abgeschlagen werden; daran besteht kein Zweifel.“
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FAQs
“Vraja” marks the transition from ascetic preparation to worldly action. In Purāṇic boon narratives, the deity’s command to depart signals that the tapas has matured into authorized agency—now the devotee must enact the divine will in the world.
It expresses the irrevocability of divine speech (satya-vāk). Once Śiva grants the boon, the outcome becomes a fixed point in the narrative cosmos—removing uncertainty and emphasizing the supremacy of the deity’s decree.
No; it specifies the cutting of “arm-strength” (bāhu-bala), i.e., the disabling of Bāṇa’s excessive martial capacity. This aligns with a common Purāṇic motif: restraining adharma by removing its instruments rather than necessarily annihilating the being outright.