Shloka 1
Adhyaya 82 — The Rise of Mahishasura and the Manifestation of the Goddess from the Gods’ Tejas
इति श्रीमार्कण्डेयपुराणे सावर्णिके मन्वन्तरे देवींमाहात्म्ये मधुकैटभवधो नामैकाशीतितमोऽध्यायः ।
द्व्यशीतितमोऽध्यायः- ८२
ऋषिरुवाच देवासुरमभूद् युद्धं पूर्णमब्दशतं पुरा ।
महिषेऽसुराणामधिपे देवानां च पुरन्दरे ॥
iti śrīmārkaṇḍeyapurāṇe sāvarṇike manvantare devīmāhātmye madhukaiṭabhavadho nāma ekāśītitamo 'dhyāyaḥ | dvyaśītitamo 'dhyāyaḥ- 82 | ṛṣir uvāca devāsuram abhūd yuddhaṃ pūrṇam abdaśataṃ purā | mahiṣe 'surāṇām adhipe devānāṃ ca purandare ||
Thus, in the Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, in the Sāvarṇika Manvantara, within the Devī Māhātmya, ends the eighty-first chapter called “The Slaying of Madhu and Kaiṭabha.” Chapter 82 begins. The Ṛṣi said: Formerly, a war between gods and demons lasted a full hundred years, between Mahīṣa, lord of the asuras, and Purandara (Indra), lord of the gods.
FAQs
When divine order is overwhelmed over long durations, the tradition signals a higher corrective principle—Devī—whose intervention restores balance beyond the capacities of the devas alone.
Manvantara: the colophon explicitly locates the narrative in Sāvarṇika Manvantara; the devāsura war functions as a cyclical pattern within time-period governance.
A ‘hundred-year war’ symbolizes entrenched imbalance (tamasic dominance) requiring the condensation of divine energies into a single śakti-form for resolution.