Adhyaya 86 — Dhumralocana’s Mission and His Ashing by the Goddess; Shumbha Sends Chanda and Munda
हे धूम्रलोचनाशु त्वं स्वसैन्यपरिवारितः ।
तामानय बलाद् दुष्टां केशाकर्षणविह्वलाम् ॥
he dhūmralocanāśu tvaṃ svasainyaparivāritaḥ | tām ānaya balād duṣṭāṃ keśākarṣaṇavihvalām ||
हे धूम्रलोचन, त्वरेने जा; आपल्या सैन्याने वेढलेला तू त्या दुष्टा स्त्रीला केसांनी ओढत, पीडित करत, बलपूर्वक इथे घेऊन ये.
Adharma justifies its violence by redefining virtue as vice (‘duṣṭā’). The verse is a warning about moral inversion: when desire rules, it labels resistance as wickedness and seeks domination by force.
Manvantara-ākhyāna; it advances the conflict that culminates in the Goddess’s theophany and restoration of order—an exemplary narrative within the manvantara framework.
The command to ‘seize by force’ represents compulsive grasping (rāga) attempting to capture inner power. ‘Hair-dragging’ suggests pulling consciousness downward into tamasic control—yet Śakti’s arising will transmute and destroy that compulsion.