Vamana Purana — Skanda Slays Taraka & Mahisha, Shloka 85
Skanda’s Svastyayana and the Slaying of Taraka and Mahisha
बाणो ऽपि वीरे निहते ऽथ तारके गते हिमाद्रिं महिषे भयात्ते भयाद् विवेशोग्रमपां निधानं गर्णैर्बले वध्यति सापराधे
bāṇo 'pi vīre nihate 'tha tārake gate himādriṃ mahiṣe bhayātte bhayād viveśogramapāṃ nidhānaṃ garṇairbale vadhyati sāparādhe
Apabila wira Tāraka telah ditewaskan, Bāṇa juga—kerana takut akan Mahiṣa—melarikan diri dalam ketakutan lalu memasuki Himālaya, gedung simpanan air yang dahsyat. Di sana para Gaṇa, dengan kekuatan mereka, sedang membunuh para pesalah yang bersalah.
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FAQs
Purāṇic geography regularly treats the Himālaya as the great reservoir and source-region of waters—glaciers, lakes, and the headwaters of major rivers. The epithet frames the mountain not only as a battlefield refuge but as a sacral hydrological axis of Bhārata.
Gaṇas are Śiva’s attendant hosts, often depicted as enforcing cosmic order in liminal spaces (mountains, forests, cremation grounds). ‘Sāparādhe’ indicates those marked by offense—typically asuric aggressors or transgressors—being punished as part of restoring dharma after the demon’s upheaval.
The name Bāṇa can recur across Purāṇic corpora for different figures or for the same figure in variant narrative placements. Without additional identifying epithets (e.g., ‘Bali-putra’, ‘Śoṇitapura’), this verse alone cannot securely equate him with the later Vaiṣṇava-cycle Bāṇāsura; it functions here as an asuric warrior reacting to Mahiṣa’s threat.