File:Tarakasura.jpg

= Asura Tarakasura =

 Daksha Prajaipathi fathered Diti from his first wife Panchajan, who was daughter of Prajaipathi Virani. She married Sage Kashyapa, who blessed with a great warrior son named ‘Vajranga’. He was very strong, unbreakable, and indestructible. His mother Diti desired to avenge the killing of several Asuras in the past by Lord Indra and asked Vajranga to defeat and bring down Lord Indra imprisoned in person. On doing so, Diti put Lord Indra to shame and then released him saying that his subduing was worse than his death.

 Meanwhile, Vajranga did severe austerity to obtain Vajrangani as his wife. Pleased with austerity performed by him, Lord Brahma granted Vajrangani as his wife also granted them with a boon to have a very powerful son called Tarakasura. When the mighty Tarakasura was born, the parents filled with wild joy and excitement. As the boy attained youth, he turned out to be a frightening demon and developed friendship with other Asuras like Kujambha and Mahisha.

 In the Pariparta Mountains in Madhu gardens, Asura Tarakasura set to perform very difficult austerity to obtain boons from Lord Brahma. He performed very difficult austerity. He was performing with the spiritual ecstasy to achieve the very difficult goal accompanying suffering and pain. He gazed at the sun and stood there with his arms raised. He stood on one leg and that too, only on the toes of his feet. A hundred years passed. For those hundred years, Tarakasura drank only water and had no food to eat. For the next hundreds, he gave up that also and lived only on air. A hundred years spent in performing a terrible penance inside water and a hundred years more inside fire. For a hundred years, he performed penance upside down, standing on his hands. In addition, for yet another hundred years, he hung upside down from the branches of a tree. He started slicing part of his body and offered it to the Lord of Fire as an offering. He continued meditating again for another hundred years then cutting another part of his body again offered it to the Fire. The penance was so difficult that Brahma was pleased. Lord Brahma appeared before Tarakasura and asked, “I am pleased with your Penance. What boon do you want?

 “If you are pleased,” replied Tarakasura, “grant me two boons. The first boon is that no one should be stronger in this creation than Tarakasura standing before you. The second boon should be that only Shiva’s son should kill me.”

 Lord Brahma granted Tarakasura with those two boons. Armed with those two boons, Asura Tarakasura with his gigantic body had moved swiftly in the Sky. His body was bull- headed and eyes were blazing. He had fiery hair, terrible teeth reaching toward his scowling brows, and amazing effulgence generated by his armlets. Tarakasura raised a huge army of ten crore well versed and trained soldiers along with the armies of renowned Asuras like Mahisha, Kunjara, Megha, Kaalanemi, Nimi, Manthana, Jambhaka, and Sumbha.

 Read Kingdom of Shiva and know how the Asura Tarakasura troubled Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati and met his death ...Sivkishen, Author, Kingdom of Shiva