Andhaka, the blind demon who wanted his mother

One day on the mountain Parvati came up behind Shiva and covered his eyes with her hands, and all the light in the worlds went out. In the dark and the heat, sweat from her palms ran down and became a child, dark and blind. Shiva gave the boy to Hiranyaksha, who had prayed for a son, and the demon called him Andhaka, the one who darkens. Andhaka grew, won power from Brahma by penance, and took the demons' throne. Then someone told him of a woman on Kailash lovelier than any, and he sent for her, and when she was not sent he came with an army. She was Parvati. Shiva met him and drove the trident through him and lifted him on it, but each drop of blood that reached the earth stood up as another Andhaka, until the ground was crowded with them. Shiva called the mothers, the Matrikas, and they caught the blood in their mouths before it fell. Andhaka hung on the trident, in some tellings for a thousand years, until the demon in him had dried away; then he sang to Shiva, was forgiven, and joined his household.