The buffalo demon holds a boon that no male can kill him, and on the strength of it he takes heaven from the gods. Unable to answer him, the gods send out their combined radiance, and from it a woman is formed and armed with each god's weapon. Because she is a woman the boon does not protect him; she rides against him and kills him. Who gave the boon is not said in the encyclopedia summary; popular tellings say Brahma.
Among the Asur and some Santal communities the demon is an ancestor, Hudur Durga, a king defeated by trickery, and the days of Durga Puja are kept as mourning rather than celebration.
Mahishasura is the wronged hero; the goddess's victory is remembered as a loss.
Mysore takes its name from the demon and localises his death on the Chamundi Hills above the city, where the goddess is Chamundeshwari; a large painted statue of Mahishasura stands on the hill road.
Localises the killing at Mysore and names the goddess Chamundeshwari.
Sources: Mahishasura — Wikipedia
Three Pallava shrines on one platform: Shiva in the centre, Vishnu on the right, and a disputed left shrine read as Brahma by Vogel but as Subrahmanya or Brahmasasta by later scholars; a Durga panel stands beside.
The Maitri Upanishad names Brahma, Rudra and Vishnu together as portions of one being, matched to the three gunas.
The sage Atri and his wife Anasuya earn great merit through their conduct and austerity.
A seven-metre three-faced bust fills the south wall of Elephanta's Cave 1.
Before the gods there are only the primordial waters.
A golden egg forms in the waters and glows like the sun.
During the dissolution Vishnu lies on the serpent Ananta in the cosmic waters.
Shiva alone exists before the world.