The gods' light becomes a woman: Mahishasura, and Uma's homecoming in Bengal

The Devi Mahatmya's goddess born of the light of every god, armed by all of them, who laughs at the buffalo demon and beheads him; and Bengal's Durga Puja, where the same goddess is Uma come home to her mother for three days.

The story, beat by beat

1. After a hundred years of war Mahisha takes Indra's seat and the offices of sun, moon, fire, wind, Yama and Varuna; the gods wander the earth like mortals.
2. They go to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; the three grow angry and a light pours from every god's face and body and gathers into one mass.
3. The light becomes a woman: her face from Shiva, hair from Yama, arms from Vishnu, breasts from the Moon, waist from Indra, legs from Varuna, feet from Brahma, three eyes from Fire, ears from the Wind.
4. Each god gives her his own: trident, discus, conch, spear, bow, thunderbolt and bell, staff, noose, rosary and water pot, sword and shield, axe and armour, garlands and a lotus, a serpent garland, a cup of wine, and from Himavat a lion.
5. She laughs, and the laugh fills the worlds; the gods cry victory; Mahisha runs toward the sound.
6. His commanders come with their divisions and she destroys them; her lion hunts through the ranks; rivers of blood; headless trunks keep fighting.
7. Mahisha as a buffalo tramples and gores; she nooses him; he becomes a lion, a man with a sword, an elephant, a buffalo again.
8. She drinks and laughs with red eyes and tells him to roar while he can; she leaps on him, her foot on his neck, pins him with the trident, and when he comes half out of the buffalo's mouth she takes his head with the sword.
9. The gods sing that she is Lakshmi, Gauri, Sarasvati and Durga, gentle and terrible; she promises to come whenever they remember her, and vanishes.
10. In Bengal the same autumn goddess is Uma: Menaka, who married her daughter to a poor ascetic, dreams of her one autumn night and sends Giriraj to bring her home.
11. Uma comes with her children for three days of the puja; her mother feeds and dresses her and begs the last night to last; before dawn she must go back to Kailash, and the images go to the river.

light battle buffalo homecoming daughter