The Three Cities and the Single Arrow

The demon Taraka had three sons, and when their father fell in battle they did what he had done before them. They went away and did penance, hard and long, until Brahma the creator appeared.

"Ask," said Brahma.

"Make us deathless," said the brothers.

"That I cannot give. Everything that is born must die. Ask for something else."

The brothers had expected this. They had their second answer ready.

"Then give us three cities," they said. "Three fortresses that can fly. One of gold, for the sky. One of silver, for the earth. One of iron, for the world below. Let them wander where they please and never come near one another, except for one moment once in a thousand years, when all three line up under the Pushya star. And let them be destroyed only then, and only by a single arrow that goes through all three at once."

It seemed to them as good as living for ever. Who could shoot such an arrow, and who would wait a thousand years for the chance?

"So be it," said Brahma.

Maya, the great architect of the demons, built the three cities, and they were the wonder of the worlds. For a time the brothers ruled them well. Then, as happens to those who think they cannot fall, they grew proud. Their armies went out from the three cities and came back with plunder. No one was safe in any of the three worlds.

The gods went to Shiva.

"We cannot touch them," they said. "Only you can do this. But you will need a chariot, a bow and an arrow such as have never been made."

"Then make them," said Shiva.

So the gods built him a chariot, and they built it out of everything that exists. The earth itself was its body. The sun and the moon were its two wheels. Mount Meru, the mountain at the centre of the world, was bent to make the bow, and Vasuki, the king of serpents, was stretched across it for a bowstring.

For the arrow, Vishnu himself became the shaft. Agni, the god of fire, became its burning point, and Vayu, the wind, became its feathers.

One thing was missing. "Who will drive?" asked Shiva.

Brahma, who had given the boon in the first place, stepped up and took the reins.

Shiva climbed into the chariot, took up the bow and waited.

The cities wandered through the three worlds, each on its own path, and he watched them come and go. He did not shoot. There was only one arrow, and only one moment.

Then, under the Pushya star, the golden city slid across the silver one, and the silver one crossed over the iron. For the space of a breath the three stood in a single line.

Shiva drew the string once and let go.

The arrow went through the three cities as a needle goes through three beads, and gold, silver and iron went up together in a single fire.

From that day he has been called Tripurantaka, the one who ended the three cities.

The Bhagavata keeps the three flying cities and their builder, Maya. But in its telling the first attack fails, and for a reason nobody had planned for.

Shiva shot, and his arrows fell on the cities like rain, and the demon warriors dropped where they stood. The gods cheered.

Then Maya gathered up the fallen, carried them to a well inside the city and lowered them in. The well was full of nectar. Every warrior who touched it came out alive, stronger than before, with a body as hard as a thunderbolt. By evening the walls were full of defenders again.

Shiva lowered his bow. An enemy who gets up every time he is killed cannot be beaten.

Vishnu saw his friend's trouble and thought of a way.

He turned himself into a cow, and he turned Brahma into her calf. Quietly, the cow and the calf walked into the city of the demons, went straight to the well and began to drink.

The guards saw them. They knew they should drive the animals off. But they stood and stared as if in a dream, unable to lift a hand, while the cow and her calf drank and drank until the well of nectar was dry.

Maya understood at once what had happened. "No one can undo what fate has decided," he told the weeping guards. "Not gods, not demons, not men."

Then Vishnu fitted Shiva out for the fight afresh. He gave him a chariot and a charioteer, a banner, horses, a bow, a shield and arrows. Shiva mounted, set an arrow to the string, and at noon he burned the three cities.

The gods showered flowers from the sky, and Shiva was called Tripurari, the enemy of the three cities.