Mahishasura is the great buffalo-demon of Hindu myth — the shape-shifting asura who, made invincible against all males by a boon, conquered the heavens and could be slain only by the warrior-goddess Durga, born of the combined power of all the gods. The buffalo-demon, Mahishasura is the invincible-against-males asura whose tyranny gave rise to the goddess Durga.
The Buffalo-Demon
Mahishasura (Sanskrit Mahiṣāsura, “buffalo-demon” — from mahisha, “buffalo,” and asura, “demon”) is a great and powerful asura (demon), a shape-shifter who could take the form of a buffalo (and other forms). He performed severe austerities and won a powerful boon: that he could not be killed by any man or god — by any male being. In his pride, he (like Hiranyakashipu and others) considered females too weak to be a threat and did not guard against them — the fatal flaw in his otherwise invincible boon. With his boon making him invincible against all males, Mahishasura became a terrible and seemingly unstoppable power.
The Conquest of the Heavens
Made invincible against gods and men, Mahishasura made war on the gods (devas) and, defeating them, conquered the heavens, driving out Indra and the gods, seizing the throne of heaven, and threatening to destroy the cosmic order. The gods, unable to defeat him (for no male — god or man — could kill him), were cast down and helpless, the universe falling under the tyranny of the buffalo-demon. The situation seemed hopeless: the most powerful demon, invincible against all the gods, ruling the heavens, with no one able to stop him.
The Birth of Durga and the Slaying
The solution to Mahishasura's invincibility was the creation of the goddess Durga. Since the demon could not be killed by any male, the gods combined their divine energies (their shakti/tejas) into a single blazing radiance, from which was born the warrior-goddess Durga — a female, against whom the demon's boon gave no protection. The gods gave Durga their weapons, and riding her lion, she did battle with Mahishasura and his demon armies in a tremendous cosmic war. The buffalo-demon shifted between forms — buffalo, lion, man, elephant — in his struggle, but Durga matched and overcame each form, and at last she slew Mahishasura (often depicted spearing him with her trident as he emerged from the buffalo's severed neck in his true form), destroying the demon the gods could not defeat and restoring the cosmic order. For this great victory, Durga is celebrated as Mahishasuramardini (“the slayer of Mahishasura”), and the victory is honoured in the great festivals of Durga Puja and Navaratri.
The Demon Whose Tyranny Gave Rise to the Goddess
Mahishasura endures as the great buffalo-demon of Hindu myth — the shape-shifting asura made invincible against all males, who conquered the heavens and could be slain only by the goddess Durga. He embodies the tyrannical power of adharma (cosmic wrong) and the pride that scorns the feminine, and his tyranny gave rise to one of the supreme manifestations of the divine feminine; and he stands as the buffalo-demon — the invincible-against-males asura whose conquest of heaven called forth the warrior-goddess Durga, born of the combined power of all the gods, who slew him and restored the cosmic order, the great demon whose defeat is the triumph of the Goddess.
The shape-shifting buffalo-demon, invincible against all gods and men, who conquered the heavens — until the gods combined their power to create the goddess Durga, against whom his boon was useless, and who slew him.