Durgamasur

In Purana-derived narratives (attested in summaries of the Devi Bhagavata Purana, Skanda Purana and Padma Purana and localized temple lore), Durgamasur rises as a hostile asura who acquires the four Vedas—reportedly by requesting them and being granted them by Brahma in some summaries—after which sages and learned men are said to forget the Vedas and proper pūjā. His actions provoke the martial intervention of a form of the Goddess (variously named Durga, Shakambhari, Parvati or the ferocious Kalaratri in different accounts), who engages him in prolonged battle and ultimately annihilates him, thereby restoring ritual and social order. Local traditions, such as the Banashankari temple narrative, identify the principal goddess of the temple as the slayer of Durgamasur.

Extant excerpts do not supply a consistent physical or iconographic description of Durgamasur; Purana summaries and temple accounts emphasize his narrative role as opponent of the Goddess rather than detailed bodily traits. Modern theatrical or dance casting may portray a character named 'Durgamasur', but such modern costuming is not described in the provided sources and is not treated as authoritative iconography in the Purana material.

The supplied texts and summaries do not enumerate a catalog of supernatural powers for Durgamasur beyond the narrative consequence that, after he obtained the four Vedas (in festival/Purana summaries), sages and learned men forgot their Vedic knowledge and pūjā. He is presented as powerful enough to wage a prolonged war against the Goddess and her attendant avatāras/Yoginis, requiring the goddess to employ her martial forms (in one retelling Kalaratri is said to have reduced demons to ashes by breath) to vanquish him. No specific magical mechanisms for his Veda-possession or other supernatural faculties are detailed in the provided excerpts.