Mahishasura

In the Purana corpus — most prominently the Devi Mahatmya portion of the Markandeya Purana — Mahishasura appears as an asura who, after gaining a boon that no man could kill him, defeats the devas in battle. The devas' combined energies then manifest as a warrior goddess (Durga) whose shakti defeats Mahishasura. The episode is placed within the Purana cosmology (narratively tied to Manu cycles and Manvantaras in the Purana tradition) and serves as the mythic occasion for the goddess's birth and martial activity. Some Puranic variants and later texts attribute the slaying to different goddess‑forms (Lakshmi, Katyayani, Bhadrakali, or regional consorts), but the core narrative in the Devi Mahatmya frames the event as the gods' response to the asura's success and as a theological demonstration of the goddess's power.

Sources describe Mahishasura primarily as bovine in nature — a 'buffalo' or 'buffalo-demon' — and as a shape‑shifter who can change his outer form while retaining demonic intent. Iconographic traditions commonly depict the climactic encounter as the goddess (Durga/Mahishasuramardini) poised over or piercing a buffalo‑like adversary; regional traditions (notably the Chamundi/Mysore memory) preserve a monumental local association in which a statue of Mahishasura is linked to the hill and city memory. Beyond the designation 'buffalo' and the capacity for transformation, the provided sources do not supply fixed anatomical detail for every possible form.

Mahishasura's notable attributes in the sources are his boon of invulnerability specified as 'no man could kill him,' his military success in defeating the devas, and his capacity for deceitful shape‑shifting. His victories over the gods precipitate the devas' collective creation of a martial goddess whose shakti is potent enough to overcome the boon and slay him. Scholarly readings presented in the sources also treat Mahishasura as symbolically representing chaotic or ignorant forces concealed by deceptive appearances.