Once upon a time, there were two asura brothers, Shumbha and Nishumbha. They were very ambitious. Thus, they began severe penance to please the creator god, Brahma.
They continued their austerity under the open sky, ignoring the scorching sun, heavy rain, chilling frost, and enchanting spring. For thousands of years, they continued their sadhana. At last, Brahma manifested before them.
They pleaded for blessings of invincibility and immortality. However, as expected, Brahma informed them that, by nature's law, everyone who had given birth must also die. Therefore, forget about immortality and ask for something else.
The asuras were prepared for such a response. They urged Brahma to confer a blessing on them, ensuring that the Tridevas would never kill them and that no one less powerful than the Tridevas could defeat or kill them. This was an intelligent move, as they picked up the words very carefully. The Tridevas held the supreme power over the universe. Therefore, no one was anticipated to be more powerful than them, not even devas, asuras, or danavas. It means the asura brothers become immortal and invincible.
However, they overlooked that the Tridevas' consorts were also manifestations of the Adiparashakti, from whom the entire cosmos was created. She was the feminine aspect of the Purusha, or Narayana. Thus, the Tridevis were equally powerful as the Tridevas.
Brahma fulfilled their wish, and Shumbha and Nisumbha returned to the asuras, being immensely powerful. They caused chaos everywhere and resolved to conquer the earth and swarga-rajya, or heaven. As usual, the devas were defeated and fled into exile. They sought help from Brahma. But Brahma was helpless as well. They sought intervention from Lord Vishnu, who reminded them that because Brahma blessed them, he was unable to combat the asuras. Shiva also denied intervening in this affair. Thus, the devas started to pray to Devi Parvati to appear as Devi Durga to save them from the menace.
Devi Parvati listened to the devas and promised to help them. Thus, while having a bath, she shed her skin in the water, and a goddess appeared from the slough. The goddess was named Kaushiki as she arose from Devi Parvati's body cells, or kosa. She had an immensely beautiful appearance and had eight hands, equipped with eight weapons.
Soon, Shumbha and Nishumbha came to know about her. They were confident, however, that she wasn't greater or equal in power than the Tridevas. Thus, they sent a large army under their general, Dhumrolochana (foggy eyes), to deal with her. Seeing the advancing asuras, seven matrikas (mothers) emerged from the body of Devi Kaushiki. They were Brahmani, Vaishnav, Maheshvari, Kaumari, Varahi, Indrani, and Chandi.
They were the feminine manifestations of various gods, and they were fierce and terrifying as well. Devi Kaushiki started ruthlessly slaughtering the asuras with the matrikas. Before long, the asuras began to run away, seeing the strength and fury of the Matrikas. After Dhumralochana was brutally murdered, Devi Chandi began to drink his blood. The Matrikas danced over the asuras' lifeless remains and drank their blood after winning the battle. The asuras were all terrified as soon as word got out.
Shumbha then summoned his two most trusted warriors, Chanda and Munda. They were both masters of creating illusions and were powerful danavas. Shumbha told them to kill Devi Kaushiki when she was alone and disoriented. Accordingly, Chanda and Munda went to check on Devi Kaushiki. When Devi was cleaning the blood stains from her body in the river water, the danavas appeared before her. They started to use obscene words toward her and told her they would slaughter her mercilessly. Hearing them, Devi got extremely angry, and her face darkened. From her frown appeared a terrifying woman.
She had a scary appearance, with pitch-black skin and a terrifying face with wide jawbones and sharp, long fangs. Her long, loosely woven hair enhanced her horrifying look. She had a thin build, with visible bones and skin hanging loosely over her skeleton. The eyes looked like two red charcoals. She was nearly naked except for a tiger hide around her waist, and she had an insatiable appetite for blood. She had four hands and was holding a massive scimitar and a noose.
Chanda and Munda were terrified as she appeared. Nonetheless, they formed a haze around her and attacked her with their weapon. But she decapitated Chanda with a single blow and strangled Munda with the noose. With her bare hands, she tore Munda's head apart and began drinking his streaming blood. Devi Kaushiki saw the ferocity and named her Chamunda.
When Shumbha came to know about the demise of Chanda and Munda, he sent Raktabija to deal with Devi Kaushiki. Raktabija received a unique blessing from Agnideva: whenever someone spilled a drop of his blood on the battlefield, a clone of him would emerge from it. As Raktabija entered the battlefield alone, seven Matrikas charged at him, tearing him into a thousand pieces. But as soon as his blood splashed across the battlefield, thousands of Raktabija emerged. The Matrikas were perplexed to see that the new Raktabijas were born from the spilled blood.
Soon, the battlefield was flooded with countless Raktabijas. Thus, Devi Kaushiki summoned Devi Chamunda, the most ferocious and powerful among the Matrikas. Chamunda appeared on the battlefield with her fearsome appearance and a terrifying howl. She increased her size manyfold and began to slaughter the Raktabijas with her scimitar. But before the blood could spill on the ground, she leaked the blood and devoured the remains of the Raktabijas. Soon all the clones were gone, thus ending the Raktabija once and for all.
Thereafter, Shumbha and Nishumbha had no other option but to confront Devi Kaushiki on the battlefield. As they appeared, Devi Kaushiki engaged in battle with Shumbha, Devi Chamunda with Nishumbha, and other sapta-matrikas with the remaining asuras. Soon all the asuras were wiped out by the devis, and both Shumbha and Nishumbha became severely wounded in the battle. But they were still far from being defeated.
After a prolonged, undecided battle, Shumbha and Devi Kaushiki decided to cease their fight temporarily. Suddenly, Devi Kaushiki noticed that Chamunda and the other sapta-matrikas had nearly subjugated Nishumbha but were unable to kill him due to the blessing of Brahma. When Devi Kaushiki approached Nishumbha, Devi Chamunda and the other sapta-matrikas merged with her. Devi Kaushiki pierced Nishumbha's heart with her spear, finally killing him.
Shumbha was taken aback to see the fall of his brother. Now Devi Kaushiki looked at Shumbha and revealed that she was the manifestation of Adiparashakti, the universal mother and the most powerful divine being. Shumbha realized that he had finally met his doom. He hailed Devi Kaushiki but still engaged in a fight with her. However, Devi Kaushiki soon slew him with her spear, putting an end to the menace.
The devas began chanting prayers in her honor. The Tridevas appeared in the sky to see Devi Kaushiki's grandeur. Devi Kaushiki then appeared as Ambika, the delightful, forgiving form of Adiparashakti, and blessed the devas as well as all other living and nonliving beings on earth.
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