Mura placed his hand on his breast to check if Vishnu’s words were indeed true. And thanks to Brahma’s boon, he fell down and died immediately. Vishnu chopped up the dead body with his chakra.

The word ari means enemy and because Vishnu was Mura’s enemy, he came to be known as Murari.

Andhaka Again

No doubt you remember the asura named Andhaka.

Once this demon happened to come to Mount Mandhara and his eyes fell upon the goddess Parvati. He immediately fell in love with her and decided that he would marry her.

Prahlada was also with Andhaka and Prahlada did his best to restrain the evil demon.

“You must be mad,” said Prahlada, “That is Parvati, the wife of Shiva and the mother of the entire world. How can you even contemplate such a terrible thing? Mend your ways or you will surely perish.”

But Andhaka did not listen to this good advice. He decided to attack Parvati. One of Shiva’s companions was Nandi and Nandi did his best to try and protect Parvati, But Andhaka Knocked Nandi unconscious with a club.

Parvati now adopted a hundred different forms which looked exactly alike. Andhaka had no way of knowing which was the real Parvati and he pursued one or the other without ever managing to catch the real Parvati. When the demon was tried out through all these exertions, the goddess knocked him down a weapon.

The word shata means hundred and rupa means form, since she had adopted a hundred different forms, Parvati came to be known as Shatarupa.

Andhaka had not died. He had merely become unconscious. When he recovered consciousness, he found that the goddess had disappeared. He therefore returned to the underworld.

But he could not forget Parvati and thought of her all the time,. He called all his demon subjects and told them that there was a huge reward waiting for whoever could bring Parvati to him.

“You have gone utterly mad,” Prahlada told Andhaka. “Parvati is your mother and Shiva is your father. Let me tell me tell you the story.”

The demon Hiranyalsha had no son and he began to pay to Shiva so that he might have a son. Shiva was pleased as a result of these prayers, and appeared before Hiranyaksha.

“I was once meditating,” Shiva told Hiranyaksha. “While I was thus engaged, my daughter came up from behind and covered up my eyes with her hands. Since my eyes were thus covered, a lot of darkness was created and from this darkness was born a son. This son is called Andhaka. Take him and adopt him for your own. I will kill him myself if he ever wishes to marry Parvati or if he insults the brahamanas.”

It was thus that Hiranyaksha obtained andhaka for a son. His father was really Shiva and his mother, by relation, was Parvati.

“Quite apart from that, it is a crime to try to marry someone else’s wife,” continued Prahlaha. “Don’t you know the story of Danda? Let me recount it for you.”

(In other Puranas it is stated that it was Parvati herself who covered up Shiva’s. The son was initially blind, as he had been born when Shiva’s eyes were covered. The word andha means blind and it was because of this that he came to be known as Andhaka. But his sight was thereafter restored.)