Madhuमधु असुर

The Contest on the Cosmic Ocean

With Vishnu asleep and the two asuras approaching, Brahma appeals to the Goddess as the power of divine sleep. She withdraws from Vishnu’s body, allowing him to awaken and confront the threat. The setting matters: the usual inhabited earth has disappeared beneath the ocean, leaving Brahma without an ordinary place of refuge.

Vishnu fights the pair for five thousand years. The Devi Bhagavata gives Madhu the first turn in hand-to-hand combat; Kaitabha then replaces him, and the two can alternate while Vishnu fights alone. When Vishnu rests and considers their endurance, he recognizes that the Goddess has allowed them to choose their own time of death. He therefore seeks her assistance rather than relying only on continued combat.

The Goddess enchants the asuras, and their confidence turns into an offer to grant Vishnu a boon. He asks to kill them. Trying to qualify that concession, they require death on a place untouched by water. Vishnu expands his thighs to provide such a surface above the ocean. When they enlarge their own bodies, he enlarges his thighs further, then cuts off both their heads with his discus.