!!!!....Lord Shiva as Tripurantaka...!!!!!

!!!!....Lord Shiva as Tripurantaka...!!!!!
Tripura means three cities, was constructed by the great Asura architect Mayasura. They were great cities of prosperity, power and dominance over the world, but due to their impious nature, Maya's cities were destroyed by god Tripurantaka an aspect of Shiva. Among the three cities-
• The lowest, with walls of Iron, located on earth,
• The second, with walls of silver, located in the sky, and
• The third, with walls of gold, located in heaven.

The demon Taraka had three off-springs named Taarakaaksha, Kamalaaksha and Vidyunmaali. These demon princes performed severe penance towards the creator-god Brahma and obtained the boon of immense power. Brahma, on being pleased with them, presented each one of them an aerial city revolving in the sky. The legend further states that these three cities or forts (Tripura) continued to revolve in the sky for hundreds of years. In the course of revolving, the three used would converge very rarely and only in around a thousand years, when the Pushya nakshtra, they would be in conjunction with the moon. They were thus reassured that they were quite safe, as it would be an extremely difficult task to destroy the three cities, which aligned only momentarily, by a single arrow!
The boon granted them that they would live for a thousand years in the three invincible, moving cities and that they would be destroyed only by an arrow that could merge the three forts into one, and set them to fire. The demons, armed with this boon, wreaked havoc on the universe. The asuras well-entrenched in their aerial cities would mount attacks on the devas (gods) and the rishis (sages), and always harassed them. Ultimately, the gods and the sages approached Shiva and pleaded for his assistance in removing this menace. Lord Shiva agreed to help them and waited for an opportune moment.
At the end of the stipulated time period, Shiva created a bow and an arrow and a chariot with the various gods and goddesses and components of the universe. The moment the three aerial cities converged, Shiva mounted on his chariot and moved upwards. He took out his bow and arrow, and hit the converged cities with a single arrow. With Brahma as the charioteer, he sped across, and shot a single arrow of fire, which was created of none other than Vishnu. The cosmic arrow destroyed the three cities.
One version maintains that, finally when everything was ready for the Tripura invasion, the devas were proud that only with their help Shiva is going to destroy the Tripuras. But to the astonishment of all, Shiva didn't use any of the war machinery arranged by the Devas. The god smiled and in that smile the three puras were destroyed. In fact, the Rudraksha appeared from the three eyes of Shiva during tripurasamhAra. The pride and thought of devas that without their help the god would not have been able to destroy the tripuras was proved wrong.
Metaphysically, the purpose of destruction of Tripura by Shiva is only for purification. He gave life to the three demon princes. Though they had adopted the wrong path, they were initially devotees of Shiva. They repented for their wrongdoings and Shiva forgave them.
May lord Shiva bless all !!