The sage told:-
Long long ago when Indra was the king of devas and Mahisha was the king of asuras, a hundred year was fought between devas and asuras.
(Mahishmati was the wife of an Asura called Vipra chithi. She terrorized the sage Sindhu Deepa taking the form of a buffalo. He cursed her to really become a buffalo. She drank the semen of sage Sindhu Deepa and gave birth to Mahishasura. The place where Mahishasura ruled in the olden days was called Mahishur and is the present Mysore in the city in the Karnataka State of India. )

In that war the army of devas was defeated by the very valorous army of Asuras and after winning all devas Mahishasura became Indra (king of Devas)

Afterwards the defeated Devas went to the place where Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu are there with Brahma who was born out of the lotus as their leader.

Devas went to them and related to them about the action of Mahishasura and their great defeat truly as it happened.

That Mahishasura has usurped the powers of Sun, Indra, Fire, wind god, and moon and using their powers.

Driven out from heaven by the bad soul Mahishasura all groups of Devas are traveling in the earth like human beings.

We have told you all actions of Mahishasura and have sought your refuge. Please think about how he can be killed.

Thus hearing the words of the devas, Lord Vishnu and lord Shiva, with a face with eyebrows curved, became very angry.

Then from the very angry and broad face of Vishnu and the faces of Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma, one lustrous power arose.

From the bodies of all devas including Indra very large lustrous power arose and became united with this power.

Those devas saw that very powerful fireball which was lighting all directions with its great flame and found it similar to a shining mountain.

In that assembly of devas, that incomparable flame which emerged from the bodies of all devas including Vishnu became one and took the form of a lady whose power was shining in all the three worlds.

From the power of Lord Shiva the face of Goddess was formed, from that of Yama her hair was formed and from that Vishnu her hands were formed.
(Her face was white because Shiva was white her hair black because Yama was black and her eighteen hands were blue because Vishnu was blue. )

From the power of moon her two busts were made, from the power of Indra her middle part, from the power of Varuna her calfs and thighs and from the power of earth her behind.
(Her busts were white because it was from moon, and her middle part was red because it was from Indra)

Her feet were made by the power from Brahma, her toes from the power of Sun, from the Ashta Vasus her fingers and from the power of Kubhera her nose were made.
(Her feet were red because they were made with the power of Brahma)

Her teeth were made with the power of Prajapathis like Daksha and her three eyes from the power of God of fire.

From the power of dawn and dusk were made her eye brows, from the power of God of wind her ears and then power from all other Devas became one and she was formed.

All devas who were troubled by Mahishasura became happy seeing that Devi (Goddess) who was formed out of the powers of all devas.

Lord Shiva took the power of trident and gave it to her and Similarly Lord Vishnu took the power of his holy wheel and mace and gave it to her.
(“Chakram cha” meaning “also holy wheel” has been interpreted as Holy wheel and mace, because she holds the mace in one of her eighteen hands).

Varuna (God of rain) gave her the Conch, fire god Spear, and the God of wind the quiver full (inexhaustible) of many arrows.

The thousand-eyed Indra who was the king of Devas took (attracted) the diamond from Vajrayudha (weapon made of diamond) and bell from his elephant Iravatha and gave it to her.

Yama, the God of death gave her a staff made from his death staff, Varuna his rope made from his rope and the creator Brahma gave bead chain for praying and pot for taking water.

The Sun God gave her all the rays taken from every hair pore of his body and the God of time (Also God of death) gave her his sword and a sparkling shield.

The sea of milk gave her the very clear garland of pearls and ever fresh and never destroying set of cloths.

Viswakarma the architect and crafts specialist of Devas gave her, a jewel to wear on her head, studs, bangles, the holy crescent and shoulder armlets for all her hands and also very holy toe rings, very holy axe, several types of arrows and a shield which cannot be cut.

The God of sea gave her garlands made of never fading flowers to wear over her head and neck and a very pretty lotus flower and the Himalaya mountain gave her a lion to ride and several type of gems.

Kubhera, the god of wealth gave her a goblet full of wine that Anantha who was the king of snakes and who bears the earth gave her a snake garland decorated by precious jewels.
(One interpreter says Goblet filled with nectar, though majority interpret it as goblet full of wine. The above stanzas indicate that the Goddess had 18 hands and was the basic power behind all the Gods. )

Thus presented by many other ornaments and weapons by other devas, she again and again shouted with powerful laugh and the entire sky was filled her sound.

That great sound produced great echo and the entire earth and ocean shook because of that.

The earth shook, all the mountains trembled and all the gods wished victory to that goddess who was riding on a lion.

Sages praised with humility born of devotion and the enemies of devas (Mahisha and others) seeing the entire world is tumultuous rose up along with the ever-ready armies and with weapons held aloft.

Mahishasura with anger said, “What is this?” and surrounded by all asuras ran towards the origin of the sound.
(This shows the baser quality of the Asura, who did not first send an emissary to enquire about the source of the sound and started for a war himself.)

Afterwards he saw her spread all over the three worlds by her lustrous power, pushing down the earth by her feet, touching the skies with her crown, shaking the world including patala by the twang of her bow and occupying all the sides with her thousand arms.

Then those Asuras had a Great War with the Devi (goddess) in which the differently sent weapons and arrows lighted all the different directions.

She fought with Chikshura the great Asura who was the commander-in-chief of Mahishasura’s army, Chamara who fought along with the four types of army (Infantry, Cavalry, and chariot riders and elephant riders) and with Udagra, the great asura with sixty thousand chariots.

While Maha Hanu fought with one hundred million chariots, the great Asura called Asiloma fought with five hundred million chariots.

The Asura called Bhashkala fought with six million chariots and the Asura called Parivaritha fought surrounded by innumerable and uncountable groups of elephants and horses and one hundred million chariots.

Afterwards Bidaala (cat eyed Asura) took part in that war with five hundred million chariots.

All other asuras who were not mentioned above fought with the goddess surrounded by ten thousand sets of chariots, elephants and horses.

Similarly Mahishasura also was ready to fight in that battle surrounded by thousand million times thousand million sets of chariots, elephants and horses.

Those Rakshasas fought the war with javelins, (not clear), elephant controlling spears, spears, pestles, axes and broad swords.

Some of them threw spears and some rope at her. And other great asuras tried to cut that goddess by swords and kill her.

Afterwards that Goddess Chandika by sending her weapons and arrows cut off the weapons and arrows send by them as if she was playing.

Without sign of any tiredness in her face that Goddess who was being praised by devas and sages also sent weapons and arrows towards the bodies of those asuras.

The famous steed lion of the goddess also became angry and with flowing manes traveled in the army of asuras like fire.

Every deep breath of that Goddess Ambika took while fighting in the war with asuras, themselves became into of millions of Chandikas immediately.

Those soldiers (Chandikas) enthused by the great valour of the goddess-waged war against the asuras with weapons like axes, swords, Bindhipala and Pattisa etc (last two weapons were weapons of that time.)

Those soldiers celebrated that festival of war by playing on huge drums or blowing conches or playing on Mrudangam (a type of drum)

Afterwards that goddess killed innumerable asuras by trident,, mace sword and shower of spears.

Some were made to swoon by production of huge clanging sound and some other asuras were tied by rope and dragged on the floor by the goddess.

Some great asuras were cut in to two by the severe strokes of the sword. Some others were beaten severely by the mace and fell on the floor. Some others vomited blood because of the beatings by the pestle. Others fell on the floor because the spears were driven on their chest.

Some very valorous asuras gave up their life in the war by becoming hurt by crowds of arrows.

In case of some, the hands were cut, similarly in case of some necks were cut, in case of some heads fell on the ground, in case of some they were cut in the middle and in case of some they fell on the earth having their legs broken.

Some of them were cut in to two pieces with each piece having one eye, one ear and one leg. Some others even though they were beheaded again and again got up and fought with the goddess as headless body with several great weapons.
(It was believed that once thousand heroes are beheaded in war one trunk without head gets up to fight. In this war it is believed ten million times ten million trunks got up)

Some other asuras danced to the balanced tune of orchestra. While some trunks fought with the two sided sharpened sword, some other asuras fought with her shouting to her, “Stop, stop.”

That arena of war where the war took place became mpossible to cross due to fallen chariots, elephants, horses and other fallen asuras.

There in the midst of the Asura army, great rivers of blood in which elephants, horses and asuras were floating were seen.

That goddess destroyed the huge Asura army as quickly as a huge fire destroys heaps of straw.

That lion with its flowing manes and with a great roar, appeared as if it was interested in taking away souls from the Asura bodies