@ Kaatyani & sbk2
I too have come to know about Shankhchud on similar lines-
- Radha curses Sudama to be born as an asur.
- Shankhchud is born as asura, does severe penance of Bhrahma , gets boon & Bhrahma even directs him towards his future wife...
- He follows Bhrahma's advice & meets & marries Tulsi..
- Tulsi was devoted to her husband & the power of her chastity along with kavach made Shankhchud practically invincible..
- Shankchud as usual becomes trilokadhipati.. gods are worried , they run to the tridevs for help..Bhrahma directs them to Vishnu, Vishnu directs them to Shiva..
- Shiva at first tries to send a message of peace through his messenger Pushpadant..but Shakhchud instead asks Shiva to surrender himself..
- Convinced of the inevitable war , Shiva first sends his ganas & Nandi in the battle field..then he sends Ganesh & Kartikey together with an army..a gruesome battle takes place..then Bhadrakali enters battlefield..she could have easily devoured Shankhchud but she respects Bhahma's boon & decides against it..then finally Shiva enters battlefield, but he too was not in a position to kill the demon for obvious reasons..
- Enter Vishnu - with his trademark clever tricks & tactics for the greater good..he disguises himself as someone & asks Shakhchud for his kavach , Shakhchud gives his kavach unaware of the person's true identity..now the only thing protecting Shakhchud was his wife Tulsi's chastity.. so on Parvati's suggestion ( I am shocked 😲), Vishnu disguises himself as Shankhchud & proceeds to take away ..ahem..Tulsi's chastity..
- So on the one hand Shiva is fighting with Shankhchud with no final results & on the other hand Vishnu meets Tulsi disguised as Shankhchud..Tulsi is elated to find her husband back home from the battlefield unharmed..and as soon as ..errr..she loses her chastity, Shakhchud's protection was completely taken away & Shiva pierces him with his trident..
- On realizing Vishnu's true identity, Tulsi curses him to become stone..Vishnu is worshipped in stone form ( dont know its name) & Tulsi leaves are to be offered to this form while worshiping.. & finally Tulsi gets a divine status & is welcomed into swarglok or vaikunth ..
