Bankasura
Every question on the site tagged Bankasura, each answered from a timestamped source rather than a summary written from memory.
A demon slain by Lord Virabhadra (Sokha Baba) while terrorizing the islands toward Lakshadweep and Sri Lanka — like other slain demons in Tantric legend, he requested and was granted a place of worship, and is venerated today at a temple in Surajpur, Chhattisgarh with full sacrificial rites.
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Bankasura: the island demon still worshipped at Surajpur in Chhattisgarh
The speaker says the demon Bankasura is still worshipped at a temple in Surajpur, Chhattisgarh, with full Bali rites, by the local Bhagatvaal and learners of tantra vidya. In the puranic age this Bankasura tormented the islands toward Lakshadweep and Lanka, killing many people, but his rule was to eat only one person a day. The islanders and their king made a treaty with him: one human would be sent to him daily if he stopped his rampage. Among them lived Pingala, a widow devoted to Virabhadra, with her son.
Bala Virabhadra: the child form taken to save Pingala's son from Bankasura
The speaker says that when the widow Pingala's turn came to send her son to Bankasura, she went with him and, while the demon went to bathe, invoked Virabhadra. He appeared with a thousand arms and a blaze so fierce that mother and son were terrified, so for his devotees he took the form of a child, Bala Virabhadra, called Pingala "mother" and promised to kill the demon that day. Bankasura, delighted at three meals instead of one, reached first for the child; the moment he did, Virabhadra resumed his vikaral form and killed him.
Slain demons who asked to be worshipped: Bankasura granted Surajpur
The speaker says that as he was being killed, Bankasura, who had gained certain siddhis, folded his hands and asked to be worshipped, and that this has always happened in tantra and in the stories: Mahishasura asked for a place of worship beside Bhagavati, the tantrik Bhairav at Vaishno Devi asked for his own place, Durgamasura had Bhagavati take the name Durga after him, and Kolhasura had the city of Kolhapur named after him. Virabhadra granted Bankasura the region that is today Surajpur in Chhattisgarh, saying he would be worshipped there when such an age came. The speaker adds that tantra has a separate vidhan for worshipping rakshasas, with siddhis of a tamasic kind; in time someone did that sadhana and Bankasura became worshipped there.
How Virabhadra came to be called Sokha
The speaker says that because Bankasura had swelled his body with mayavi siddhis to match Virabhadra's thousand-armed form, the weight of his corpse sank the stretch of island between the battle site and Pingala's home, leaving water all around. Virabhadra returned to his child form, told Pingala to take him in one fold of her anchal and her son in the other, and drank up the whole ocean so a path appeared; after dropping them home he released the water from his belly, which is said to be why sea water is salty, a story also told of the sage Agastya. Because he dried (sokh) the sea, the speaker says, his name became Sokha.
Does the Shiva stotra of Banasura need to be made siddh?
No, there is no need to make it siddh, the speaker says: you have only to recite the Shiva stotra of Banasura.
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