The asuras rejoiced as they played havoc with both men and gods. Maya, their gifted architect, had created for them three cities fortified with iron, silver and gold, and the great lord Brahma himself had decreed that these cities would be indestructible, unless struck by a single arrow. The three cities, known together as Tripura, orbited the earth, and only once in a thousand years fell in a straight line, directly one above the other. Would Shiva be waiting to destroy them with a twang of his deadly bow?