Mura is born to the sage Kashyap and his wife Danu. While he is a youth, Mura once comes across a heap of dead bodies of the asuras and danavas who died in battle against the Devas. The sight of the aftermath of the battle in which so many of the asuras were killed, shocks him and he is overcome with grief. He is also afraid that he too would die in battle one day. So he does penance for many years to propitiate Lord Brahma who is also his great-grandfather. Eventually, Brahma appears before him and offers him a boon. Mura asks for invincibility in battle, even against the devas who are immortal. After attaining special powers he defeats the Yakshas and the Gandharvas in battle. Then he challenges the Devas, but no one dares to stop him. So he goes to Amaravati where Indra rules the heavens and forcefully usurpes Indra's kingdom. Mura also takes possession of Indra's Vajra and Airavata. All the devas are terrified and are banished from the heavens. For many years Mura rules unopposed as the King of the heavens and all the asuras and danavas prospers under his rule.
After attaining so much success he becomes extremely arrogant due to the power of his boons. Maddened with power he goes to Vaikuntha to challenge Lord Vishnu. But upon reaching there he comes to know that Shri Krishna had been born as an incarnation of Vishnu and is about to attack the Kingdom of Pragjyotisha where another powerful danava King Narakasura is ruling.
Mura decides to go to Earth and become Narakasura's general and defend his kingdom. Narakasura is said to have abducted 16,000 women from Earth and to have them made captives. But Shri Krishna and Satyabhama on hearing about the misdeeds of Naraka decide to go and defeat him in battle and emancipate the 16,000 captive princesses. Sri Krishna is also aware of Mura's presence and his special powers. So he takes Satyabhama (incarnation of Bhudevi) along with him to defeat the combined forces of Mura and Narakasura.[2][3] Both Narakasura and Mura are killed in the battle by Krishna. For this feat Shri Krishna earns the epithet 'Murāri' (enemy of Mura). This day symbolizes the victory of good over evil and is celebrated by Hindus each year as 'Naraka Chaturdashi' and is the first day of diwali.
