*In the second century of man, the gods of the Akashik pantheon created Devi, a warrior goddess who inhabited the body of a human, so that she might battle the renegade god Bala. Devi led the Durapasya army and defeated Bala and his dark Darinde legions. Bala rose again in our age, threatening the world. Devi was reborn as Tara Mehta, a young woman in the city of Sitapur. But thanks to the timely intervention of Agantuk, a Durapasya priest, Tara remained alive while the Devi entered her body. The goddess and the human joined forces and defeated Bala. Intrigued by humans and their ways, Devi defied the Akashik pantheon and remained on earth, vowing to protect Sitapur.
Devi soon faced threats both human and celestial in Ismael, crime lord of the Sitapur underworld, and the Horseman of the White Steed, a cosmic enforcer. Devi left Ismael scarred and his organization in tatters, then managed to defeat the Horseman. But Tara's tortured mind, splintered by the duality of her own psyche and that of Devi, created a dark entity called Daanvi, the Demoness. Driven by an infernal bloodlust, Daanvi threatened to undo the whole of creation, but Agantuk sacrificed himself to expunge Daanvi from Tara's mind. *Source: Devi #16