The Tripura myth finds echoes in other philosophical systems. In Plato's allegory of the cave, the prisoner's ascent from shadow to sunlight mirrors the journey from the iron city (ignorance) to the gold (partial truth), with the final turning toward the Good analogous to Shiva's arrow. Similarly, in Buddhism, the three cities can be compared to the three realms of existence (kamaloka, rupaloka, arupaloka), with Nirvana being the destruction of all conditioned structures.
For high-quality research, search for "Tripura – Myth and Metaphor". This is 100% legal and often free through library access. The Tripura myth finds echoes in other philosophical systems
Search for "Shiva: The Destroyer of Tripura" by Devdutt Pattanaik or "The Three Cities of Maya" from the Penguin Purana series. The Tripura myth finds echoes in other philosophical systems