Jarasandh

Jarasandh had a strange birth. He was born of two mothers. The king of Magadha Brihadratha was a pious king married to the twin daughters of the king of Kasi. He had vowed to them that he would not show any partiality to either. He was living in a forest with his wives as an ascetic as he did not have any children. Sage Chandakaushika who was doing penance in that forest knew about king’s sorrow. He gave him a specially intoned fruit and said, "give this to your queen and she will be blessed with a son." King Brihadratha gave half of the fruit to each queen. In time they gave birth to half a child each. One half was the left side and the other half the right. In horror, disgust and fear the queens had these lumps of flesh thrown out. The demoness Jara found them and thought she would have a good meal. She accidentally held them together and they united to form a perfectly healthy child, which she presented to the king and queens. The boy was named Jarasandh after the demoness. The name means "put together by Jara".

Jarasandh succeeded his father to the throne. As per the predictions of Sage Chandakaushika he became a strong and powerful ruler, especially skilled in single combat. He decided to perform a sacrifice in honour of Shiva where he would sacrifice the heads of a hundred kings. He already had eighty-five in his prison and needed fifteen more. At about this time the kingdom of Hastinapura was divided between Duryodhana and Yudhishthir. Yudhishthir wanted to perform the Rajsuya sacrifice so that he could assume the title of Emperor, but Krishna insisted he could not do so as long as Jarasandh was alive.

Krishna and Jarasandh were related. Krishna’s maternal uncle, Kansa was married to Jarasandh’s daughters, Asti and Prapti. Krishna had killed the tyrant Kansa and thus earned the wrath of Jarasandh. Jarasandh had invaded Mathura eighteen times but the battles proved inconclusive. Krishna then deserted Mathura and set up his capital in Dwarka so that he could get rid of the hassles of fighting with Jarasandh.

Coming back to the narration, Krishna gave up the idea of an armed conflict and along with Bhim and Arjun decided to go unarmed to Magadha. They disguised themselves as men who had taken religious vows. Jarasandh received them with respect, as their noble bearing seemed to indicate an illustrious origin. Bhim and Arjun made no reply to his words of welcome because they wished to avoid having to tell lies. Krishna spoke on their behalf: "These two are observing a vow of silence for the present as at part of their austerities. They can speak only after midnight." Jarasandh entertained them in the hall of sacrifice and returned to the palace. It was the practice of Jarasandh to meet noble guests at their leisure and convenience, so he called at midnight to see them. Their conduct made Jarasandh suspicious, and he also observed that they had scars on their hands made by bowstrings and the proud bearing of soldiers. When Jarasandh demanded the truth of them they introduced themselves and asked Jarasandh to either release the imprisoned kings or have a duel with one of them. When Jarasandh got a respite from his laughing spell he said, "Krishna is a cowherd who has run away from the battle-field, Arjun is puny child, but Bhim looks to be well built youth. He is fit to fight with me."

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