When Dhiruthrashtra came to know that The Pandavas had
married Draupadi, he knew that the
support of Drupadha, the father of Draupadi with his powerful army and other kings
on the side of Pandavas would have problems for his son Duryodhana who could
not get Draupadi as his wife in the Swayamvaram. Dhiruthrashtra called the Pandavas and offered
them felicitations and their share of the kingdom and christened it as
Indraprastha.
Udhistra established Indraprasta as the country of Pandavas
and started to rule it as the king, with the support of his brothers and ruled
it so well, people became very happy with his rule and were looked after well
with all facilities.
Udhishtra also did RAJASOOYA Yaga ( A penance of utmost
importance to get super powers which was done only by the King of Kings and by
one who is of good virtues and who looks after his subjects properly and is feared by all his enemies.)
Krishna was called to come and participate in this Yaga in which all kings who
were invited, participated. But there was one problem as the King Jarasanthan
was the reigning King of Kings and once
he was dethroned, then only Udhistra could become the King of Kings and hence
Jarasanthan had to be defeated. Jarasanthan had arrested and defeated eighty six kings and held them prisoners.
“So
we have to release them also. He has planned to kill them as cows for his yaga
and hence we had to protect them and I, Arjun and Bheem would go to him and
defeat him,” said Lord Krishna.
Pirukrathan, the father of Jarasanthan, was ruling Magatha kingdom and had married the
twin daughters of the King of Kasi. He did not have any children and went and
asked a sage called Sanda Kausika for
helping him to get a son. The sage gave him a divine mango and asked him to give it to his
wife. Since Pirukrathan had two wives he gave the fruit to his wives to take it
and they cut it into two and ate it. Both became pregnant and delivered after
some time but the babies born were of two halves of a full baby, one each
to each wife. They had one eye, one ear, one
leg, one hand and a truncated other parts. The king was pained to have such a
baby as his son and asked his servants to throw the babies which were alive
with to throw it away. The servants also
threw them away. A Rakshsa ( These Rakshasas are people of extreme strength and
power and have more animal habits then humans) woman who was in hungry saw the two parts of
the baby and took it and joint it to eat when the two bodies became one. She
took it to the king, told about it joining into one and gave it to the King.
Pirukrathan was happy to have his son and the King gave the
child to his wives who were happy to have their son and brought it up. This child was named as Jarasanthan. Since
the two parts joined into one it has the
capacity to split again and join again.
Killing Jarasanthan with powerful armies could not be
defeated in a war so Krishna wanted to
kill him in single combat and He, Arjun and Bheem went to him disguised as
Brahmins and asked him to fight any one of them
and told him to select himself any one of them to fight. Jarasanthan
told them since Krishna was a shepherd he could not fight him, Arjun very young
and hence he would select Bheem and
fight with him.
They, Jarasanthan and Bheem had agreed to wrestle without any weapons and started
wrestling and went on wrestling. As both were equal they fight was quite
powerful and lasted for thirteen days. They fought without food or water and
both became tired. On the Fourteenth day Jarasanthan
became very weak and Krishna told Bheem
to kill him immediately as he had become weak and tired. Bheem took Jarasanthan,
rolled him over his head hundred times and tore his body into two. Immediately
the two parts joined together and Jarasanthan came back to life and again
fought Bheem. Bheem was frustrated and then Krishna took a piece of grass and
tore it into two pieces but put them in opposite directions. Bheem understood
it and again took Jarasanthan by his
legs and tore him into two pieces and put the two parts of bodies in opposite
directions and this time the bodies could not join together and he died.
After his death Krishna and friends released the jailed
Kings and came to Indraprastha and celebrated the Raja Sooya Yagam and ruled
happily there after.
When the Rajasooya yagnam was celebrated all kings were called and on that occasion the most favoured king was to be selected to preside over the function and the Pandavas had selected Krishna to preside.
This was resented by Sisubala, another king and the cousin of Krishna who went on abusing Krishna and insulted him even after Krishna told him that he would allow him to insult only one hundred times and when he exceeded that he would be killed.
On this occasion Sisubala, the cousin of Krishna was killed
by Krishna as he abused Krishna continuously over 100 times even though Krishna had warned him that he
would be killed if he abuse and insult him one hundred times as Krishna had
promised Sisubala’s mother who was Krishna’s aunt that he would not harm
Sisubala till he abuse and insult him hundred times.
Sisubala’s mother knew of the curse that Krishna would kill
her son when they were very young. So
she went and asked Krishna not to harm Sisubala. Krishna agreed to this request
but told his aunt that by fate he had to ill Sisubala but he would give him
time till he abuse and insult him one hundred times and when he exceeded this
he would kill him.
