Part 10: The killing of Kaṃsa

One day Kaṃsa went to Vasudeva’s house to see Devakī and saw the girl who had one nostril cut off. Terrified, Kaṃsa went home and questioned an expert astrologer, “Is not the muni’s speech about Devakī’s seventh child false?”

The astrologer said: “The muni’s speech is not false. Devakī’s seventh child, the cause of your death, is somewhere. The bull, Ariṣṭa, which you have, the great horse, named Keśin, an untamed donkey and goal—turn them loose in Vṛndāvana. The one who, playing there at will, kills them, though they are like iron, is Devakī’s seventh son, your slayer. Furthermore, he alone will be able to string the hereditary bow Śārṅga, which is in your house, worshipped by your mother. What was foretold by the omniscient, that, difficult to be touched by other people, will happen to the future powerful Vasudeva. Destroyer of the serpent Kāliya, slayer of Cāṇūra, he will kill your elephants, Padmottara and Campaka.”

In order to ascertain bis enemy, Kaṃsa turned Ariṣṭa and the others loose in the forest and instructed the wrestlers, Cāṇūra and Muṣṭika, to train. Then in autumn the bull, Ariṣṭa, like misfortune personified, bellowing, attacked the cowherds' establishment in Vṛndāvana. He lifted the cows on the ends of his horns, like mud from a river-bank, and he turned over many jars of butter with the end of his nose. “Save us! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Rāma! Rāma!” the loud miserable outcry of herdsmen arose then.

Saying, “What’s this?” Govinda ran in haste with Rāma and saw before him a powerful bull. Though restrained by the elders saying, “Stop! This is no business of yours with our cows and butter,” Kṛṣṇa challenged the bull. Raising his horns, his face screwed up with anger, his tail erect, Ariṣṭa attacked Govinda. Hari seized him quickly by the horns, twisted his neck, made him breathless, and killed Ariṣṭa. “Ariṣṭa, who was like Death, has been killed,” delighted, everywhere the herdsmen worshipped Kṛṣṇa, thirsty for the sight of him.

One day while Kṛṣṇa was playing, Kaṃsa’s colt, Keśin, came with evil intentions like Kīnāśa, open-mouthed. Biting the calves, kicking the pregnant cows with his hooves, neighing in a terrifying manner, he was threatened severely by Kṛṣṇa. Twirling his arm which resembled a thunderbolt, Hari put it in the mouth, cruel with saw-like teeth, stretched out. of him wishing to bite. He split his face with his arm (pushed) down to his neck, so that he was lifeless, as if eager for the company of Ariṣṭa. One day Kṛṣṇa, long-armed, killed easily Kaṃsa’s donkey and goat whose strength was cruel, coming there.

When he heard that they had been killed, in order to test his enemy thoroughly, Kaṃsa set up Śārṅga in the assembly under pretext of a pūjā. He made his sister, the maiden Salyabhāmā. its attendant, always near, and opened the festival. Kaṃsa had it proclaimed. “I shall give goddess-like Satyabhāmā to the one who strings Śārṅga.” Hearing that, kings came there even from afar, but no one was able to string the bow.

Hearing about it, Anādhṛṣṭi. the son of Madanāvega and Vasudeva, thinking himself a hero, got into a swift chariot. Crossing to Gokula, he saw there Rāma and Kṛṣṇa together. He stopped one night and entertained them, talking. At dawn he got inîo the chariot, dismissed his younger brother Rāma, and set out, taking Kṛṣṇa as a guide on the road to Mathura. His chariot caught on a banyan on the road filled with trees and Anādhṛṣṭi was not able to free it. Kṛṣṇa came there on foot, pulled up the banyan easily, threw it aside, and after that made a straight chariot-road. Then Anādhṛṣṭi, delighted at seeing his strength, got down, embraced him, and put him in the chariot.

In time they crossed the Kālindī and entered Mathura. They went to the assembly of the bow to which many kings had come. They saw lotus-eyed Satyabhāmā, like its guardian-deity, near the bow. Looking at eager Kṛṣṇa, Satyabhāmā, wounded by Manobhava’s arrow, instantly chose him in her mind as her husband. Anādhṛṣṭi approached and, as he lifted up the bow, his foot slipped in the mud and he fell to the ground, like a camel. Then Satyabhāmā and the others with wide-opened eyes laughed a little at him with his necklace broken, his crown crushed, and his ear-rings lost.

Unable to endure their laughter, instantly Dāmodara took up the bow as if it were a garland of flowers and strung it easily. With the curved bow which had great brilliance he looked like a rainy season cloud with a rainbow. Anādhṛṣṭi went to his father’s house, left Keśava at the door in the chariot, went inside, and announced to his father, “I alone strung the bew Śārṅga, Father, which could not be even touched anywhere by other kings.” Vasudeva said harshly, “Go without delay. When Kaṃsa knows that you have strung the bow, he will kill you.” Hearing that, Anādhṛṣṭi left the house in fear and went in haste with Kṛṣṇa to Nanda’s cow-station. Taking leave of Rāma and Govinda, be went to Śauryapura.

There was a rumor that Nanda’s son has strung the bow. Distressed by the stringing of the bow. using the festival of the bow as a pretext, Kaṃsa summoned all the wrestlers for a contest. The kings, who had been summoned there, stood on platforms in order to see and their eyes were fixed especially on Kaṃsa placed on a high platform. All his own elder brothers and all his sons, Akrūra, et cetera, had been summoned by Vasudeva who knew Kaṃsa’s evil intentions. They were seated on very high platforms by Kaṃsa, who had entertained them, like suns very strong in brilliance.

Hearing that there was a wrestling-match, Kṛṣṇa said to Rāma, “Elder brother, let us go there and see the wrestling-show.” Rāma agreed and said to Yaśodā, “Prepare a bath for us, as we intend to go to Mathurā.” Seeing that she was somewhat slow, Bala spoke harshly, for the sake of a prologue to the story of the murder of Govinda’s brothers, “Say, have you forgotten now your former state as a slave that you do not carry out our order quickly?” Sātvata (Rāma), devoted, took Kṛṣṇa, who was pale at that speech, to the river Yamuna for his bath.

He said to him,” Why, my boy, do you appear pale, like a mirror touched by the wind and cloud of the rainy season?” Govinda said to Baladeva in choking words, “Why do you speak contemptuously to my mother, brother, saying to her, ‘You are a slave’?” Rāma said to Janārdana who was pleasing to women:” Yaśodā is not your mother and Nanda is not your father. But Devakī, King Devaka’s daughter, is your mother; and Vasudeva, the sole hero of the universe, fortunate, is your father. Every month Devakī comes here to see you under pretext of cow-worship, tearful, the surface of the ground being sprinkled from her breasts.

Vasudeva, who has stayed in Mathura at Kaṃsa’s insistence, is our father, the sole ocean of gallantry. I am your elder brother with a different mother. I came here at the order of the honored father to protect you as he feared some misfortune to you.” Asked by the younger brother, “Why was I sent here by father?” he told the whole story of the brothers' murder, et cetera, committed by Kaṃsa.

Hearing that, Kṛṣṇa was angered and, cruel as a fire, vowed to kill Kaṃsa. He entered the river to bathe. Kāliya, a serpent, his body submerged in the Kālindī’s water, attacked Janārdana, like a friend of Kaṃsa, intending to bite him. While Rāma was saying, “What’s this?” because of the glitter of the jewel in his hood, Kṛṣṇa rose up and seized it like a blue lotus. Kṛṣṇa mounted the snake and rode it for a long time in the water by a lotus-stalk in its nose like an ox being led by a nose-cord.

Leaving it crushed as if lifeless, Kṛṣṇa left (the river) and was surrounded by Brāhmans who had come from curiosity, asking whether the bath had been auspicious. Surrounded by cowherds, Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, very powerful, went to Mathurā and reached the main gate. There two elephants, Padmotlara and Campaka, driven by mahouts at Kaṃsa’s order, ran toward them. Kṛṣṇa killed the elephant Padmottara by pulling out its tusks, by blows with his fist, et cetera; and Balabhadra, like a lion, killed Campaka. They were watched by the townsmen with great astonishment, saying to each other, “These are Nanda’s sons who killed Ariṣṭa and the others.”

Wearing dark blue and yellow garments and garlands of wild flowers, surrounded by herdsmen, both Rāma and Kṛṣṇa went to the arena. There the two brothers, fearless, with their followers sat down on a high platform, after sending away the people who occupied it. Sātvata pointed out to Kṛṣṇa the enemy Kaṃsa and the fathers,^[1] Samudravijaya and the others, in order of seniority. “Who are they, resembling gods?” debating with each other, the kings and townsmen seated on the platforms, looked at them.

At Kaṃsa’s command many wrestlers contended there. Urged by him, Cāṇūra got up, as big as a mountain. Roaring like a thunder-cloud and giving slaps with his hands, scorning all the kings, Cāṇūra said aloud: “If anyone is the son of a hero and thinks himself a hero, let him, difficult to be suffered, fulfil my confidence in a wrestling contest.” Unable to endure the insolence of Cāṇūra swaggering excessively, Kṛṣṇa descended from the platform and, long-armed, slapped his arms. The slaps of Govinda, like the blows of a lion with his tail, shook heaven and earth, as it were, with a loud noise.

“Cāṇūra, a professional pugilist, is superior in age and physique, hard from training, always cruel like a yak. This one is a mere boy, simple, softer than the heart of a lotus from living in the forest, inexperienced. It is not fitting for them to fight. Shame on this improper thing disapproved by every one!” A tumult arose among the people saying this aloud. Then Kaṃsa said in a rage: “By whom were these herdsmen, intoxicated by drinking milk, brought here? On the contrary, they have come of their own accord! Who, pray, here hinders them wishing to fight? Let him speak separately who has any injury from them!”

Hearing Kaṃsa’s speech, all the people became silent and Govinda, his lotus-eyes wide-open, said: “This man, Cāṇūra, chief of pugilists, has been fed on royal food, always in training, with a very fine physique—now he may be seen killed by me, a herd-boy, living on milk, like an elephant by a young lion.”

Terrified by his confidence, Kaṃsa ordered a second great pugilist, Muṣṭika by name, to be ready to fight at the same time. Seeing Muṣṭika get up, Sātvata, skilled in lighting, descended from the platform and challenged him to fight. Then Kṛṣṇa and Cāṇūra and Rāma and Muṣṭika began to fight with arms that resembled magic nooses. The earth trembled, as it were, from their heavy footsteps and the pavilion of the universe resounded, as it were, from the noise of their slaps. Muṣṭika and Cāṇūra were thrown up in the air like bunches of grass by Rāma and Kṛṣṇa and the people, looking on, were delighted.

The people became gloomy when they saw the heroes being thrown up at all by Cāṇūra and Muṣṭika. Keśava struck Cāṇūra with a hard fist, like an elephant striking a heap of rocks vigorously with the hammer of his tusk. Cāṇūra, destroying pride, thinking himself victorious, struck Ariṣṭasūdana^[2] on the chest with his fist whose strength was equal to a ball of adamant. Injured by that blow, his eyes rolling as if from wine, Adhokṣaja fell to the ground, his eyes shut. Incited by a glance by Kaṃsa skilled in trickery, Cāṇūra. wicked, ran again to kill Govinda while he was unconscious.

Bala, realizing that he intended to kill him, at once abandoned Muṣṭika and struck him with his forearm which imitated a falling thunderbolt. Cāṇūra was hurled seven bows^[3] by that blow and Kṛṣṇa, having recovered consciousness, challenged him to fight again. Pressing on his waist with his knees and bending his head with his arm, Govinda, very strong, struck Cāṇūra with his fist. Cāṇūra, throwing up a stream of blood, his eyes miserable, was released at once by Kṛṣṇa as well as by the breath of life as if terrified.

Trembling from the agitation of anger, Kaṃsa said: “Ho! Kill these sons of a cowherd without delay. Kill Nanda, too, by whom these serpents have been nourished. Take the property of the rogue and bring it here. If anyone else, a partisan of his, protects him in the meantime, he is equally guilty and must be killed quickly by my order.” Then Pundarīkākṣa (Kṛṣṇa), red-eyed from the agitation of anger, said: “Cāṇūra having been killed, you are as good as dead now from us. Now protect yourself, on the point of being killed by me now. villain. Later, you may give orders for what is suitable for your anger in regard to Nanda and others.”

With these words Govinda jumped up, dim bed on the platform instantly, seized Kaṃsa by the hair, and threw him to the ground. Janārdana said to him whose crown was crushed, whose garment had slipped oíf, his eyes wavering like an animal tied in a slaughter-house: “The children’s murders were committed uselessly for your protection, villain. Now you cease to exist. Experience the fruit of your own acts.” All the people were astonished and terrified at Hari, by whom Kaṃsa had been captured, like a rogue-elephant that had taken his form. The blue-clothed hero (Bala) made Muṣṭika breathless by tying him with a rope and killed him like a goat brought for sacrifice.

Now the soldiers, adherents of Kaṃsa, in order to protect Kaṃsa, ran to kill Kṛṣṇa, holding many weapons. Rāma pulled up a post of the platform and, striking around, put them to flight quickly, like bees in a honey-comb. Kṛṣṇa set his foot on Kaṃsa’s head and killed him, dragged him by the hair, and threw him outside the arena, like an ocean casting up a tree. Then Jarāsandha’s soldiers, brought in advance by Kaṃsa, put on armor with the intention of killing Rāma and Kṛṣṇa. Seeing them clad in armor, King Samudravijaya put on armor and attacked in battle. For his coming was for that purpose.

Jarāsandha’s soldiers fled quickly in every direction from King Samudravijaya like an ocean with high waves. At Samudravijaya’s order Anādhṛṣti put Rāma and Kṛṣṇa in his own chariot and took them to Vasudeva’s house. All the Yadus, Samudravijaya and the others, went to Vasudeva’s house and, having called a meeting, sat down. With Bala sharing Ids seat, Vasudeva, tearful, seated Keśava on his lap and kissed bis head again and again.

Asked by his brothers, “What’s this?” Ānakadundubhi related Kṛṣṇa’s story from the affair of Atimuktaka. Then Samudravijaya look Kṛṣṇa on his lap and, delighted at Rama’s protection of him, praised Rāma again and again. Devakī came with her daughter with one nostril, took Kṛṣṇa who was going from lap to lap and embraced him. The heroes, the Yādavas, weeping, said to Vasudeva: “You are able to conquer the world alone, long-armed one. How, hero, have you endured your sons being killed, as soon us they were born, by Kaṃsa extremely evil?” Vasudeva said: “I have endured this crime to protect my vow of truthfulness observed since birth. Kṛṣṇa was saved by me at Devakī’s insistence and concealed in Gokula. I took in exchange this pitiful daughter of Nanda. The scoundrel released her with contempt, after cutting off one nostril, thinking, Devakī’s seventh child is a mere girl.

With the approval of his brothers and nephews. Samudravijaya dragged King Ugrasena from prison. Samudravijaya and the others with King Ugrasena held Kaṃsa’s funeral rites on Kālindī’s bank. Kaṃsa’s mother and wives gave handfuls of water in the river,^[4] but Jīvayaśas did not give from pride and she said angrily:

“When I have destroyed these cowherds, Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, and the Daśārhas with their descendants, I shall perform my husband’s funeral rites. Otherwise, I shall enter the fire.” After making this vow publicly, she went to the city Rājagṛha ruled over by Jarāsandha. With permission of Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, King Samudravijaya made Ugrasena king in the city Mathurā. Janārdana (Kṛṣṇa) married Satyabhāmā, who was given by Ugrasena, with fitting riles on the day designated by Kroṣṭuki.

Now, Jīvayaśas, weeping, her hair disheveled; entered Jarāsandha’s assembly, like Bad Luck embodied. Questioned by Jarāsandha, she told with difficulty the story of Atimuktaka and Kansu’s slaying, Jarāsandha said: “Kaṃsa did not do well, since he did not kill devakī herself. How is there ploughing in the absence of a field? Do not weep now, child. I shall make their women weep, by killing all of Kaṃsa’s slayers together with destruction of the root (Devakī).”

After telling her this, Jarāsandha gave instructions to a king, named Somaka, and despatched him to Samudravijaya. Arriving in Mathurā, he said to King Samudravijaya: “Your lord, Jarāsandha, commands you: ‘Jīvayaśas is dearer than life to us. Because of her affection Kaṃsa was her husband. To whom is this not known? You, our servant, may remain in peace; but Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, these insignificant enemies of Kaṃsa, must be surrendered. Moreover, even though the seventh child was surrendered before, surrender him now; but Rāma must be surrendered because of protecting him.’”

Samudravijaya said; “If six children were surrendered by honest Vasudeva without my knowledge, that was not fitting. If Kaṃsa has been killed by the boys, Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, from hostility because of their brothers’ murder, what crime have they committed in this? The one fault on our part is this: that Vasudeva voluntarily from simplicity—that with his knowledge six sons^[5] of mine were killed. My sons, Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, are the breath of life (to me). This action of your lord, demanding them with the intention of killing them, is (taken) without reflection.”

Somaka said angrily: “Consideration of what is fitting or unfitting is never at all suitable for servants in case of the master’s order. Let these two wretches go where the six infants went, king. Do not scratch the mouth of the serpent Takṣaka. Quarreling with the powerful is not for your advantage. Who are you compared with the Lord of Magadha, like a goat compared with an elephant?”

Govinda, angry, replied: “Because the bond of affection has been preserved for a long time by our father from simplicity, docs your master have power (over us)? Jarāsandha is not our lord. On the contrary, saying this, he is a second Kaṃsa. Therefore, go! Tell him what you like, sir!” Thus addressed, Somaka said to Samudravijaya: “This son of yours is a firebrand in the family, Daśārha. Why do you overlook that?” Blazing with anger at that speech, Anādhṛṣṭi said: “Are you not ashamed at asking sons from a father, again and again? The lord of Rājagṛha is grieved by the slaying of his son-in-law. Arc we not grieved at the killing of six brothers? We, powerful Rāma and Kṛṣṇa and the others, Akrūra and the rest, will not endure your speaking so, look you!” Attacked by Anādhṛṣṭi angrily in these words, distressed by anger, disregarded by Samudra, Somaka went to his own house.

The next day the lord of the Daśārhas called together his relatives and asked his friend, Kroṣṭuki, the best of astrologers, “Tell us what will happen in the future in regard to this quarrel of ours that has arisen with Jarāsandha, lord of three-part Bharata.” He said: “Soon Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, powerful, will be lords of three-part Bharata, after killing him. Go now to the west to the shore of the ocean. The beginning of the destruction of enemies will take place as you go there. Where Satyabhāmā bears twins, you must found a city in that very place and stay without fear.”

Then the king informed his people about his departure by proclamation and left Mathurā accompanied by eleven crores of families. Samudravijaya went to Śauryapura, collected seven crores of families, and set forth, accompanied by relatives. King Ugrasena followed King Samudra and all went very willingly on the road inside the Vindhya. Then King Somaka went and reported all that, which was fuel to the fire of anger, to Ardhacakrin Jarāsandha. Seeing Jarāsandha angry, his son, Kāla, said: “What are these wretched Yadus to you? Give me orders and I will kill the Yadus, having dragged them from the ends of the earth, from fire, and from the ocean. Otherwise, I shall not return.”

Then Jarāsandha ordered Kāla, accompanied by five hundred kings, surrounded by a great army, (to march) against the Yadus. Kāla set out, accompanied by his brothers Yavana and Sahadeva, though restrained by unfavorable omens and inauspicious portents. Following the track of the Yadus, he came soon to the country at the foot of the Vindhya Mts., where the Yādavas were camped not far away. When the guardian-deities of Rāma and Kṛṣṇa saw that Kāla was near, they created a mountain, lofty and wide, with one door. They created a camp and army of the Yadus reduced to ashes by fire and they created one woman, weeping near the funeral-pyre.

Seeing her, Kāla asked, “Lady, why do you weep so?” She said: “Terrified of Jarāsandha, all the Yadus ran away. The hero Kāla came behind them like Death and the Yadus, terrified of him near at hand, entered the fire. The Daśārhas, Rāma, and Kṛṣṇa entered the pyre here. I, too, shall enter the fire because of the separation from relatives.” Saying this, she entered the fire.

His mind bewildered by the gods, Kāla said to Sahadeva, Yavana, and the kings: “I vowed before my father and mother that I would kill the Yadus, dragging them from fire, et cetera. Look! I too, keeping my promise, shall enter this blazing fire to kill them who entered the fire from fear of me.” With these words, carrying sword and shield, he entered the fire like a moth and died, while his own people looked on, their minds confused by the gods.

Just then the blessed sun set and Yavana, Sahadeva, and the others camped on the spot. When daylight came, they did not see the mountain nor the funeral-pyre and messengers said to them, “The Yadus have gone far away.” Knowing from the confession of old men that bewilderment had been made by the gods, Yavana and the others turned back and told all that to the Lord of Magadha. Jarāsandha fell to the ground in a deep swoon. When conscious, he cried, “Kāla, Kāla! Kaṃsa, Kaṃsa!”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

I.e., the uncles.

[2]:

The destroyer of the bull Ariṣṭa.

[3]:

Forty-two feet.

[4]:

At the end of the funeral rites. On the tenth day, the relatives take a bath, dip up handfuls of water and pour them out again, with mantras.

[5]:

I.e., nephews.