Jarasandha: Final Confrontation

Bhima ends the menace

Before the Rajasuya sacrifice, Jarasandha must be defeated. Krishna guides Bhima and Arjuna to Jarasandha's capital in disguise. In single combat, Bhima wrestles Jarasandha for twenty-eight days. Following Krishna's hint, Bhima tears him apart, freeing thousands of imprisoned kings.

The Unconquerable Emperor

Jarasandha, king of Magadha, was among the mightiest warriors the world had seen. His very name told his story: jara (old age) + sandha (joined) - the one who was joined together. Born in two halves to two different mothers, he was deemed unviable and discarded. But a rakshasi named Jara found the infant halves and, driven by some cosmic purpose, pressed them together. The child became whole - and became jarasandha, literally "joined by Jara."

This strange birth gave him strange powers. His body, once joined, could not be divided by ordinary means. Weapons that would slay other men merely inconvenienced him. He had conquered all the kingdoms of the eastern lands, forcing ninety-eight kings to bow before him. He was building toward a hundred - at which point he planned a grand sacrifice to Lord Shiva, offering the hundred kings as human tribute.

"Jarasandha's dungeons held the flower of Indian royalty - ninety-eight sovereigns, awaiting the day their captor would complete his collection and end their lives."

The History with Krishna

Jarasandha's enmity with Krishna ran deep. His daughters, Asti and Prapti, had been married to Kamsa - the same Kamsa whom Krishna killed to liberate Mathura. Their father had sworn vengeance.

Seventeen times Jarasandha attacked Mathura with his vast armies. Seventeen times Krishna and Balarama fought him off - not by killing him (for his body could not be slain by conventional weapons) but by routing his forces. The eighteenth attack was coming when Krishna made a strategic decision that puzzled many: he moved his people from Mathura to Dwaraka, a fortress-city built on an island in the western sea.