51 Lesser Known Tales From the Mahabharata (Mahabharata Companion, #1)

by Sharath Komarraju

The Birth and Death of Jarasandha We meet Jarasandha for the first time during the Rajasuya sacrifice of Yudhisthir. Krishna, Arjun and Bhim travel to Magadha to vanquish the powerful king. Not intending to fight the army of Jarasandha and risk loss of life, Krishna throws the king a dare. ‘Challenge one of the three of us to a wrestling match,’ he says, ‘and if you win you shall become the emperor of Hastinapur.’ Jarasandha, a man proud of his wrestling prowess, chooses the strongest-looking of the three men, Bhim, for a duel. They fight one another for three days and nights without giving or gaining an inch. On two occasions Bhim tears open Jarasandha’s body, but it magically comes together again. Krishna and Arjun look on in their Brahmin garbs, and it soon becomes clear to Krishna that this fight could last a while if he does not intervene. So he takes a blade of grass and holds it up so that Bhim could see it. He splits it along the length, and tosses the two pieces in opposite directions. Taking the hint, Bhim tears open Jarasandha a third time, but now throws the two hunks of flesh in opposite directions so that they cannot come together. Jarasandha thus dies. The reason why Jarasandha has this curse is found in the tale of his birth. His father, Brihadratha, was childless and had two wives, twin sisters who were the daughters of the king of Varanasi. For want of a child, Brihadratha pleases a sage named Chandakaushika, who, ignorant of the fact that the king has tw...