KRISHNA CORIOLIS#5: Rage of Jarasandha Read online

  ‘Our acceptance or denial plays no part in it, bhraatr,’ Krishna said sorrowfully. ‘We are merely soldiers of dharma following orders.’

  Balarama shrugged helplessly and walked away without further argument. Radha had reached within hearing distance. She ran to Krishna, her face glowing with excitement and love.

  ‘Krishna! You were magnificent.’

  Krishna smiled at her. ‘Radhey. You are twice as magnificent, always.’

  Radha blushed.

  Balarama snorted as he walked away.

  Krishna smiled impishly.

  2

  JARASANDHA and his Mohini Fauj managed to slip away immediately after Kamsa’s defeat. They were seen leaving but as they did so peacefully, nobody attempted to stop them, on Akrura’s orders. The rebel leader’s militia had moved out across the city, taking over the position that the Army had occupied, not to tyrannize and control but merely to police and protest.

  Vasudeva and Devaki had been watching the wrestling match incognito and once Kamsa was slain, they came forward and greeted their long-lost Eighth Child with great emotion and love. It was a tearful reunion.

  Old king Ugrasena and his wife Padmavati, imprisoned in that subterranean dungeon for over two decades, had been sustained and kept alive through the shrewdness of Akrura and their other supporters. Unknown to Kamsa, that rat-hole of a prison had been policed by Ugrasena’s loyalists and the king and queen had been nourished and kept safe and healthy through constant care. Now, they were carried through the streets in a jubilant procession and reinstated on their rightful thrones. Ugrasena immediately declared Vasudeva king, and Vasudeva in turn declared Krishna as Lord of Mathura, heir apparent in the technical sense but king to all intents and purposes. The people celebrated for weeks.

  In time, Jarasandha and his imperial ambitions brought the armies of Magadha to the doorstep of Mathura itself. Deprived of his son-in-law and ally, he felt compelled to protect his interests and stake his claim by force. He besieged the city-state and attacked Mathura in an all-out war that raged for over a decade and united the divided Yadava clans into one cohesive fighting whole. Krishna led the armies of Mathura in a great campaign that repulsed the Magadhan forces time and again, fighting more fiercely than any nation Jarasandha had attacked thus far. But the Magadhan’s sheer scale of power and military might and his relentless ambition caused Krishna to consider other options. Eventually, he and his associates, with the blessing of the elders, decided that too much blood had been spilled in Mathura already and that a new city-state capital was called for. They built this city by the sea in the far western edge of the land and named it Dwarka. During this same period, Krishna also found himself involved perforce in the long-standing dispute between the Kauravas and Pandavas and when the inevitable war broke out for the throne of Hastinapura, he and the armies of Mathura were compelled to join in as well. There followed many other wars and campaigns and battles and demonaic attacks.

  But those were other stories, other times.

  Right now, there was a new Lord of Mathura.

  His name was Krishna.

  3

  KING Ugrasena raised aloft the rajtaru of the Sura nation. Shaped in the form of a cowherd’s crook, the solid gold rod gleamed in the morning sunlight. The precious gems studded in the handle glittered, sending a flurry of scintillating reflections across the sabha hall. They flickered across the smiling faces of the largest crowd ever assembled in that vast chamber. Even a calico cat curled in a nook squinted at the flashing reflections with an expression that resembled nothing so much as a pleased grin.

  There was much to be pleased about. The 23-year long reign of Kamsa the Usurper had finally ended and the rightful king was restored to his throne. King Ugrasena might be withered and age-worn, and with the pallid anemia of a man imprisoned for over two decades, but he was still strong enough to hold the rajtaru aloft with a steady hand and in the Yadava tradition, so long as a cowherd could hold his crook steady, he was fit to herd his flock.

  No flock was happier to welcome back its herder than the people of Mathura today.

  Standing beside King Ugrasena upon the royal dais, King Vasudeva smiled happily. He raised his own rajtaru and was greeted with just as loud and enthusiastic cheers as the elder liege. Both kings embraced warmly, bringing back memories of a day 23 long years ago when both had crossed rajtarus and sealed a peace pact that had carried such hope and promise.

  Finally, the third liege standing on the dais stepped forward as well, raising his own rajtaru. This was King Bhoja, ruler of the third major Yadava nation and a powerful chief in his own right. During the years of tyranny he had provided shelter to hundreds of thousands of immigrant Vrishni and Sura Yadavas fleeing the tyranny of Kamsa and had often faced the aggression and hostility of the Usurper as well as his allies as a result. Many of the lords and ladies present here today would never have survived the long pogroms of Kamsa had it not been for the support of Bhoja. As his wide mustached face creased in a wide grin, his rajtaru touched the kings-rods of his brother kings, marking the formal onset of a triple alliance.

  The crowd’s cheer was a deafening roar, drowning out even the robust chanting of the purohits reciting the Sanskrit shlokas. The sound of cheering boomed and echoed around the palace complex and across Mathura. All across the capital city, citizens of all ages and ilk celebrated the end of the tyrannous Usurper’s reign and the restoration of their monarch. Everywhere in the city and nation, faces were smiling and voices were raised in unmitigated prayer and praise.

  Peace had been absent a long while from the Yadava nations. She had been sorely missed.

  As the celebrations and feasting began, the three lieges moved to a more private chamber where they sat and received the congratulations of the most influential noble families across the Yadava nations—and other nations as well, for in times of war, one never knew when a powerful force like the Yadava people might prove a valuable ally. Although the Imperial Mathuran Army was disbanded in name, the last loyalists and spasas working for Jarasandha and Kamsa put on trial, the combined armies of the three major Yadava nations were still a formidable force in the sub-continent. When a new sun rises, everyone turns and pays it homage. In this case, it was an old sun re-risen but all the more impressive for that: Ugrasena’s very survival and return to power was heralded as a miracle in itself. Indeed, it was no less than a miracle.

  So great was the uproar from the crowds outside and the chanting of the purohits that all three sovereigns were able to converse freely on the stage without their words being heard by the nobles who paraded onstage, paid their verbal dues and departed. The three lieges were friends as well as distant relatives and they took the moment to exchange a few sincere words of joy at this happy reunion. The rush of events since the death of Kamsa had been so overwhelming that this was the first time they were actually sitting together and able to speak freely.

  ‘Old friend,’ King Vasudeva said warmly, ‘words cannot describe how glad I am to be with you on this dais again.’

  King Ugrasena looked sorrowfully at his fellow Yadava chieftain. ‘No more than I am to be beside you, my dear friend. You have been a true friend through all that has transpired. I shall never forget that.’

  Ugrasena was referring to the manner in which Vasudeva, at grave risk to his own life, had had the old king and queen’s hellish dungeon secretly cleaned and made inhabitable by the two prisoners, as well as ensured a daily supply of fresh water and clean wholesome food for their sustenance, not to mention smuggling in vaids when required by the aging, often ailing king and other minor but vital creature comforts.

  Vasudeva waved away the thanks magnanimously. ‘I did very little. The risk was borne entirely by my good friend Akrura, champion of the Yadava cause. It is to him and the closely trusted friends who risked their lives to care for yours that you owe your thanks.’ He did not mention that several of those trusted friends had in fact lost their lives when caught sneaking into or out o
f the royal dungeons at various times over the 23 years-long imprisonment, or that Akrura himself had lived daily under the constant threat of imprisonment, execution or torture.

  Ugrasena gestured at his royal consort, Queen Padmavati, sitting beside them and chatting with Vasudeva’s wife Devaki and Bhoja’s wife. ‘Indeed, my Queen and I shall thank good Akrura as well. But I know that it was on your authority that he undertook the mission of keeping alive support for my monarchy even when the nobles whose greed brought them over to Kamsa’s fold spread rumors of my own demise or abandonment of my responsibilities. If not for your support, Padma and I should have died in that dungeon years ago…decades ago. We would not have survived the first year itself in that terrible wet and filthy prison. Thanks to your brave effort in keeping our prison habitable and a supply of nourishment constant, we were somehow able to endure the unendurable.’

  At the very thought of the long suffering, Ugrasena’s own eyes brimmed with tears. ‘Although I will not deny wishing myself dead more than once these past many years. For a father to discover that his own son and heir is not the son of his body and then to be imprisoned so cruelly and unjustly while that bastard child unleashed a reign of terror on the people…would that I had died rather than seen such days. Even the news I received from your compatriots of Kamsa’s wicked acts all but broke my heart.’

  A delegation of oddly clad aristocrats, wealthy merchant-lords from a foreign land who had stayed on in Bharat-varsha, offered precious gifts to the three Yadava kings. Ugrasena, Vasudeva and Bhoja smiled pleasantly, thanked them, then resumed their conversation.

  Vasudeva placed a hand gently on the older man’s shoulder, comforting him. ‘Do not berate or blame yourself, my friend. None of this was your fault. It was all the work of the evil Kamsa. Every last man, woman and child in the Yadava nations knows that nothing done by Kamsa or his minions or allies was by your bidding or acquiescence. He was solely culpable for all the terrible crimes committed during his dark reign. That was why he had to be destroyed.’

  Beside them, Bhoja nodded. ‘He was an evil force that needed to be purged. Would that it had been done sooner.’

  Vasudeva replied sagely. ‘That which must happen happens when it must.’

  Bhoja shook his head, smiling. ‘Vasudeva, philosophical as ever.’

  Vasudeva turned to Ugrasena. ‘If I was able to aid you in some small way these past years, then we must both thank our brother sovereign Bhoja. For it was he who granted my Queen Devaki and I sanctuary when we needed it most. Though Akrura’s militia provided us with able protection, had Jarasandha brought the full force of his imperial might to bear upon us, it would have taken Bhoja’s entire army to repel them.’ Vasudeva paused. ‘Although, from what I heard of his Mohini Fauj as well as his champions, even an entire army might not have been sufficient.’

  Bhoja quailed at the mention of Jarasandha’s champions. ‘I am a warrior myself and willing to face any force in battle. But Jarasandha possesses sorcery that makes it impossible for any mortal army to defeat him. I have seen his forces in battle. The Mohini Fauj are formidable but they are still mortal warriors, possessed of fearsome skills and unorthodox methods but capable of being cut or pierced or crushed. His champions on the other hand…’ Bhoja shuddered.

  ‘His champions can be cut, pierced and crushed as well,’ said a fourth voice. ‘It just takes the right knowledge, that’s all.’

  All three kings looked up at the person who had spoken.

  4

  “Krishna!” exclaimed all three, almost with one voice. They rose to greet the dark-skinned young man with the impish grin who stood before them, accompanied by his fair-skinned young brother with the imposing physique. ‘And Balarama! Well met. Come, come, be seated with us. Both of you.’

  Ugrasena raised a withered hand in a gesture. Pradhan Mantri Pralamba, ever vigilant, instantly responded, sending courtiers on the dais with comfortable seats befitting the two brothers. The courtiers placed the seats beside the thrones on which the three kings were seated, offering them to the newcomers.

  Krishna looked around, raising his left eyebrow. Standing on his right, Balarama raised the other eyebrow.

  ‘We cannot sit with you upon the royal dais,’ Krishna said. ‘What will all these richly dressed aristocrats think?’

  Bhoja snorted. ‘Think? The only things they are capable of thinking are How Much and How Much More! Besides, you two are the true saviors of the Yadavas. If not for you, we would all be facing Kamsa’s swords instead of celebrating this feast day. In my sabha hall, champions mingle with nobles and both have learned to like it! I am sure my good King Ugrasena here wishes you both to share this platform with us.’

  Ugrasena raised both hands in a swagatam gesture. ‘Please, you are as my own sons. Grace us with your presence.’

  Krishna and Balarama sat. Their very presence energized the guests thronging the hall. Diplomats, emissaries, kings, princes, merchants, all stared curiously at the two young men on the dais, exchanging words in a manner that suggested gossip more than diplomacy. More than one elegantly turned out young woman shot the two young men looks that were less than diplomatic as well, and even the older women were not embarrassed to show their admiration for the two heroes. Correction: Handsome young heroes.

  They received many genuine visitors as well. Fellow Yadavas, clansmen and kinsmen from the Yadu, Vrishni, Andhaka, Madhu, Dasarha, Kukura, Satvata and other clans came to offer thanks and celebrate the end of Kamsa. For all these years, they had lived under the cruel reign of the Usurper or, like the Vrishni, had fled to foreign lands. There, though they had found shelter and lack of persecution, yet many had suffered greatly from other calamities. Entire tribes had been debilitated and decimated. Clans had become impoverished and lost their homelands to foreigners who had been gifted those provinces by Kamsa as reward for their loyalty or simply because his father-in-law Jarasandha had demanded it.

  There was much accounting to be done and Krishna and Balarama aided and counseled the three kings in this accounting. The giving back of wrongfully taken lands and provinces, the gifting of means to those who were impoverished, the doling out of the immense wealth accumulated by Kamsa under Jarasandha’s control. If not for the presence of the Heroes, it was likely that many clans and tribes would have fought bitterly for larger portions or shares, or simply to demand more because it was there to be taken. But the formidable presence of the Slayer and his brother kept such avarice in check.

  Consequent to Narada’s warning, Krishna and Balarama had erased the memory that all had of the true events of the wrestling bout and their real identity. No longer were people aware that the two brothers were god incarnate, swayam bhagwan. But they were still the Slayer of Kamsa and his brother and that was formidable enough.

  The question of succession had arisen and been quickly settled. Many clans might have laid claim to the throne of Mathura. For the clan that sat on that precious throne ruled all the Yadava nations. Again, it was Krishna who reminded one and all that the Yadus could never rule, no matter how righteous they may believe their cause had been. This was due to the ancient curse of Yayati, father of Yadu, founder and forebear of the Yadava nations. That was why Balarama and he, as Satvatas of the Vrishni clan, could not assume any vestige of power whatsoever. And when he proposed Ugrasena’s name none dared oppose it. For who had greater claim than the illicitly deposed king himself?

  Thus Ugrasena sat on the throne of Mathura and with Vasudeva and Bhoja on either side, like muscular healthy arms replacing the withered limbs that hung by his own sides, and Krishna and Balarama like two strong feet able to kick the most uppity claimants to kingdom come, he began his rule uncontested and unchallenged. Thus did the tenuous time of transition pass without mishap and soon all accepted the new order, for all had been enriched in some way or other. The Yadavas were a contentious lot given to bitter infighting and clan wars. But they had seen enough violence and war in the past two decades to sicken the stron
gest warrior’s stomach. They willingly accepted a compromise for the sake of peaceful existence.

  They had no way of knowing at the time that sadly, tragically, this peace too would not last.

  KAAND 11

  1

  Nanda and Yashoda had tears in their eyes. They had given away cows to brahmins as promised on Krishna’s and Balarama’s last birthday. They had given copious quantities of the famous Gokul milk products—the curds that Krishna had thrived on as an infant and as a child—cream, butter, ghee. They had received numerous gifts in turn from Krishna’s blood parents Vasudeva and Devaki and their uks wagons now groaned under the weight of ornaments, finely shaped metal vessels, rich garments and much else. All formalities and rites had been performed and all obligations fulfilled. The days of feasting and celebration were finally over. Now the time of parting had come, the time for them to return home to Vraj-bhoomi, back to Gokul-dham where they could resume their lives at last, free of the shadow of the tyrant.

  They said their farewells to Vasudeva and Devaki, who had showered them with great affection and generosity for raising Krishna and Balarama as their own these many years. Yet, as Nanda had pointed out, it was not a task for which they deserved to be rewarded or compensated. Bringing up Krishna and Balarama…indeed, merely being in their presence for so many wonderful years…was reward enough. Every gopa and gopi assembled there at the gates of the palace was tearful and heart-broken. The thought of returning to Gokul without their two most beloved sons was a burden too heavy for all their wagons and uksan together to bear.