One tale and two wives of Krishna

There is an interesting tale of how Lord Krishna got two wives, Jambavati and Satyabhama. This revolves around a single act, by which he got two wives, both of whom were part of his ashta-bharyas, i.e. his eight principal wives.

The main story is about the famous Syamantaka jewel (aka syamantaka-mani). According to this tale, once Lord Surya gave the Syamantaka to Satrajit, a Yadava governor. The jewel had the rare quality of creating a gold pellet eight times it own weight every day. Besides this, wherever the jewel was worshiped, that place would never experience natural calamities of any sort.

When Krishna learnt about the gift, he suggested to Satrajit that he give the gift to King Ugrasena, the King of Mathura for the well-being of the Yadavas at large, but Satrajit refused. Later Satrajit gave it to his brother Prasena, who wore it. Prasena was attacked by a lion, when he was out hunting, and the lion fled away with the jewel. When the lion took it inside the den of Jambavan, Jambavan attacked the lion and took the jewel. This Jambavan was none other than the bear-king who had assisted Lord Rama in the battle against Ravan. (Jambavan was blessed with eternal life and thus was alive during the next incarnation of Vishnu, in the form of Krishna). Jambavan took the jewel and gave it to his son to play with it.

In the meanwhile, Satrajit spread a rumour, that Krishna had killed Prasena and taken away the jewel, since he had not abided by the request of giving it to the King of Mathura. Krishna was angry at the false accusation and decided to absolve himself of the same. He followed the trail of Prasena and discovered his corpse and then followed the trail of the lion into the cave till he came across a child playing with the jewel. When he approached the child, he was challenged to a duel by Jambavan.

Krishna-Jambavan (Pic courtesy Amar Chitra Katha)

Jambavan and Krishna are said to have fought for 28 days, till Jambavan realised that his opponent was no ordinary individual. When he requested to know the true identity of Krishna, he came to know that the individual was none other than his Lord Rama in a different avatar. He fell to his feet and sought apologies, and Krishna too pardoned him. Jambavan then returned the jewel to Krishna and also offered his daughter, Jambavati in marriage to Krishna. Krishna accepted both and left for his kingdom.

 

Krishna weds Jambavati

In the meanwhile, when Krishna did not return for such a long time, people assumed that he might have died in the jungles, and were worried. But when Krishna entered the city with his new wife, people rejoiced. Krishna then called Satrajit at the court of the King, and told him the entire story. Satrajit was ashamed of his behavior and to atone for his crime, he offered both the jewel as well as his daughter, Satyabhama’s hand in marriage to Krishna. Krishna made it clear, that he only wanted his name to be cleared, and thus he would not accept the jewel, but accepted Satyabhama.

A rather simple story? Could this exist just for giving reasons for Krishna’s marriage to two women? Well this question, in a way intrigued Krishna himself and so he sought the help of Narada, the celestial sage, to clarify, the reasons behind the unnecessary trouble of having to get his name out of an unwanted controversy.

Narada smiled and said that Krishna was ‘punished’ due to a curse on mortals. According to this, once Lord Ganesha had had too many modaks (Steamed Rice-balls with a filling of jaggery and coconut) to eat, so much so, that on his way back to Mount Kailash, he toppled over! His stomach split and all the modaks rolled out. Not willing to let go of them, he collected all of them, put them back inside his tummy and started to go on his way. The Moon was so amused by the sight that it started laughing loudly. Ganesha felt spited, but went on his way. When he reached his parents, and tried to prostrate in front of them, he couldn’t do it properly, due to his pot-belly. Seeing this, once again the Moon laughed.

This time, mother Parvati was angry. She cursed the moon that whosoever looked at the moon would get into trouble. When Moon learnt about the curse, it felt sorry and apologised to Ganesha and Parvati and sought to lessen the curse. Parvati then said that her curse would come into effect only on the fourth day (chaturthi) of every bright fortnight. But the moon found even that too harsh and urged to reconsider the curse. Parvati then changed every chaturthi to Ganesh Chaturthi only, which was the birthday of Ganesh, i.e. the ill-effect would only take place if one saw the moon on the day of Ganesh chaturthi. However, if anybody observed a fast on the other chaturthi’s till moonrise, they would be absolved of all troubles, thus changing the curse to a blessing for others.

Krishna was still perplexed and was wondering just what he had to do with this tale. Narada went on to say, that on the day of Ganesh chaturthi, Krishna had a glimpse of the reflection of the moon in the milk that he took inside the house after milking the cows, and thus he is supposed to have got into trouble!

What is interesting is that Krishna then ordained that anybody who read this tale on the day of the Ganesh Chaturthi would be absolved of the effects of the curse.

An excellent example of a myth justifying a ritual. If Lord Krishna could not avoid such a curse, how could a mortal do so? If just a glimpse of a reflection could land someone into such trouble, what would witnessing the moon directly lead to? Since then, it is a practice to read the tale on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi.

Next we will read about another member of Krishna’s family who had a malevolent effect on the entire community. Keep reading….

Khandav-prastha

In the epic Mahabharata, the episode of Khandavprastha is one of the most important events with serious implications. It also one of the most complicated events that mark the birth of a kingdom, but not without raising a few questions. Let us understand the event better.

Once the Pandavs return with Draupadi after the Lakshagraha event, they get into trouble with the Kauravs and the differences lead to the partition of land, with Hastinapur being retained by the Kauravs and the land better known as Khandavprastha was given to the Pandavs. Khandavprastha, later renamed as Indraprastha, was a tract of land which was a dense jungle with rich flora and fauna. To establish a kingdom, it was inevitable to burn the forest down. However, what is surprising is that that not a single life was spared, be they animals, birds or the naga’s or serpents who used to reside there. It is said that all animals who tried to escape were killed by Arjun or Krishna, and thus all life perished either by fire or by weapons of the two.

Just why was this kind of ‘mass-murder’ necessary? Couldn’t the animals and birds be allowed to leave? Wouldn’t that have been a better alternative instead of such naked bloodbath at the onset of the establishment of a kingdom?

According to the Khandava-daha Parva of Adi Parva (Section CCXXV) of the epic, there is an interesting myth which led to such actions by the two main characters of the epic. When Arjun and Krishna were contemplating the method of clearing the forest of Khandav, an old man came to them and told them that he needed help. He went on to say that he was a Brahmin, who was used to eating a lot of food and needed to be fed. When Arjun asked him the nature of the food that would suffice his hunger, he pointed them towards the forest.

This old man was none other than the Vedic deity, Agni. Agni them went on to related another myth. Once upon a time there lived King Swetaki, who was used to performing yagna’s for the welfare of his kingdom. His over-zealousness for such sacrifices made the sages run away from him out of sheer tiredness and the sore-eyes that they had developed due to being in front of the fire all the time. Not to give up, Swetaki approached Rudra to bail him out and Rudra asked him to approach Sage Durvasa (considered to be an ‘aspect’ of Rudra himself).

Rudra agreed to take up the sacrifices, provided Swetaki arranged for enough ghee, or clarified butter, to last twelve years at a stretch. When Swetaki arranged as directed, Sage Durvasa conducted the sacrifice. However, by consuming so much of ghee, Agni suffered from severe dyspepsia, to the extent that Agni stopped consuming anything for some time. Staying hungry for so long, Agni had now developed a huge appetite which could be satiated only by the Khandav forest and every inhabitant of the forest.

Arjun wanted to know why he couldn’t do it himself and why he needed their help. Agni continued that among the inhabitants of the forest were the nagas, the serpents and their King Takshak. The serpents were under protection of Lord Indra and every time he tried to consume the forest, Indra would send the rains and extinguish the flames. Agni wanted Arjun and Krishna to help him devour the entire forest to satiate his hunger.

The matter now gets complicated as Indra was also Arjun’s father, and would he take up arms against his father at the behest of Agni?

Arjun however agrees to fight it out, but would need celestial weapons. Agni gave him the Gandiva, the bow with quivers which never got depleted of arrows. Agni also gave Krishna the sudarshan-chakra, the weapon of Lord Vishnu (thus establishing Krishna as an avatar of Vishnu). Together Arjun and Krishna are also referred to as the mortal forms of the divine Nar and Narayan.

A sculpture in the temple of Banteay Srei temple in Cambodia
Arjun and Krishna can be seen on either sides with Indra at the top;
Arrows can be seen holding the rain waters.

Soon, Agni lit a small fire and started to consume the forest. When Indra learnt about the fire, he sent his rain clouds. Arjun used his bow to create an impenetrable umbrella of arrows which stopped the rains. When Indra realized what was happening, he himself came down to fight it out but realized that he was no match for his son and Krishna together. Matters came to a standstill only after the entire forest was devoured without a single life escaping, except for Takshak who was not in the forest and his son and four saranga birds. Also, Maya Asura, the architect of the asura’s too managed to save his life in return of a promise of building a never-built-before palace for the Pandavs.

 

At the onset, I had mentioned that this was a complicated myth, as no life was spared in the mass fire, which is supposed to have lasted for fifteen days. All birds, animals and serpents perished in the fire, leading to a life-long enmity between the nagas and the Pandavs with serious repercussions in future.

According to Dr. Pradip Bhattacharya, this conflict brings out many interesting aspects. For one, this is a classic case of father-son conflict (Indra vs. Arjun) which is a common theme in mythologies of the world. It is also a classic case of a conflict between two elements of nature, fire and water. In modern terms, it also depicts the victory of man over nature. Iravati Karve, the author of Yuganta views this as the colonization of the Aryans, by sheer force and decimation of the natives. A number of weapons are introduced during this event, which could be an indication to the impending war.

The entire event displays a complex set of contradictions. The nagas venerated Indra, the god of gods who decides to side with them against his own son and other gods; Pandavs take the help of an asura to build their palace, instead of the celestial architect Vishwakarma; the palace of illusions by itself becomes a point of conflict later in the epic; all life perishes in the fire, except those mentioned earlier, and yet it is not a crime.

While the myth of Agni’s hunger could be seen as a justification of the event, it also helped absolve Arjun and Krishna of the crime of mass-murder as they were doing it at the behest of a Brahmin! 

Banteay Srei Pics courtesy Wikipedia