Kaṃsa Vadha (Bhāgavata Purāṇa)

The Kaṃsa Vadha (the slaying of Kaṃsa) is the great event that ends the childhood years of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells it in Chapters 36 to 44 of the 10th Skanda. In these chapters Kaṃsa is killed, Devakī and Vasudeva are set free, and Ugrasena is made king again.

The account runs like this. Nārada tells Kaṃsa who Kṛshṇa is. Kṛshṇa kills the asuras Arishṭāsura, Keśī and Vyomāsura in Vṛndāvana. Akrūra is sent to Gokula and takes the two brothers away. Akrūra sees a vision of Bhagavān Vishṇu in the river Yamunā. In Mathurā, Kṛshṇa meets a washerman, a dyer, the garland-maker Sudāmā and Trivakrā. He breaks Kaṃsa’s bow and kills the elephant Kuvalayāpīḍa. He defeats the wrestlers Cāṇūra and Mushṭika, and he kills Kaṃsa in front of the people of Mathurā.

Arishṭāsura, the bull (Chapter 36)

Before the call to Mathurā, three more asuras came to Vṛndāvana.

The first was Arishṭāsura, a huge bull-asura. He bellowed and broke everything around him. The gopa (cowherd) people ran away in fear. Kṛshṇa stepped forward and caught the bull by its horns. He dug his feet into the earth while the bull pushed against him. Then he twisted the horns with his hands until the neck of the animal broke. The asura was dead.

Nārada tells Kaṃsa who Kṛshṇa is (Chapter 36)

The ṛshi Nārada visited Kaṃsa in Mathurā. He told Kaṃsa what Kaṃsa had half guessed. The child who killed Arishṭāsura in Vṛndāvana was the eighth child of Devakī, the boy whom Vasudeva had carried away on the night of his birth. The boy Kaṃsa thought was Nanda’s son was Devakī’s son.

Kaṃsa was full of rage. At once he had Vasudeva and Devakī thrown back into prison and put in chains. Then he called his generals Cāṇūra and Mushṭika, who were champions of wrestling, and told them his plan.

  • A great dhanur-yāga (bow-yajña) festival would be announced.
  • Kṛshṇa and Balarāma would be invited to Mathurā.
  • The elephant Kuvalayāpīḍa would stand at the entrance and kill them before they could enter.
  • If the elephant failed, the wrestlers Cāṇūra and Mushṭika would finish them in the arena.

Kaṃsa gave Akrūra the task of going to Gokula to bring the two brothers. Akrūra was a noble of the Yādavas, known for his piety and his secret devotion to Kṛshṇa.

Keśī, the horse (Chapter 37)

Kaṃsa sent the horse-asura Keśī. He was a creature of huge size. He galloped through Vṛndāvana and churned the earth with his hooves. When Keśī charged with open jaws, Kṛshṇa pushed his left arm into the mouth of the horse. The arm grew inside the mouth like an iron bar. It choked the asura and killed him from within.

After this deed, the ṛshi Nārada came to Kṛshṇa. In a stotra (hymn of praise) he told of the great deeds still to come:

  • the death of Kaṃsa
  • the defeat of Jarāsandha, Kālayavana and Mura
  • the taking of the pārijāta tree
  • the marriage of Rukmiṇī
  • the killing of Bāṇāsura
  • Kṛshṇa’s part as charioteer in the great war of the Bhārata family

Vyomāsura, the cave (Chapter 37)

Vyomāsura was an asura, the son of the asura Maya. He took the form of a gopa boy and joined the games of the cowherd children. In one game the boys played shepherds and sheep. Little by little Vyomāsura took away the boys who played the sheep and shut them in a cave in the mountainside.

Kṛshṇa saw what was happening. Vyomāsura tried to escape. Kṛshṇa seized him and held him fast on the ground, although the asura tried to grow large and break free. Kṛshṇa killed him. The boys in the cave were freed.

Akrūra goes to Gokula (Chapters 38–40)

Akrūra took the task knowing its true purpose. Yet he went with joy. He was not going to hand the brothers over to death. He was going for the blessing of seeing Kṛshṇa face to face. All along the road from Mathurā to Gokula, Akrūra made an inner stotra of devotion and meditated on Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, the One he was going to meet. He reached Gokula at dusk, when the cows were coming home and the settlement glowed with the evening fires.

Before he went in, Akrūra saw Kṛshṇa and Balarāma among the cows. Kṛshṇa was dark like a cloud. Balarāma was white like jasmine. Akrūra also knew the marks of Bhagavān Vishṇu in the footprints on the path: the lotus, the flag, the thunderbolt and the śaṅkha (conch). The śāstras describe these marks as belonging to the feet of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Akrūra fell to the ground and wept with joy and pressed his face to the footprints. Kṛshṇa and Balarāma welcomed him with full honour. Nanda received him as an honoured guest.

The journey and the vision in the Yamunā

At dawn the party left for Mathurā. Akrūra drove the chariot and the brothers sat behind him. The gopikās (cowherd women) of Gokula came out and stood by the roadside. Their eyes were fixed on the face of Kṛshṇa. They watched in silence as the chariot moved away. Kṛshṇa looked back at them and sent a silent message with his eyes and his smile that he would return. They stood without moving until the dust of the chariot wheels had settled.

At the ford of the Yamunā, Akrūra stopped the chariot and went to bathe. As he went under the water he saw a vision. First he saw Kṛshṇa and Balarāma themselves, seated on the back of the divine serpent Śesha. Ṛshis were around them, and they shone as light. Akrūra came up and looked at the chariot. The brothers were sitting there, unchanged. He went under the water again. This time he saw Mahāvishṇu in his full cosmic form, lying on Śesha. All the devas were with him: Brahmā, Śiva and Indra. All the great ṛshis were there, and Lakshmī sat at his feet.

Akrūra understood that the two brothers on the chariot were that One. From within the river water he composed and offered the Akrūra Stotra, a hymn in praise of Bhagavān Vishṇu that covers the whole of the teaching about him. Then he came out and went on to Mathurā, full of bright joy.

Entry into Mathurā: four meetings (Chapters 41–42)

Akrūra was sent ahead to report to Kaṃsa. Kṛshṇa and Balarāma entered Mathurā on foot and walked through the streets. The people crowded to the sides of the street to see them and drank in their beauty with their eyes. Four meetings marked their entry.

The proud washerman (rajaka). A washerman was carrying fine royal clothes, the washing of Kaṃsa. He refused to give clothes to the brothers and spoke to them with scorn. Kṛshṇa killed him with one slap and took the clothes.

The generous dyer (tantuvāya). A weaver and dyer was colouring fine cloth. He heard about the brothers and came forward with joy. He gladly gave them the richest cloth he had. Kṛshṇa was pleased and blessed him with long life, wealth and fame.

Sudāmā the garland-maker (mālī). The garland-maker Sudāmā came running with garlands of sweet-smelling flowers. He gave them to Kṛshṇa with complete joy and surrender. Kṛshṇa was so pleased that he blessed Sudāmā with long life, wealth and children, with devotion that would never end, and with friendship among bhaktas (devotees). In the end he blessed him with śārūpya-mukti, liberation in the form of the own likeness of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa.

Trivakrā, also called Kubja. A woman named Trivakrā, also called Kubja (the hunchback), was carrying sandalwood paste to the palace of Kaṃsa. Kṛshṇa asked her for the paste. She gave all of it with joy. Kṛshṇa put the tip of his toe under her feet and pressed up under her chin with his thumbs. At once her spine was straight. She was a woman bent in three places, and she became a beautiful, upright woman. Trivakrā asked Kṛshṇa to visit her home. He promised to return, and he kept that promise later.

The breaking of Kaṃsa’s bow (Chapter 42)

The brothers came to the arena where the dhanur-yāga was being held. Kaṃsa’s great sacred bow was kept there. Bhagavān Śiva himself had given it, and no one but Nārāyaṇa could break it. The bow was huge. It was as long as three palm trees and as thick as a pillar. Guards stood around it.

Kṛshṇa walked up calmly and lifted the bow with one hand. He strung it. Then he bent it until it snapped. The sound shook all of Mathurā. The guards rushed at him. Kṛshṇa and Balarāma killed them all, using the broken ends of the bow as weapons.

The sound of the breaking bow reached every ear in Mathurā, Kaṃsa’s too. He understood what it meant.

Kuvalayāpīḍa, the elephant at the gate (Chapter 43)

The next morning was the day of the wrestling match. Kṛshṇa and Balarāma came to the wrestling arena. At its entrance stood the war elephant Kuvalayāpīḍa. His mahouts (drivers) controlled him, and he stood there to kill the brothers before they could go in.

The mahout drove the elephant at Kṛshṇa. The elephant caught Kṛshṇa with its trunk, and Kṛshṇa broke free with a blow of his fist. He slipped under the elephant and hid. The elephant searched for him with its trunk and its sense of smell, found him and caught him again. Again Kṛshṇa broke free. At last Kṛshṇa took the elephant by the tail and whirled it in a full circle, as easily as he had whirled calves when he was a toddler, and dragged it along the ground. The tusks of the elephant struck the earth at every turn. When Kṛshṇa let go, the elephant crashed down. Kṛshṇa then killed the elephant and its mahouts.

He pulled out one tusk of the dead elephant and carried it over his shoulder as a weapon as he entered the wrestling arena. He was marked with the ichor (the liquid from the elephant’s temples), and his face shone with the joy of battle.

The wrestling match and the death of Kaṃsa (Chapter 44)

In the arena the champion Cāṇūra challenged Kṛshṇa, and Mushṭika challenged Balarāma. The women of the arena said the fight was not fair. Here were two boys, still young, against grown wrestlers who were built like iron pillars. What the women of Mathurā say in the arena is one of the most moving passages of the Bhāgavata. They spoke of the beauty of the lotus face of Kṛshṇa. They spoke of the gopikās of Gokula, who woke every day and saw that face. They called the dust of Gokula more blessed than svarga (heaven).

Still, the fight was quickly decided. Kṛshṇa and Cāṇūra wrestled, blow for blow and hold for hold. Kṛshṇa caught the arms of Cāṇūra, whirled him in a circle and threw him to the ground with deadly force. Cāṇūra fell like a banner on a festival pole when the wind brings it down. Balarāma struck Mushṭika once on the temple with his palm. Mushṭika fell, vomited blood and died. Balarāma then killed Kūṭa with his left fist. Kṛshṇa killed Śala with his foot and broke his head, and he tore Tośalaka in two. The other wrestlers ran out of the arena.

Kaṃsa was watching from his high seat. He gave orders: drive Kṛshṇa and Balarāma out of the city, arrest the gopas, seize Nanda, and kill Vasudeva. While Kaṃsa was still giving these orders, Kṛshṇa leaped from the floor of the arena straight onto the royal platform. Kaṃsa had drawn his sword and moved about, quick and nimble like an eagle. Kṛshṇa seized him by the hair and the crown, threw him from the high platform to the floor of the arena, and leaped on him.

All his life Kaṃsa had lived in fear of Kṛshṇa. He had thought of Kṛshṇa all the time, and he saw him in every face and every dream. Kaṃsa died with the face of Kṛshṇa before his eyes. The Bhāgavata says that because of this constant meditation, even though it was born of fear and enmity, Kaṃsa reached sāyujya-mukti. His ātmā (soul) merged into Kṛshṇa.

The eight brothers of Kaṃsa rushed into the arena to avenge him. Balarāma killed all eight with his iron club, the musala.

Divine drums sounded. The devas showered flowers. The wives of Kaṃsa wept over the body of their husband. Kṛshṇa comforted them with gentle words about how the body does not last. Then he saw that the proper last rites were done for the dead.

Devakī and Vasudeva are freed, and Ugrasena is made king again

After the wrestling match, Kṛshṇa and Balarāma went straight to the prison where Devakī and Vasudeva were held in chains. They broke the chains and set their parents free.

Kṛshṇa and Balarāma fell at the feet of Devakī and Vasudeva and bowed to them. The parents knew in an instant that these were not ordinary sons but Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, the master of all the worlds. The awe of that knowledge held them back from embracing the brothers. Kṛshṇa is the master of his yogamāyā. He covered his parents with its power and gave back their parental love and the feeling “these are my children,” so that they could embrace the boys freely and with full joy. Devakī and Vasudeva embraced both sons and wept with happiness.

Then Kṛshṇa freed Ugrasena, the righteous father of Kaṃsa. His own son had removed him from the throne and put him in prison. Kṛshṇa made Ugrasena king of Mathurā. In this way the realm of the Yādavas was ruled with dharma again.

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapters 36–37 (Arishṭāsura, Keśī, Vyomāsura)
  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 36 (Nārada and Kaṃsa)
  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapters 38–40 (Akrūra’s journey and the vision in the Yamunā)
  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapters 41–42 (entry into Mathurā, the bow)
  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 43 (Kuvalayāpīḍa)
  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 44 (the wrestling match, Kaṃsa’s death, Devakī, Vasudeva and Ugrasena)