Jaya and Vijaya’s Three Births

Jaya and Vijaya were the two doorkeepers of Vaikuṇṭha, the abode of Bhagavān Vishṇu. The four Kumāras put a śāpa (curse) on them, and they were born three times as strong asuras. In each birth Bhagavān Vishṇu killed them. The Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa tells how the three births ended, in Chapter 252.

The śāpa

Jaya and Vijaya barred the way to the four Kumāras: Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra. The Kumāras had come to see Bhagavān Vishṇu. They put a śāpa on the two doorkeepers: they would be born three times in the world of mortals as mighty asuras. Bhagavān Vishṇu himself would kill them in each birth. With three births and three deaths at his hands, they would be made pure and restored.

First birth: Hiraṇyāksha and Hiraṇyakaśipu

In their first birth they were sons of Kaśyapa and Diti, and both became powerful asuras. Hiraṇyāksha sank the earth in the ocean of the universe. Bhagavān Vishṇu killed him in his Varāha (Boar) form.

Hiraṇyakaśipu had received a vara (boon) from Bhagavān Śiva. He became a cruel king and tried to destroy his own son Prahlāda, because Prahlāda worshipped Bhagavān Vishṇu. Bhagavān Vishṇu killed him in his Nṛsiṃha (Man-Lion) form. The Padma Mahā Purāṇa gives this in Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapters 237 and 238.

Second birth: Rāvaṇa and Kumbhakarṇa

In their second birth they were Rāvaṇa, king of Laṅkā, and Kumbhakarṇa, his huge brother. Rāvaṇa carried off Sītā, the wife of Bhagavān Rāma, who is the avatāra of Vishṇu. Bhagavān Rāma killed both Rāvaṇa and Kumbhakarṇa in the great battle at Laṅkā. This birth comes from the sequence of avatāra accounts in Chapter 242 of the Uttara Khaṇḍa.

Third birth: Śiśupāla and Dantavaktra

In their third birth Jaya was born as Śiśupāla and Vijaya as Dantavaktra. Śiśupāla was king of Cedi and an enemy of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. At Yudhishṭhira’s Rājasūya yajña, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa was honoured with the first offering, the agrapūjā. Śiśupāla then spoke a hundred insults. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa cut off his head with the Sudarśana disc. The Purāṇa says: “He, after three existences, was assimilated into Vishṇu.”

Dantavaktra then came to Mathurā to fight. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa killed him with his mace on the bank of the Yamunā. He too was taken into Vishṇu.

Liberation

The Padma Mahā Purāṇa says: “Jaya and Vijaya, under the pretext of the curse of Sanaka and others, descended into mundane existence merely for the sport of Bhagavān Vishṇu, and in the three existences they were killed by him alone. They obtained liberation at the end of three existences.” They returned to their own posts at the gates of Vaikuṇṭha.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 252
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapters 237–238
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 242