Kṛshṇa’s Life in the Padma Purāṇa
The Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa, in Chapters 246 to 252, tells the life of Kṛshṇa in order. It begins with the troubles from Jarāsandha and the founding of Dvāravatī. It goes on through his marriages, the death of Naraka, the marriage of Aniruddha and Ushā, the death of Śiśupāla and Dantavaktra (which ended the third birth of Jaya and Vijaya), his visit to Nandavraja, the account of Sudāmā, the war at Kurukshetra, the curse of the iron pestle and the end of the Yādavas. It ends with his ascent to Vaikuṇṭha.
Founding of Dvāravatī
After Kṛshṇa killed Kaṃsa at Mathurā, Jarāsandha of Magadha, the father-in-law of Kaṃsa, attacked the Yādavas again and again and troubled them. Kṛshṇa asked Bhīma and Arjuna for advice.
Jarāsandha had a vara (boon) from Bhagavān Śiva that no weapon could kill him. So Kṛshṇa made a plan. He built the city of Dvāravatī in the western ocean to protect the Yādavas.
(Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 246)
Kālayavana and Mucukunda
The asura Kālayavana was urged on by Nārada. He came to attack with thirty million soldiers. Kṛshṇa led him to the cave of the sleeping king Mucukunda. Mucukunda burned Kālayavana with his fiery look. Then Kṛshṇa showed himself to Mucukunda and gave him moksha (liberation).
(Chapter 246)
The defeat of Jarāsandha
Kṛshṇa, Bhīma and Arjuna went to the city of Jarāsandha dressed as brāhmaṇas. Jarāsandha received them, honoured them and offered them gifts.
Kṛshṇa told him who they were and challenged him to a single fight. He let Jarāsandha choose his opponent. Jarāsandha chose Bhīma.
They wrestled for twenty-five days. Then Kṛshṇa showed Bhīma by a sign how to kill Jarāsandha, and Bhīma tore his body in two. Kṛshṇa freed the many kings whom Jarāsandha had held prisoner.
(Chapter 252)
Rukmiṇī is carried off and married
Rukmiṇī was the daughter of Bhīshmaka of Kuṇḍina. She sent a letter to Kṛshṇa to say that she loved him. She asked him to carry her off before her brother Rukmi could give her in marriage to Śiśupāla.
Kṛshṇa went to Kuṇḍina. On her wedding day he carried Rukmiṇī away from the front of the temple. Her brother Rukmi followed and was defeated. Balarāma spared Rukmi’s life at the request of Kṛshṇa.
Rukmiṇī was married to Kṛshṇa in the proper way at Dvāravatī. She is his chief queen and the mother of Pradyumna.
(Chapters 247 to 248)
Kṛshṇa’s other marriages
The eight chief queens of Kṛshṇa are:
- Rukmiṇī
- Satyabhāmā, the daughter of Satrājit, linked with the account of the Syamantaka gem
- Jāmbavatī, the daughter of Jāmbavat
- Kālindī, the daughter of Bhagavān Sūrya, who was found doing tapas (austerity) at the Yamunā
- Mitravindā
- Nāgnajitī, also called Satyā
- Bhadrā
- Lakshaṇā
Kṛshṇa also married the 16,100 maidens who were freed from the prison of Naraka.
(Chapter 249)
The Syamantaka gem
Satrājit had the Syamantaka gem, which Bhagavān Sūrya had given him. The gem was lost, and Kṛshṇa was blamed. He followed it to the cave of Jāmbavat, who had taken it.
Kṛshṇa fought Jāmbavat in the cave for twenty-one days. Jāmbavat knew Kṛshṇa as Rāma born again. He gave up, gave back the gem, and gave his daughter Jāmbavatī in marriage to Kṛshṇa.
(Chapter 249)
The defeat of Naraka and the Pārijāta tree
Naraka, also called Narakāsura, had carried off 16,100 noble women and kept them prisoner. Kṛshṇa went with Satyabhāmā on Garuḍa to the city of Naraka. He killed Naraka, freed the maidens and came back to Dvāravatī.
Satyabhāmā wanted the Pārijāta tree from the garden of Indra, and Kṛshṇa took it. Śacī, the wife of Indra, objected, and there was a confrontation. In the end the Pārijāta was brought to Dvāravatī for Satyabhāmā.
(Chapter 249)
Aniruddha, Ushā and the battle with Śiva
Aniruddha was the son of Pradyumna and the grandson of Kṛshṇa. Citralekhā brought him to the city of Bāṇāsura, where Ushā had seen him in a dream. Bāṇa took Aniruddha prisoner.
Kṛshṇa, Balarāma and Pradyumna came to free him. Bhagavān Śiva, the protector of Bāṇa, fought on the side of Bāṇa. Kṛshṇa overcame him with the Mohinī weapon. Then Bhagavān Śiva praised Kṛshṇa. Kṛshṇa let Bhagavān Śiva go, spared Bāṇa at the request of Bhagavān Śiva, and took Aniruddha and Ushā back to Dvāravatī.
(Chapter 250)
The Rājasūya and the death of Śiśupāla
Kṛshṇa, Bhīma and Arjuna went to Indraprastha, where Yudhishṭhira held the Rājasūya yajña (sacrifice). At the gathering of kings, Kṛshṇa was honoured with the first offering (agrapūjā).
Śiśupāla was Jaya born again in his third life. He spoke many abusive words to Kṛshṇa. After a hundred offences, Kṛshṇa cut off his head with the Sudarśana disc. After three births, Śiśupāla was absorbed into Vishṇu.
(Chapter 252)
Dantavaktra, the last of the three lives
Dantavaktra was the other doorkeeper, Vijaya, in his third birth. He came to Mathurā to fight Kṛshṇa. They fought on the bank of the Yamunā. Kṛshṇa killed him with his mace. Dantavaktra was also absorbed into Vishṇu.
So Jaya and Vijaya finished their three births as asuras and were fully freed.
(Chapter 252)
Kṛshṇa visits Nandavraja
After his work at Indraprastha and Mathurā, Kṛshṇa went to Nandavraja, the village of his childhood among the cowherds. He embraced old Nanda and the cowherds and comforted them. He played with the gopīs.
Then, by his grace, he gave divine forms to everyone living in Nandavraja. These were Nanda, the cowherds, and even all the animals, birds and other beings there. He took them all to Vaikuṇṭha.
(Chapter 252)
Sudāmā, the poor brāhmaṇa friend
A poor brāhmaṇa had been the friend of Kṛshṇa in childhood and his fellow student at the gurukula of Sāṃdīpani. He came to Dvāravatī with a small gift of parched and flattened rice (pṛthuka) that he had got by begging.
Kṛshṇa came out to meet him. He washed his feet and seated him in his palace. Kṛshṇa ate the simple gift himself. The moment Kṛshṇa ate the rice, great wealth appeared in the home of Sudāmā.
Sudāmā went back and found his house full of plenty. He understood: “I have this because of the favour of Kṛshṇa.” He performed yajñas, lived happily with his wife and reached svarga (heaven).
(Chapter 252)
The war at Kurukshetra
Duryodhana won by cheating at dice and sent the Pāṇḍavas into exile. They lived twelve years in the forest and one year unknown. Then they came back, and with the help of Kṛshṇa they came to fight at Kurukshetra.
In the great battle Kṛshṇa was the charioteer of Arjuna and put his own power into Arjuna. All eleven akshauhiṇīs (armies) of the Kauravas were destroyed. The Pāṇḍavas were set on the throne.
(Chapter 252)
The dead sons of the brāhmaṇa
The sons of a brāhmaṇa kept dying. He laid a dead five-year-old child at the gate of Kṛshṇa and wept. Arjuna promised to bring the child back to life. The weapons that give life back did not work.
Arjuna was about to die because his promise was broken. Then Kṛshṇa came. He mounted Garuḍa with Arjuna and went to the eternal world of Vishṇu. Kṛshṇa asked the supreme Nārāyaṇa for the sons of the brāhmaṇa. Nārāyaṇa gave all six sons, who had been living in that world at the proper age. Kṛshṇa brought them to the brāhmaṇa.
(Chapter 252)
The iron pestle curse and the end of the Yādavas
The ṛshi Kaṇva came to the Narmadā, where young Yādavas were playing. They made fun of him. They dressed Sāmba, the son of Jāmbavatī, as a pregnant woman and asked the ṛshi to say whether the child would be a boy or a girl.
Kaṇva saw through the trick and gave a śāpa (curse): “An iron pestle will destroy this family.”
When Kṛshṇa heard of it, he ground the pestle to powder and threw it into a pool. The powder grew into kāśa grass. A fish swallowed one piece of the pestle. A fisherman found it and made it into an arrowhead.
Then all the Yādavas became drunk on liquor sent by Indra. They quarrelled among themselves and killed each other with the kāśa grass.
Kṛshṇa was tired and lay down under a tree. A hunter saw the red sole of his foot, marked with divine signs. He took it for a deer and shot the arrowhead made from the piece of the pestle into the foot. The hunter was afraid. Kṛshṇa gave him moksha and departed.
(Chapter 252)
Kṛshṇa’s ascent to Vaikuṇṭha
Kṛshṇa gave up his human body and took up his divine form of Vāsudeva. He mounted Garuḍa, praised by the ṛshis, and went up to Vaikuṇṭha.
Arjuna brought the eight chief queens and all the old Yādavas to the place. Vasudeva, Ugrasena, Akrūra and all the old Yādavas gave up their bodies and went to the eternal Vāsudeva.
Revatī, the wife of Balarāma, entered the fire and went to the divine world of Balarāma. The other queens honoured the bodies of their husbands and entered the fire.
Dvāravatī sank into the ocean. The sixteen thousand wives were going to Indraprastha with Arjuna when enemies seized them. This fulfilled the old śāpa of Ashṭāvakra.
(Chapter 252)
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 246
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapters 247 to 248
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 249
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 250
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 252