Bhagavatam - Tenth Skandha , Chapter 50
Dwaraka
Asti and Praati the wives of King Kamsa , Oh King ! very much distressed on the demise of their husband , returned to their parental home in Magadha
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Dwaraka
Suka Deva continued
Oh King ! After the demise of Kamsa , Asti and Praati the wives of King Kamsa , very much distressed returned to their parental home in Magadha. They related to their father Jarasandha, the King of Magadha, the events of Madhura culminating in the death of their husband. Having heard the unpleasant story , extremely angry, Jarasandha took up the task of wiping out Yadus from the earth. To accomplish the same he gathered an army of twenty there Akshahaunis and laid a seize to Mathura, the capital of Yadavas
Krishna saw this huge army overflowing the boundaries like ocean surrounding his capital. He realized that his people were terrified . Bhagavan who took the human form for a purpose . Thinking about the ways and means of achieving the goals according to the time and place, he said ,”I shall remove this huge army, brought by the King of Magadha as well as his subservient Kings . This evil army of chariots , horses , elephants and the foot soldiers is a burden on the earth , and should be destroyed .However I shall not destroy Jarasandha now , in order to let him mobilize more evil forces all of which need to be removed.
The purpose of his descent to human form is to remove the burden of evil on this earth and protection of saintly people. Even as Lord Govinda was thinking like this two chariots appeared from the sky fully equipped with all necessary arms.
Seeing the chariot full of different types of divine weapons , Lord Hrishikesa told Balaram , “ Oh respected One !, Please see. Yadus are now in danger. You are the protector of Yadus and this chariot has come loaded with all weapons which you can use . Protecting the saintly and punishing the evil indeed is the reason for your birth. You may please remove the burden of these twenty three Akshaunis of army from the earth “. Thus inviting Balaram and putting on the armor both of them drove out of the city of Mathura to battle the evil forces of Jarasandha .
Seeing them entering the battlefield the King of Magadha first addressed Krishna and said , “ Oh Krishna , the lowest of the men , considering you to be a boy, and a fool brought up in secrecy, I am ashamed to fight with you . O Rama ! , if you are interested in a fight , and brave enough to do so , come forward for contest. Be ready to be severed into several pieces and attain heaven or kill me and be a victor “ . Lord Krishna said ,'Brave men do not boast , they convert their words into action. I take your words as the outpourings of a pitiable man”.
The powerful Jarasandha with his huge army surrounded Balaram and Krishna and there ensued a great battle . The people of Mathura who climbed the towers and other buildings were not able to see the chariots carrying the flags of Garuda and the Palm tree. Some of them were struck with grief and even fainted.
Seeing his own army showered with an extremely fearsome cloud of arrows , Krishna twang his bow known as Saranga , which is worshipped by both Devas and demons. Krishna taking arrows from his quiver shot endless stream of arrows striking the elephants , chariots , the horses and the soldiers. The elephants fell to ground , the chariots too were felled with their horses, the foot soldiers , drivers and masters were all left with shattered limbs. The battle field resembled rivers of blood .
For him who creates , sustains and destroy the world , this is indeed not great task . But for him in the human form to achieve this indeed is celebrated by all . With all the army of Magadha annihilated , the all powerful Balaram caught hold of the equally powerful Jarasandha who is now without his chariot and any other support , like a lion catching another lion. As he was being bound by divine ropes , Govinda stopped Balaram. He told Balaram that there are many things to be achieved through Jarasandha and Jarasandha shall be left free to go back .Accordingly Balaram left him free.
Thus released by the two Lords , Jarasandha , always recognized by all as a hero , felt humiliated. He resolved to become an acetic to do penance and started for the forests . Jarasandha was then stopped by the other kings . With lofty words they convinced Jarasandha that the defeat is only due to past actions accumulating as his Karma . They forced him to abandon that course of action to regroup. Thus with his life spared by the Bhagavan , Jarasandha returned to Magadha in a defeated mood.
With his own army intact and the enemies vanquished , Krishna was greeted with flowers by the celestials.
People of Mathura now free from fear and happy welcomed the Lords singing victory songs . The Lords entry into city was welcomed by sounding of conches drums trumpets and many other instruments like Veena , Flute ,and Mridanga. The thoroughly swept streets of Mathura , decorated with flags and arches were filled with happy people singing glories of Krishna amid sounds of Vedic hymns being chanted. Women sprinkled flowers, curds , unbroken rice, , while those waiting looked on with wide open eyes completely in awe with the achievements of the Lords Krishna and Balaram .What ever booty was captured in the war was placed before Ugrasena ,the King of Yadus
There after Jarasandha led seventeen such expeditions each time with twenty three divisions of army against Yadus , who were under the protection of Krishna . Each time Vrishnis destroyed his armies with help of Lord Krishna , and the King of Magadha was spared every time .The lords plan was indeed working towards the reduction of evil forces on the earth.
When he was about to come for the eighteenth time, Narad prompted Kalayavana , a barbarian also to join the attack. He came to Mathura with three and half crore Yavans , since he thought he has an equal opponent in Yadus
Seeing the impending threat, being very much concerned Krishna and Balaram thought , ‘ Now Yadus have a difficulty . This Yavan with big army is facing us today, the King of Magadha may also attack in day or two ! If Jarasandha were to appear when we are fighting Yavan , he is sure to kill all our people. To get out of this , we should build an impregnable fort that can shelter our people and then we must also have Yavan destroyed by some body else “.
Having resolved , the Lord built a city at the center of a twelve Yojanas of fortified area in the middle of the sea .
That was the city of Dwaraka.
It is a city planned by Viswakarma as per the rules for building cities .There were properly planned main thoroughfares with side roads and parks . On both sides of the roads stood houses again built as per Vastu. Indra provided the “Sudharma “ assembly hall and a Parijata tree. Varuna provided dark blue and white horses which travel with the mind of speed . Each and every leader of the Planets offered all those which were in effect provided to them by the Supreme Lord. Now they were returning the same to the Supreme Lord in the Human form
Krishna now moved all people from Mathura to the new capital Dwaraka . Then after consulting Balaram who remained in Mathura protecting the city , Krishna left Mathura city through the main exit wearing only a garland of flowers to meet Kalayavana , the terrible Barbarian without wearing any arms .
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Krishna now transferred all people. Then after consulting Balaram , Krishna left the city gate wearing only a garland of flowers with out bearing any arms