Mathura was a glittering capital and Kansa’s palace in it vied in luxury and splendour with Indra’s in the heavens. But Kansa was not a happy man. Fear of death gnawed at his innards as day in and day out he heard of Krishna’s exploits in Vrindaban. His condition was like that of a piece of wooden furniture which looks intact but has been eaten hollow by moths.
Ancients Speak
Suman K Sharma
One day, he took his minister, old Akrura, into confidence. “Krishna,” he said, “has proved too powerful for the demons that I sent to kill Him. But I must see Him die. He and His brother Balram, both should die before my eyes. You, Akrura, go forthwith to Vrindaban with an invitation to the two brothers to participate in the DhanushYagya I am organising. Either they are killed on the streets of Mathura; or if they survive, my court wrestlers Mushtika and Chanur will put an end to them.” DhanushYagya used to be a sports event of sorts climaxing with stringing of a heavy age-old bow reputed to have once belonged to Shiva.
At heart, Akruraadored Krishna and His sibling, but he had to carry the command of his king as well. At once did he set out on his mission.
At Vrindaban, the two brothers were too ready to accompany Akrura. Krishna though was piteously entreated by his loving Gopis to ignore the royal invitation, but He insisted on going to Mathura. Krishna and Balram arrived in Mathura play-acting as village louts. They snatched away king’s clothes from Kansa’s tailor, played pranks with Kubja, a hunchback royal maid-servant ridding her in the process her physical deformity and gamely killed a mad elephant of legendry proportions that had been set loose on Kansa’s orders to trample them to death. In the wrestling event of the yagya, Krishna demolished the giant Chanur, while Balram took on Mushtika with his fatal blows. If these exploits were not sufficient to worsen Kansa’s fears and endear the two brothers to the people of Mathura, Krishna went ahead to stride to the spot where Shiva’s bow had been placed. He picked up the immensely heavy bow with little effort and split it up like a dry twig.
Kansa was now left with no chance to come out in the open to face death at the hands of Krishna.
The episodes of splitting of Shiva’s bow and straightening up the physical deformity of a hunchback maid servant appear more prominently in the Ramayana. There, King Janak throws a challenge to the would-be suitors of his daughter to string it and Ram breaks it accidently. Manthra, the hunchback of Ramayana plays a major role in inciting Kaikeyi to ask for Ram’s exile for fourteen years.
Both the episodes could be potent metaphors. The hunchback betokens a sick mind-set which needs to be cured energetically. Characteristically, while Krishna corrects Kubja’s bodily defect (He would presently kill the cruel usurper, Kansa and reinstate King Ugrasena); Prince Bharat’s kicks only cause physical pain to old Manthra without straightening up her bent posture (Prince Ram has already left for exile and King Dashrath’s has died in grief). The breaking/splitting of an old bow could imply breaking up with the old, defunct order and setting up a new one. Ram, by killing a seducer like Sugareev’s brother Bali and kidnapper like Ravan, established Himself as the Maryada Purshottam – The Supreme Upholder of Virtuous Conduct; while Krishna in His long career of over a century, does away with corrupt oligarchies of His times shows what a SarvaGunaSampanna person – someone endowed with all the worldly qualities – could be.
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