Brihadratha the king of Magadha was living as an ascetic in the forest. He had two wives who were twin sisters.They were very sad because they had no children.The sage Chandra Kaushika knew about their problem and one day he gave the king a fruit and told him to give it to his queen and she would give birth to a son.

The king took the fruit and divided it between his two wives,each of them getting a half.In the due course of time they both gave birth to two strange beings.Each of the sisters gave birth to half of a child. Unable to live with this disappointment,they decided to get rid of both halves of the child.

They disposed of the two halves of the child in the forest and a demoness called Jara found them.As Jara was about to eat the halves of the child,both halves touched each other and a complete being was formed.She took the child to the king and told him what had happened. The King Brihadratha was very pleased with Jara and named the child after her.The child was now called Jarasandha.

Jarasandha was a worshipper of Lord Shiva and he performed many sacrifices in His name.When Krishna,Bhima and Arjun reached Magadha, they were in the guise of brahmins.They wanted to meet with him but he was in prayer at the moment and asked that they wait until he was finished just after midnight.

Krishna,Bhima and Arjuna did not wait.They entered the palace through a window.When Jarasandha was finished with his prayers,he realised that the three visitors did not wait on him as was required but entered through the window.This he thought was no the behaviour of brahmins.

Then Krishna told him the purpose of their visit.Jarasandha started laughing,reminding Krishna that his army was sportingly defeated by him on eighteen encounters.Then he said he cannot fight with Arjuna because he still considered him to be a child.Bhima was the only one he would waste the time to tackle.

Bhima and Jarasandha fought with each other for fourteen days.On Krishna's advice,Bhima finally destroyed Jarasandha by spliting him open from the legs thus,reducing him back to the two halves he was born as.

Krishna,Bhima and Arjuna freed many captives that were held prisoners by Jarasandha and they appointed his son Sahadeva as the King of Magadha before returning to Indraprastha.

Pandit Bhadase Maharaj.

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