Jarasandha was furious. More than furious. His two daughters were now widows and the boy who had killed his son in law was now helping in ruling Mathura – the very kingdom of his son-in-law.

Trade and economy in Mathura was flourishing and that further annoyed Jarasandha to no end. He wanted revenge and he wanted to destroy the dark boy. Once and for all.

He looked about his court and looked at his now weakened allies – Sishupala, the king of Chedi, Salva, Paundraka and Dantavakra. Kamsa was one of the most powerful warrior on Jarasandha's side, but now.... 

As Jarasandha looked at group of warriors, he decided that he could count on the help of Sishupala, the king of Chedi for his attack.

Though, Sishupala was the son of Dammaghosha and Srutashrava – who was the sister of Vasudeva, Jarasandha had no doubt that Sishupala was going to help him against Krishna. 

All because of the event, which had occurred during Sishupala's birth....

********

The happy occasion of the birth of the child in the kingdom of Chedi was made into an ultimate despair.

King Damoghasha just could not believe it. As soon as he had heard about the birth of his son – he was joyous when suddenly everything around him became dark. Damoghosha felt a strange fear build up in his heart as one inauspicious event after another kept occurring around him.

The people in and around the palace were horrified too. And that was when they heard a wail from the inner room.

The king ran inside the room and saw his queen – Srutavarsha, weep uncontrollably as she was looking at the baby in her hands.

Damoghosha was horrified as he saw the baby and realized why his wife was so scared – the child was looking hideous and on top of it, the child had four limbs and an extra eye on the forehead.

Panic filling his heart, Damoghosha figured out that all the inauspicious events that he had seen was because this... child. His son...

Resolutely, Damoghosha turned away from the scene. His voice was hoarse as he turned to his maid. "Have this child thrown away." He declared in a merciless voice. "I am sure that even with his birth, he had brought out so many inauspiciousness and if he keep him, the kingdom would be doom..." Damoghosha could not complete his sentence as Srutavarsha wept even worse. But then the queen did not know what else she could say.

The maid hesitatingly picked up the child, when there was a flash of lightening outside the palace. And with it, came a loud rumbling voice from the Skies.

"Do not throw this child away, King of Chedi." The voice said. "The time of this child has not yet come. Besides, all the inauspiciousness and his third eye and fourth limb would fall away."

Damoghosha listened with rapt attention as the voice continued. "When this child faces his killer for the first time, his extra eye and limb would fall off. Things would be normal for him, after that."

As suddenly as it had appeared, the voice vanished and everything around him was just normal. As normal as before.

But Damoghosha realized that now he at least had a choice. There was something that he could do to make sure that his son had a normal childhood.

The very next day, Damoghosha invited all the kings and princes from all the kingdoms to see his son.

Srutavarsha for her part, invited all her side of the relatives. She was the sister of Vasudeva and she called in Vasudeva's entire family to look at the child.

Along with Vasudeva, a handsome dark boy also came along as he was looking around the palace with excitement.

As was the usual norm, the child was placed in the lap of the all the adults there. Nothing happened. The queen was dejected.

Finally, the little dark boy, went towards the baby and was caressing it. The baby suddenly woke up and started crying.

But no one noticed it. Not one person.

They were all stupefied, because the two extra limbs and the extra eye from the baby disappeared.

************

The dark gloominess which had surrounded the kingdom of Chedi suddenly dissipated and people felt happy. 

But Queen Srutavarsha was unhappy. Very much so. She could not stop herself as she looked at the dark boy who was smiling at her. "Krishna, I have a request from you." She told the boy in a trembling voice.

"Yes?" Krishna asked in a mischievous voice.

"I am your father's sister. For that I ask a boon from you." She continued.

Krishna frowned as Srutavarsha nodded solemnly. "Will you please forgive my son? Any mistake he makes, please forgive him."

Krishna shrugged. "I will forgive a hundred insults from him." Krishna promised his aunt.

With that he and his family left the palace.

Srutavarsha was sure that her son was safe. She really did not believe that her son could do anything to infuriate the dark Krishna, a hundred times.

*********

The kingdom of Chedi was happy again and the people rejoiced as the child was named as "Sishupala". Damoghosha, however realized that his son had to be properly trained, if he was to face his killer.

With this in mind, Damoghosha let his son grow up with Jarasandha, who was already an enemy of the Yadavas.

(Jarasandha, the king of Magadha, had a very interesting history himself. His father was Brihadratha. Brihadratha obtained a mango from a great sage. The sage told him that if his wife ate the fruit, the child born to Brihadratha would be extremely strong and almost invincible.

Unfortunately, Brihadratha had two wives. Instead of choosing one among them to eat the fruit, Brihadratha, cut the fruit and each wife ate one half of the fruit.

As a result, it is believed that the wives each gave birth to half a child.

Completely disgusted with it, Brihadratha had it thrown away.

A giantess by name Jara found the two pieces and by luck could join it together perfectly which was how one whole baby came to be.

That is why the child was called Jarasandha which means one who is joined by Jara.

The only weakness which Jarasandha had was that his body could be split into two, at the point of joining. Other than this, it is believed that there was no other way of killing Jarasandha at all.

Jarasandha was strong and a particularly great devotee of Lord Shiva.)

*******

And as Jarasandha saw his widowed daughters, he decided that he was going to avenge the death of his son in law.

He collected a huge army and marched towards Mathura.