CARPETA FISCAL: 2406075500-2015-182-0

The Brahmans poured water and milk and honey on Yudhishtira in the presence of all the kings of Bharata-varsha. He was thus declared king. Around him stood his four brothers and on his left lap sat their common wife, the queen of Indraprastha. Some guests like their father-in-law, Drupada, and their uncle, Shalya, and their cousins, Krishna and Balarama, were happy for the Pandavas. Others like Duryodhana and Karna, Shalva and Shishupala, were rather jealous.

During the ceremony, the priests asked the Pandavas to select from all the assembled guests a guest of honour. The Pandavas selected Krishna for without him they would not have been able to achieve what they had achieved. Krishna was placed on the seat of honour and offered many gifts by the five brothers and their wife.

Suddenly, Shishupala, king of Chedi, stood up and protested, ‘A hundred kings are gathered here and the Pandavas choose to honour Krishna, a Yadava, whose ancestor Yadu was rejected by his father, who can never be king, who was raised by common cowherds, who spent his entire childhood killing animals and dancing with milkmaids, who killed his own mother’s brother, who ran away like a coward and let his city be burned down by Jarasandha, who eloped and abducted princesses as a defence against further attacks…’

Shishupala’s tirade so annoyed the Pandavas that they raised their weapons to stop Shishupala. The assembled kings also raised their weapons to protect Shishupala, for nothing Shishupala said was false. The royal hall of Yudhishtira was in real danger of turning into a battlefield. In this tense situation, Krishna said, ‘This is between Shishupala and me. Let him say what he wants to say. He is my cousin, son of my father’s sister, just like the Pandavas.’

Krishna did not tell the assembled guests that at the time of Shishupala’s birth, oracles had foretold that Krishna would kill Shishupala. To save Shishupala, his mother had begged Krishna to forgive all her son’s misdemeanours. ‘I will forgive him a hundred times. No more,’ Krishna had promised.

Shishupala’s tirade continued. He kept insulting Krishna. Krishna forgave each insult hurled at him.

At the hundredth insult, Krishna stood up and raised his hand. ‘Enough, cousin. You have insulted me a hundred times. And as promised to your mother, I have forgiven you each time. But no more. If you insult me again, I will kill you.’

Shishupala did not care. He hated Krishna. Krishna was a common cowherd and he was king of Chedi, yet Krishna was more respected and more popular in all of Bharata-varsha. It was Krishna who had abducted and married Rukmini, the woman he loved, right from under his nose. It was Krishna who had killed Jarasandha, who had been like a father to him. And it was Krishna who had been chosen by the Pandavas to be the guest of honour. Full of bitterness and jealousy, Shishupala insulted Krishna once again. The hundred and first insult.

Before anyone in the great hall could even blink, Krishna hurled his discus, the Sudarshan Chakra, and severed Shishupala’s neck. As the head fell to the ground, there was an uproar among the kings. ‘Is this how the Pandavas treat their guests? Let a common cowherd kill a king. Let us leave.

Yudhishtira may be king, but he does not deserve our respect.’ So saying, many kings of Bharata- varsha stormed out of the sabha. The great coronation ceremony of Yudhishtira thus ended on an extremely inauspicious note.

Among the kings who stormed out were Shalva and Dantavakra, who were friends of Shishupala and allies of Jarasandha. They decided to teach Krishna a lesson. They raised armies and launched an attack on the island of Dwaraka, forcing Krishna to leave Indra-prastha and rush to the defence of his city.

According to the Bhagavata Purana, in their previous life, Shishupala and Dantavakra were Jaya and Vijaya, the

doorkeepers of Vishnu who prevented the four sages, the Sanat Kumars, from entering Vaikuntha. The sages cursed them that they would take birth three times away from God. Each time they were born, Jaya and Vijaya performed terrible deeds that forced Vishnu himself to descend on earth and kill them. The first time, they were born as the Asura brothers, Hiranayaksha and Hiranyakashipu, who were killed by Vishnu taking the form of a boar and a man-lion. The next time, they were born as Rakshasa brothers, Ravana and Kumbhakarna, and were killed by Vishnu who descended as Ram. The third time they were born as Shishupala and Dantavakra (some say Kansa and Shishupala), and were killed by Vishnu who descended as Krishna. Thus the death of Shishupala was preordained.

To protect her son, Shishupala’s mother gets from Krishna a boon that he will forgive a hundred crimes of her son. But she does not bother to warn her son never to commit a crime. Thus Vyasa draws attention to a peculiar human trait of trying to solve a problem through external means without bringing about any internal transformation.

According to one folktale, Krishna cut his hand when he hurled the Sudarshan Chakra at Shishupala. Draupadi immediately tore her upper garment and tied it around Krishna’s wound to stop the bleeding. Since she gave him cloth, Krishna

promised that the day she needs cloth, he will provide it, which he does later in the epic when the Kauravas try to disrobe Draupadi in public.

Yudhishtira’s coronation is surrounded by inauspicious events. It is preceded by the death of a king, Jarasandha; it witnesses the humiliation of another king, Duryodhana; and finally the ceremony itself is followed by the killing of yet another king, Shishupala, leading to an uproar among all Kshatriyas.