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Kaliya was a ferocious naga that lived on the Ramanaka Dwipa of the Yamuna River but left the island in fear of the Garuda, a celestial being possessing human and eagle features. Since eagles feed on snakes, Garuda was Kaliya’s nemesis. The multi-headed naga came to Vrindavan as Garuda was cursed and could not enter the village. The venom that seeped out of its multiple mouths boiled the water around him and killed any living being that came in contact with the contaminated water. He, unlike the other nagas, does not have an origin in the scriptures.

Once Krishna and his friends were playing near the river with a ball. While playing their ball fell into the river, and Krishna went jumped in to fetch it. In the river, he was attacked by the violent snake. The snake tried to crush Krishna by coiling around him but Krishna escaped effortlessly. Krishna dragged the snake onto the surface of the river, jumped on one of its heads, and started performing his cosmic dance. He had assumed the weight of the entire universe in his tiny feet and almost crushed the naga to death. But Krishna stopped after hearing the prayers of Kaliya’s wives. The humiliated and defeated snake asked for forgiveness from Krishna and Krishna commanded him to return back to his island of Ramanaka and blessed him that his vahana, Garuda, would never attack him.

According to the Mahabharata, a long time ago, Magadha was ruled by a virtuous and powerful king named Brihadratha. He married the twin daughters of the king of Kashi, whom he loved equally. But the king had no sons with either of his wives and this thought troubled him the most. One day, Brihadratha learnt that an illustrious sage had arrived in his city. Hoping to get a solution for his problem, the king visited the sage with many gifts. 

The sage, after hearing about the king’s misery, closed his eyes for a while. To the surprise of everyone present, suddenly a mango fell in his lap. The sage gave the mango to the king and told him to give it to his wife. He told the king that upon eating the mango, his wife would obtain a son. Brihadratha loved both of his wives dearly and didn’t want to choose one among them. Hence, he divided the mango and gave half of it to both of them. 

Soon, both queens were expecting a child. However, when the queens delivered, they had only half a baby each. Not knowing what to do, the midwives carried the two halves and left them in the backyard of the queens’ apartments. A few hours later, a rakshasi named Jara, passed by and saw the two halves of the baby. The demoness lived on flesh and blood and so she decided to join the halves to make them easier for her to carry.  The moment she joined the halves, the baby came to life and roared. Hearing the loud cry of the baby, the king, his wives and midwives came rushing to the scene. Jara, realising the baby was the son of the king, returned the baby to him. Brihadratha, overwhelmed with joy, announced that since Jara put his son together, he would be named in her honour. 

Jarasandha grew up to become an able prince. Soon Brihadratha handed him the reins of the kingdom and retired to the forest with his wives. Jarasandha soon subdued almost all the kings of the territories adjoining his kingdom. He also got his daughters married to Kamsa, Krishna’s evil maternal uncle. When Krishna defeated Kamsa, Jarasandha was outraged at his daughters’ widowhood. He waged battles against Krishna constantly but was defeated each time. 

Meanwhile, the Pandavas acquired the kingdom of Indraprastha and Yudhishthira decided to perform the Rajasuya sacrifice. Krishna suggested that it was necessary for them to kill Jarasandha and release the kings under his control for the successful completion of the Rajasuya. Everyone was hesitant about their ability to kill the mighty king, but soon Bheema volunteered for the task, and set out to defeat Jarasandha with the help of Arjuna and Krishna. 

The three of them left for Magadha, disguised as Brahmins. When they reached Jarasandha’s court, the king declared that he would give the Brahmins whatever they asked for. Immediately, Krishna asked him to combat Bheema, and revealed their real identities. Jarasandha agreed to the demand, confident in his victory. He and Bheema fought fiercely with each other in a duel for the next twenty-seven days. As they were both well-matched, neither of them were defeated. 

Krishna knew the secret of Jarasandha’s birth and therefore, the key to his defeat. Before the duel, on the 28th day, Krishna picked up a twig and split it into two lengths in front of Bheema. The strongest Pandava understood Krishna’s signal. During the duel, he seized Jarasandha by the leg and threw him to the ground. He then tore the body of the king into two halves and threw the halves away from each other. The two halves joined by the demoness were thrown away in opposite directions by Bheema to bring an end to the mighty Jarasandha.

Read more tales of Krishna in our title Bhagavad, now available on the ACK Comics App, Kindle, Amazon, Flipkart and other major e-tailers. 

Did you know the story of Krishna and Trivakra? The beautiful tale of devotion, love and grace is one of many miracles performed by Krishna for his devotees.

Krishna is the eighth avatar of Vishnu, appearing on earth to restore peace to a disturbed world. In this mortal avatar, he started out as a compassionate yet mischievous cowherd, eventually overthrowing the evil Kamsa and reinstating Kamsa’s father and his grandfather Ugrasena on the throne of Mathura. Krishna then went on to befriend his cousins, the Pandavas, and played a key role in the Mahabharata, and disclosing the secrets of the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna on the battlefield.

Krishna started serving his life’s purpose of restoring the balance between good and evil, right from the day he was born. During his time here, there were many demonic enemies he had to take on. Here’s a list of five such powerful beings who faced their end at the hands of the flute-playing divinity.

Putana was a powerful witch who took great joy in killing children. One day, Putana entered Krishna’s house in Gokula as a beautiful damsel. She was so pretty that no one questioned her when she entered the house. Upon entering, she found baby Krishna lying on a small bed. She picked Krishna up, placed him on her lap and began to suckle him. She hoped Krishna would die sucking on the poison she has applied on her breasts. However, Krishna bit her so hard that he sucked the life out of her. Putana fell on the ground and started shrieking in pain, soon reverting to her original avatar. The vibrations created from Putana’s screaming made people think that thunderbolts were falling from Putana’s fallen body. The gopis saw Krishna and immediately handed him over to his mother, Yashoda. The news of Krishna’s trick soon spread like wildfire. 

On his first birthday, baby Krishna’s kick destroyed Shakatasura who had disguised himself as a cart. A few days later, Trinavarta, a servant of Kamsa, appeared in the form of a hurricane. He picked up Krishna, placed him on his shoulders and raised a storm all over Gokul. The storm made people shut their eyes, thus, no one could see what was happening. Yashoda couldn’t see her baby Krishna and started crying bitterly. In the meantime, Trinavarta had flown very high with Krishna perched on his back. Suddenly, to the demon’s surprise, Krishna started becoming very heavy, so much that Trinavarta could no longer bear the weight. He felt like he was carrying a mountain on his shoulders. Then, the infant Krishna caught Trinavarta by the neck and killed him, his eyes popping out as he fell to his death.  

The Calf 

One day, Krishna, Balarama, and a few of their friends were herding their cattle on the banks of the Yamuna. A demon named Vatsasura took the form of a calf and mingled with the other calves. Upon noticing the additional calf, Krishna slowly approached it, caught Vatsasura by his hind legs and spun him round and round. The sheer speed at which Krishna spun the calf demon ended up killing Vatsasura. Krishna then threw the dead calf on top of a wood-apple tree. Eventually, the demon took his original form, crushing a number of trees under his weight. 

The Crane

As Krishna and his friends grew older, they were allowed to take the older cattle to the forest to graze. On one such day, while they were by a lake, they saw an animal which looked like a huge crane who had a very sharp beak. This animal was none other than Bakasura, Kamsa’s friend in disguise. Bakasura immediately attacked Krishna with his sharp beak and swallowed him. On seeing this, his friends became breathless and fainted. However, almost immediately after swallowing Krishna, Bakasura felt a burning sensation in his throat and he threw up. As soon as Krishna came out, Bakasura tried to kill Krishna by pinching his beak together, but Krishna forced Bakasura’s beak open, breaking it at the jaw without breaking a sweat. 

Aghasura, brother of Bakasura and Putana, was so powerful that even the devas feared him. In a bid to avenge his dead siblings, he transformed himself into a humongous serpent determined to kill Krishna and his clan. 

He stretched himself wide and sat on the path on which Krishna and his friends played on, and opened his mouth wide, resembling a cave in a mountain, his eyes gleaming like fire. Unaware of the dangers that lay ahead and trusting Krishna’s powers, the Yadava clan and the cattle entered Aghasura’s mouth. He kept his mouth open until Krishna entered, then he swallowed them all. 

That’s when Krishna started playing his tricks. Once inside, Krishna began to grow in size, choking the demon’s throat. Suffocated, Aghasura’s eyes started to bulge and soon his enormous body became lifeless. Eventually, Krishna, the cowherds, and the cattle stepped out of the dead demon’s mouth, unscratched. 

Read more stories of Krishna from Amar Chitra Katha’s catalogue, now available on the ACK Comics app, as well as Amazon, Flipkart, and other major e-tailers.