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Jaraasandh

Jaraasandh was the son of Brihadrath's second wife. Brihadrath was the King of Chedi Desh. Brihadrath had two wives but had no child for long time so he went to a Rishi and told him his problem. Pitying on his condition Rishi gave him a fruit and asked him to give it to his Queen to whom he loved. The King had two wives and he loved both equally so he divided the fruit in two parts and gave those two parts to both of them. When the time came those two queens gave birth to a boy but in two parts - half part was born to one Queen and another half was born to another Queen. Seeing those parts both got frightened and both  threw their parts outside the palace.

It so happened that a Raakshasee named Jaraa came there in search of her food. She found two pieces of a child lying on the ground, so she picked them up to eat them, but when she had picked them up, she started playing with them and in play by chance both pieces got joined and came to life. She was very happy to see the child and forgot all about her food. She brought that child home and brought him up affectionately and that is how he got his name Jaraasandh (Jaraa=Raakshasee's name, Sandh=joining, means who was joined by Jaraa). Jaraasandh was the King of Magadh Desh. He was a very mighty king. 

Jaraasandh was a good friend of Kans (Mathuraa's King Ugrasen' son), so he married his two daughters - Asti and Praapti, to Kans, to make his relations stronger with him. When Krishn killed Kans then his both daughters got widow. He got very angry with Krishn so he attacked Mathuraa 17 times with his 23 Akshauhinee army each time. Krishn defeated him and killed his army all the times. When he came 18th time then Krishn and Balaraam Jee ran away from there and inhabited Dwaarakaa Puree for the safety of Yadu Vansh. 

He was killed by Bheemsen later when Yudhishthir wanted to do Raajsooya Yagya and it became necessary to win him. Then how to win him? It was a great problem because he was very mighty. Somebody suggested that he regarded Braahman very much so Krishn, Bheemsen and Arjun should go there in disguise of Braahman and ask for a fight. He won't fight with Arjun because he would take him as an archer, he wouldn't fight with Krishn because He has already defeated him 17 times, now remains Bheem. He would get ready to fight with him. And only Bheem can defeat him, because Bheem also had 10,000 elephants' strength as Jaraasandh had.

So they went to Jaraasandh in disguise of Braahman. When Jaraasandh saw them, he welcomed them and asked "What can I do to please you?" Krishn said - "We are not here to ask for any money, or land, or clothes, or food etc. We want that you accept one of us for a dual fight." Then Jaraasandh saw them attentively and said - "If I am not wrong I have seen you somewhere." Then Krishn said - "You are right. We are not Braahman. This is Arjun, this is Bheem, and I am Krishn." Jaraasandh said - "As you wish. I don't want to choose Krishn, this Arjun is a child for me. Yes, I can accept to fight with Bheem. He is a mighty warrior."

So they came out of the city and started fighting. Both were mighty, both were of almost equal might. No one was able to defeat the other one. This fight continued for 28 days. In the day time they fought and in the night they behaved normally. Then Bheem said to Krishn - "This man is very mighty, I cannot kill him like this, we will have to do something else." Then Krishn told him the way to kill him, that he should tear him pulling his legs apart and throwing them on opposite sides. So next day Bheem did the same and thus Jaraasandh was killed by Bheemsen. Jaraasandh had imprisoned many kings, Krishn released them, sent them with respect to their own countries and coronated his son Sahadev as the King of Magadh and came back to Indraprasth. Then only Yudhishthir could do his Yagya.