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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Sabhā

Śiśupāla's death at the Agra-pūjā

Classical

Śiśupāla rose from his seat and said Kṛṣṇa was neither priest, teacher nor king, and had no right to be honoured before the kings. He said Yudhiṣṭhira's reputation for virtue was undeserved, and accused Kṛṣṇa of killing Jarāsandha by trickery. He left the assembly with the kings who agreed with him. Yudhiṣṭhira hurried after him and tried to calm him, but Bhīṣma said anyone who disapproved of honouring Kṛṣṇa should not be soothed. Bhīṣma defended the choice. Kṛṣṇa had beaten every king present in battle, was master of the Vedas and of strength, and had every virtue. The universe rested in him. Sahadeva stood up and challenged any king who could not bear the honour to answer him; no one did, and flowers fell on his head. Nārada said anyone who would not honour Kṛṣṇa should be counted as dead.

Śiśupāla, furious, urged the kings to attack the Pāṇḍavas and the Vṛṣṇis and to disrupt the sacrifice. Yudhiṣṭhira asked Bhīṣma what to do. Bhīṣma said not to fear: a pack of dogs barking at a sleeping lion could do nothing. The sleeping lion was Kṛṣṇa, and Śiśupāla was doomed, because Viṣṇu intended to take back the power that was in him. Śiśupāla then poured abuse on Bhīṣma: he mocked Kṛṣṇa's childhood exploits, the killing of Pūtanā, the Govardhana hill and Kaṃsa, and told a story of an old swan who preached righteousness while eating other birds' eggs. Bhīma wanted to get up and fight, and Bhīṣma held him back. Bhīṣma told the story of Śiśupāla's birth: he had been born with three eyes and four arms, and a voice had said that the man on whose lap he was put would kill him.

His mother put him on Kṛṣṇa's lap, the extra arms fell away and the eye disappeared, and she begged Kṛṣṇa to forgive her son's offences. Kṛṣṇa promised a hundred. Śiśupāla then challenged Kṛṣṇa to fight, called him a slave and a non-king, and said the Pāṇḍavas who honoured him deserved to die. Kṛṣṇa answered by listing Śiśupāla's wrongs: burning Dvārakā while he was away, attacking his people on Raivataka hill, stealing a sacrificial horse, abducting Akrūra's wife, and taking a princess promised to another king. Then he said his promise to Śiśupāla's mother was over: the hundred had been reached. He hurled his discus and cut off Śiśupāla's head. A radiance left the body, bowed to Kṛṣṇa, and entered him. It rained from a clear sky and the earth shook.

Yudhiṣṭhira had the funeral done and made Śiśupāla's son king of Cedi, and the sacrifice was completed. Reading the scene as a whole, it is built around the idea of a hundred. The mother's boon gives Śiśupāla a hundred offences; Bhīṣma's speech draws them out; and Kṛṣṇa, who has been counting, acts only when the number is reached. The text makes clear that Kṛṣṇa kills him for the offences against his clan, not for the insult at the sacrifice. Another thing that shapes how the episode is told is the energy that leaves Śiśupāla's body and enters Kṛṣṇa: Śiśupāla, as the text says in other places, is a portion of a power that Viṣṇu wishes to take back, so that his death is both a punishment and a release. The kings who watched go home with more fear of the Pāṇḍavas than affection.

Told by Bhīṣma → Yudhiṣṭhira; Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

Who: Śiśupāla, Kṛṣṇa, Bhīṣma, Yudhiṣṭhira, Sahadeva, Bhīma, Nārada

Bound to

Shishupala: three eyes, four arms, a hundred forgiven insults birth

The Rājasūya and the first honour to Kṛṣṇa origin

Jarāsandha mirror

Duryodhana is humiliated in Maya's palace origin

Places: Indraprastha, Cedi, Dvārakā

Where this comes from

See it on the tree · All stories

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