Krishna Experience

HomeWho is KrishnaKrishna leelas

कंस वध

Kansa Vadh: the end of the tyrant

Krishna walked into Mathura as a cowherd boy. By the end of the next day he had broken the king’s bow, killed his elephant and wrestlers, and pulled him from his throne.

A walk through the city

Krishna and Balaram entered Mathura with their cowherd friends. The women of the city crowded the rooftops to see them. A washerman of the king's refused them clothes and was struck down; a garland-maker and a tailor served them and were blessed. Kubja, a hunchbacked young woman carrying sandal paste to the king, offered it to Krishna instead, and he straightened her body with a touch.

The bow

In the arena of the sacrifice lay an enormous bow guarded by soldiers. Krishna picked it up, strung it and snapped it in two. The crack, the Bhagavata says, filled the sky and the earth, and Kansa, hearing it, could not sleep that night.

Where it beganThe prophecy, the prison and the midnight birth.

The elephant and the wrestlers

The next morning, at the gate of the wrestling arena, Kansa's mahout drove the mad elephant Kuvalayapida at the boys. Krishna dodged, played with it, pulled it down by the trunk and killed it, and walked into the arena with one of its tusks on his shoulder. The king's champion wrestlers, Chanura and Mushtika, challenged them. The crowd murmured that it was an unfair fight between giants and children. Krishna and Balaram killed them both.

Kansa

Kansa, in a rage, ordered the boys driven out and Nanda and Vasudeva killed. Krishna leapt onto the royal platform, seized Kansa by the hair, threw him into the arena and killed him. He freed his parents, Devaki and Vasudeva, from their prison, and put Kansa's father Ugrasena back on the throne.

In Mathura, the victory is remembered every year at the Kans Mela in Kartik, when an effigy of Kansa is beaten through the streets.

Questions people ask

How did Krishna kill Kansa?

In the wrestling arena at Mathura, after defeating his elephant and champion wrestlers, Krishna pulled Kansa from his throne and killed him.

Who was Kansa to Krishna?

His maternal uncle: Kansa was the cousin of Krishna’s mother Devaki.

Sources

Keep exploring

Krishna leaves VrindavanAkrura’s chariot, and the gopis who stood in its way.The birth of KrishnaMidnight in Kansa’s prison, and a river that parted.Places in BrajMathura, Gokul, Barsana, Nandgaon, Govardhan, Radha Kund.Who is KrishnaBirth, childhood, Dwarka, the Gita: the whole life in one page.