Jarasandha Vadha Parva — Preparation for the fight

Jarasandha said I do not recollect when I have ever done you any injury. After careful reflection, I cannot recollect the injury I have done you.

O Brahmanas, when I have never done you any harm, why do you consider me, who am innocent, as your enemy? Tell me truly, for this is the rule followed by the honest.

If injury is done to one's Dharma and Artha, the mind feels pain. Even a great carwarrior, well versed in all the precepts of morality, gets the fate of sinners and falls off from prosperity, if he injures an innocent man.

For honest men the practices of the Kshatriyas are the best in the three worlds. The men that are learned in the precepts of virtue praise nothing else (then the practices of the Kshatriyas).

I adhere to the practices of my order with a steadily soul. I never injure any of my subjects. In bringing this charge against me, it appears you speck in error.

Krishna said O mighty-armed (hero), there is one who upholds the dignity of a (royal) line. We have come against you at his command.

O king, the Kshatriyas of the world have been brought captive by you. Having done this cruel wrong, how do you consider yourself innocent?

O best of kings, how can a man, being a king himself, act cruelly against other virtuous kings? After persecuting them, you want to offer them as sacrifices to Rudra.

O son of Brihadratha, this sin, committed by you, may even touch us. We practise virtue, and we are capable of protecting virtue.

The slaughter of human beings as sacrifice to the gods is never seen. Why do you then desire to sacrifice human beings to the god Sankara?

You are calling all men belonging to your own orders as beasts. O Jarasandha, foolish as you are, who else is capable of doing it?

Whatever actions are performed by a man under whatever circumstances, he gets the fruits of those those actions under whatever circumstances they may be performed.

We are desirous of helping all distiessed people. For the Prosperity of our race, we have come here to kill you, the slayer of our relatives.

O king, you consider there is not a Kshatriya equal to you in the world; it is a great error of your judgement.

O king, what Kshatriya is there who, possessing greatness of mind and recollecting the dignity of his own parentage, would not ascend the unrivalled heaven by falling on the field of battle?

O best of men, know that Kshatriyas, being installed in the sacrifice of war with the view of heaven before them, conquer the whole world.

The study of Brahma, great fame ascetic penances and death in battle are acts that lead men to heaven. The attainment of heaven by the three other acts may be uncertain, but death in battle has heaven for its certain result.

It is graced with many merits; it is through this, Shatakratu (Indra) has became what he is; he rules the universe by vanquishing the Asuras.

Fighting with you is the certain path to heaven, for you are proud of your prowess of arms and of the excessive might of your large Magadha army.

O king, do not disregard others; velour exists in every man. O king of men, there are men whose velour is equal or superior to yours.

So long it is not known (to the world) so long only you are famous. O king, I tell you, your prowess can be borne by us.

O Magadha king, throw away your superiority and pride in the presence of those that are your equals. Do not go to the abode of Yama with your sons, ministers, and troops.

Dambhodhva, Kartavirya, Uttara, and Brihadratha, all these kings met with their destruction, along with all their troops for disregarding their superiors.

We are desirous of liberating the captive monarchs from you. Know that we are certainly not Brahmanas. I am Hrishikesha Shauri, and these two are the Pandavas.

O king, O monarch of the Magadha kingdom, we challenge you (to a. single combat). Fight with us with steadiness. Either liberate the kings (now kept prisoner by you) or go the abode of Yama.

Jarasandha said I never make a king prisoner without first defeating him. Who is kept prisoner here who has not been defeated (by me)?

O Krishna, it has been said that the duty of the Kshatriya is to bring others under his sway by displaying his own prowess, and then to treat them in the way he likes.

O Krishna, recollecting the duty of a Kshatriya, how can I from fear to day liberate the kings collected by me for the purpose of the god?

I am ready to fight with troops against troops placed in a battle array, or alone against (you) one, two or three, either at the sometime or separately.

Vaishampayana said Having said this, and being willing to fight with those heroes of fearful deeds (Krishna etc.), Jarasandha ordered his son Sahadeva to be installed on the throne.

O best of the Bharata race, when the day for the combat came, the king thought of his commanders-in-chief, Kaushika and Chitrasena.

O king, they were formerly called by the ever renowned names of Hansa and Dimbhaka by every body in the world.

O king, that foremost of all powerful men, the self-controlled lord Shauri (Krishna), that best of men, that slayer of Madhu, ever de:oted to truth, the younger brother of Haladhara, knowing that the king of Magadha was destined to be killed in battle by Bhima and not by the destroyer of Madhu, did not at the command of Brahma desire to kill that foremost of all powerful men, that hero as powerful as the tiger, that warrior of terrible valour, king Jarasandha.