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Day after day, Satrajit sat on the seashore and offered his praise to the Sun. One morning, moved by the depth of his devotion, Lord Bhaskar appeared before him; but Satrajit saw only a blurred, blazing figure, and he said, “In the sky I have seen you as a ball of fire, and even now you look the same; in this gracious form you have granted me I can make out nothing distinct.” At this the Sun lifted the great jewel called Syamantaka from his own neck and set it aside, and now Satrajit saw him clearly: his body coppery, intensely radiant, and short in stature. Satrajit bowed, offered his praise, and asked for that very jewel, and the Sun gave it to him and returned to his own realm.
That jewel yielded eight loads of gold each day, and in whatever land it stayed there was no fear of disease, drought, serpents, fire, thieves, or famine. Wearing it at his throat, Satrajit entered Dwarka. It came into Krishna’s mind that so divine a gem belonged with King Ugrasena, yet for fear of stirring factional discord he did not ask for it. Learning this, and driven by greed, Satrajit gave the jewel to his brother Prasena.
A Charge of Theft Falls on Krishna
Prasena did not know that the jewel yields gold and its other gifts only to one who wears it in purity, and turns deadly for one who wears it unclean. He tied it at his throat, mounted his horse, and rode into the forest to hunt. There a lion killed him along with his horse and carried the jewel off in its mouth; then Jambavan, king of the bears, killed that lion and took the flawless jewel, and carrying it to his cave he made it a plaything for his little boy, Sukumaraka.
When Prasena did not return, whispers began to spread among the Yadavas that Krishna alone had wanted the jewel, and that surely he had taken it. The moment this slander reached him, the Lord went to the forest with the Yadava host, following the hoofprints of Prasena’s horse, and saw that a lion had killed him along with his mount. Then, tracing the lion’s marks, he found the lion the king of the bears had slain, and following those same tracks he came at last to Jambavan’s cave. Leaving the army near the mountain, he went inside alone.
Twenty-One Days in Jambavan’s Cave
Inside, he heard the nurse’s voice as she sang to soothe Sukumaraka: “The lion killed Prasena, and Jambavan killed the lion; do not weep, little Sukumaraka, this Syamantaka jewel is yours alone.” In this way the jewel was found. When the nurse saw that strange man gazing at the jewel with longing eyes, she cried out for help. Hearing her frightened call, Jambavan came in a fury, and the two of them fought a terrible battle for twenty-one days.
Near the mountain the Yadava soldiers waited seven or eight days, and when the Lord did not come out they took him for dead and returned to Dwarka and reported as much. Hearing this, his kinsmen performed all the funeral rites for him; yet the rice-balls and water they offered with such deep faith went to strengthening the Lord’s power and life, while Jambavan, fasting and battered by the blows, grew weaker and weaker. Beaten at last, he bowed and said, “Gods, asuras, gandharvas, and yakshas cannot defeat you, so what of a mere man? Surely you have come, like Rama before you, from a portion of Narayana who upholds all the worlds.” Then the Lord told him the whole account of his descent to lift the burden of the earth, and with the touch of his hand freed him of the weariness of battle. Jambavan bowed again and gave the Lord his daughter Jambavati as an offering, and the jewel with her. It was not fitting for Krishna to take the jewel from the hand of one so humbled, yet to cleanse his name of its stain he accepted it, and returned to Dwarka with Jambavati.
Satyabhama’s Marriage and Shatadhanva’s Conspiracy
At the Lord’s return every Yadava and all their women were filled with joy. He recounted each event exactly as it had happened, and by returning the jewel to Satrajit he was freed of the false stain. In his heart Satrajit grew afraid and ashamed that it was he who had cast that false blame; and so, by way of atonement, he gave his daughter Satyabhama to the Lord in marriage. Three men had earlier sought that girl’s hand, Akrura, Kritavarma, and Shatadhanva; so when Krishna married her they took it as an insult and turned against Satrajit. Akrura and Kritavarma goaded Shatadhanva: “This wicked Satrajit gave the girl to Krishna even after we asked for her. Why not kill him and take the jewel? If Krishna opposes you, we will stand with you.” Shatadhanva said, “Very well.”
At this same time the Lord, though he knew the truth of the Pandavas burning in the house of lac, went to Varanavata to blunt Duryodhana’s scheme. The moment he was gone, Shatadhanva killed the sleeping Satrajit and took the jewel. Enraged by her father’s murder, Satyabhama rode her chariot to Varanavata and told the whole story. The Lord steadied her, returned to Dwarka, and said to Balarama, “A lion killed Prasena in the forest, and now Shatadhanva has killed Satrajit; you and I have equal right to that jewel. Mount the chariot, and let us punish Shatadhanva.”
Who Should Keep the Jewel
Shatadhanva first begged Kritavarma for help, but he replied, “I am no match for Balarama and Krishna together.” Then he went to Akrura, but he too recited the Lord’s greatness and told him to seek shelter with someone else. So Shatadhanva left the jewel with Akrura. Akrura said, “I will take it only if you tell no one of this, even when your end comes.” When Shatadhanva agreed, Akrura kept the jewel.
After that Shatadhanva fled on a swift mare that could run a hundred yojanas, and Balarama and Krishna came after him on a chariot drawn by the four horses named Shaibya, Sugriva, Meghapushpa, and Balahaka. The moment she had covered a hundred yojanas the mare dropped dead near Mithila, and Shatadhanva fled on foot. The Lord told Balarama that the horses here were frightened and that he should stay in the chariot; then he himself pursued on foot for two kos, and from a distance he threw his discus and cut off Shatadhanva’s head. But he found no jewel on the body or in the clothes, and he said, “We have killed him for nothing; the jewel was never with him at all.”
Hearing this, Balarama took it that Krishna was inventing an excuse to keep the jewel hidden. In anger he said, “You are deep in greed for wealth; I forgive you only because you are my brother. Now I want nothing more of Dwarka, or of you.” With that he went off to the city of Videha, where King Janaka received him with honor; and in those days Duryodhana studied the mace with him. Three years later Babhru, Ugrasena, and the other Yadavas who knew that Krishna had not taken the jewel went there and, with solemn oaths, brought Balarama back to Dwarka.
Meanwhile Akrura, with the gold from that jewel, performed sacrifices without pause for sixty-two years. But later, when Shatrughna, the great-grandson of Satvata, was killed by the Bhojas of Akrura’s own faction, Akrura left Dwarka along with the Bhojas, and no sooner had he gone than disease, famine, serpents, drought, and pestilence rose up in the city. Then an aged Yadava named Andhaka said, “Wherever Akrura’s father Shvaphalka lived, there was never famine or drought. Once, when there was drought in the land of the king of Kashi, rain began to fall the moment Shvaphalka was brought there. At that time the king of Kashi’s unborn daughter would not come out of the womb for twelve years; then she said that if a cow were given each day to a brahmana, she would be born three years later, and so it happened. The king named her Gandini and gave her to the benefactor Shvaphalka as an offering, and from her Akrura was born. With the son of such worthy parents among us, how could these calamities hold? He must be brought back.”
Hearing this, Krishna, Ugrasena, Balarama, and the others set aside Akrura’s offense, granted him safe conduct, and brought him back to the city, and the moment he arrived every calamity was stilled. Then the Lord reflected that birth from Gandini and Shvaphalka was only an ordinary cause; the power that stilled these calamities had to be the Syamantaka jewel, which was in Akrura’s keeping. With this in mind he gathered all the Yadavas in his palace on some pretext, and said to Akrura, half in jest, “Master of gifts, let that jewel Shatadhanva left with you stay in your keeping; it does the whole land good. But Balarama has his doubts, so show it to us this once.”
Akrura reasoned that hiding it now was pointless, and that guarding it had brought him not the least happiness. Having settled this, he drew the jewel from a small gold casket hidden in his waistcloth and set it down in the middle of the assembly, and the whole place blazed with its fierce radiance. The Yadavas all cried out their approval. Balarama again pressed his claim: “My right in this is equal to Krishna’s.” Satyabhama said, “This is my father’s property.” Hemmed in from both sides, Krishna said, “Balarama and I have equal right in it, and it is Satyabhama’s inheritance from her father. But this jewel benefits the land only when a pure man of continence wears it, and it kills the unclean wearer together with all who depend on him. I have sixteen thousand wives, so I cannot wear it; and how could Satyabhama wear it either? Noble Balarama too would have to give up wine and his other pleasures for its sake. So, master of gifts, for the welfare of the land, you yourself must wear it as before.” Then Akrura said, “As you command,” and took the great jewel, and wearing it at his throat he moved about wrapped in a web of rays like the Sun.
Whoever remembers with faith how the Lord cleared himself of this false stain is never marked by false blame, his senses stay strong, and he is freed of all his sins. This same story is told in the Srimad Bhagavatam as well, yet the Vishnu Purana tells it in a way all its own.
Source: Vishnu Purana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)