HISTORY OF CASHM1R. 101 



it on the history of Crishna and of India, in his time : its substance may 

 therefore be not unacceptable. Jarasandha, king' of Magadhd, is described 

 as a powerful prince: he held in alliance or subjection, Sisupala, king of 

 Chedi; Vacra or Vacradanta, king of Cdrusha; the powerful prince of 

 the Yavanas; JBhagadatta, king of the south and west ; the kings of Man- 

 ga and Pundra, of the Surasenas, Bhadracdras, Bodhas, Sdlwas, Pardwa- 

 ras, Susfhalas, Mucutas, Pulindas, Sdhvdyanas, Cunt y as, Southern Pdncha- 

 las and Eastern Cosalas, and he had driven eighteen families of the Northern 

 Bhojas to the westward, and the Mdlsyas to the south. Cans a, king of Ma- 

 fhurd was married to the daughter of Jar asandha, and it was to revenge the 

 murder of his son-in-law, that the latter levied war upon Crishna. Accord- 

 ing to the Mahdhhdrat this war continued for three years, and in the 

 Bhdgavat it is said, that Jarasandha besieged Mafhurd eighteen times. 

 Both authorities agree in the result. Crishna was obliged to fly, and take re- 

 fuge with his family and followers, in a strong place on the west coast of In- 

 dia, where he built the city of Dwdracd. Jarasandha's power was an in- 

 superable obstacle to Yudhishthir's performance of the Rdjasuya sacrifice, 

 or in other words to his pretensions to be considered supreme monarch of 

 India. This impediment was sagaciously interwoven by Crishna with his 

 own quarrel, and induced the Pdndava princes to arm in his behalf. Accom- 

 panied by Bhima and Arjuna, Crishna entered Behar by a circuitous 

 route, passing under the hills through Gorackpore and Tirhut, and he 

 thence appears to have taken Jarasandha unprepared for defence; the 

 text when reduced to common sense, importing, that the monarch was sur- 

 prised in his capital, and after a conflict of some days killed in single combat 

 by Bhima. The occurrence does not appear to have produced the expected 

 consequence, as it was undoubtedly one of the causes of the great war be- 

 tween the Pdndava and Caurava princes, one of the effects of which was to 

 prevent Crishna from recovering the territory, he had murdered his uncle 

 to obtain. Kerna, the illegitimate son of Cunti, the daughter of Sura king 

 of Mafhurd, who appears to have held that territory after Jarasandha's 

 death, being probably placed, and undoubtedly maintained in it, by the 



