Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Week 9 Storytelling: Krishna v. Kansa

Deep within the beautiful city of Mathura there was a couple that loved each other a lot. A person from the 21st century would say that they were goals. Their names were Devaki and Vasudeva. Devaki was the sister of Kansa the great ruler of Mathura, and Vasudeva was Kansa’s best friend. When Kansa found out that his sister and best friend were engaged he was overjoyed. He loved the fact that his sister had found a good man to take care of her, and he was ecstatic that his long time best friend was going to become a part of the family.

After the couple became engaged, Devaki quickly became pregnant. The couple, being a part of the royal family, did not want to have a child out of wedlock because the media would criticize them a lot for it. Kansa did not delay in the planning of their wedding. Although he did not have a lot of time to plan the wedding, he did not hold back. He made sure that this was the most extravagant wedding that the city of Mathura will ever see. Everyone from Mathura was invited to celebrate this joyous occasion. There were endless feasts, circus entertainment, ballroom dancing, ice sculptures, and anything else that you could possible want at a wedding. Everyone had a great time and the couple was happily married.

Kansa had a surprise for the couple after the wedding. He told them that in a couple months he would take Vasudeva and Devaki to a private island just off the outskirts of Mathura to enjoy their honeymoon. A couple months passed and Devaki’s stomach swelled due to her upcoming delivery. She assured Vasudeva and Kansa that she would be fine to go to the island. Kansa prepared the flying chariot, and they departed for the island.

On the way to the island, Devaki went into labor. Kansa told Vasudeva to take control of the chariot while he coached his sister through giving birth. To their amazement, she had eight kids! They were all fraternal twins. As the kids were being delivered, Kansa heard a divine voice say that one of these children will slay you in battle. Kansa’s love for the family quickly turned to hate. He grabbed all eight kids and one by one threw them out of the flying chariot to their death. Devaki and Vasudeva were confused at the situation, angry at Kansa, and sad that their children were dead. Kansa then ordered his royal guard to arrest the couple. He immediately turned the chariot around and placed the couple in a dungeon.

Kansa made a great miscalculation that day. One of the kids he attempted to kill was a reincarnation of Vishnu. He was brought up by a regular family and went by the name of Krishna. Throughout his childhood he continually amazed the community he lived in with his accomplishments. He possessed supernatural qualities and personality traits that were comparable to a God. Word of this boy got around to the kingdom of Mathura. Kansa suspected that this was the child that was predicted to kill him in battle. He was outraged that he did not kill him 18 years ago when he was born.

Kansa did not waste any time. He assembled an army of men and started to attack the young men in his kingdom. In his madness he led his army to kill every man that looked like they were eighteen years of age. One day he finally came across a village where he met his match. He had just got done killing another innocent man as he was approached by Krishna. “You will not take anymore innocent lives,” Krishna screamed as he charged the army. Krishna jumped into the air and struck the ground with his fist. A huge crack opened up and swallowed the entire army except Kansa. In the blink of an eye Krishna closed in on Kansa. With one strong chop to the neck, Kansa was beheaded.

The entire kingdom of Mathura was praised Krishna for his heroic deeds. Krishna then used his divine powers to resurrect all of the innocent lives that were lost. He then freed his parents from the dungeons and appointed his father Vasudeva as king.


Here is a picture of Krishna fighting Kansa.
Author’s Note:
In the original story Krishna was switched with another baby around birth so that Kansa would not be able to kill him. After learning that Krishna was still alive he ordered every baby to be killed within his kingdom. Krishna used his divine powers to stay alive. After many years passed Krishna would eventually slay Kansa. I wanted to have a different take on the story. I thought it would be cool if Devaki gave birth to eight fraternal twins and Krishna would kill Kansa later in his life.

Author: Nivedita
Title: Nivedita Krishna

Year: 1907

5 comments:

  1. HI Aakash! I'm really glad to see you did this troy.I read Sister Nevedita's stories about Krishna a few weeks back and I really enjoyed them I like the little changes you made, and you did a good job of condensing the story down to something a bit more manageable. Your story flows pretty well, and you do a good job of moving logically from one part to the next.

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  2. HI Aakash! I'm really glad to see you did this troy.I read Sister Nevedita's stories about Krishna a few weeks back and I really enjoyed them I like the little changes you made, and you did a good job of condensing the story down to something a bit more manageable. Your story flows pretty well, and you do a good job of moving logically from one part to the next.

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  3. Hey Aakash! So when I first read this, it reminded me of an internet meme that says "Well that escalated quickly!" from a loving uncle to focused killer! I've never read this story, but I think I have it in my reading plan to read this so I think it'll be quite interesting!! I'm excited to read all the intimate details of the story.

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  4. I loved this story! I thought you did a great job of keeping the plot line just similar enough, but making your own unique changes. I have not read this story, but know I want to! I read some of Nivedita's writing last week (Mahabharata), but I'm hoping to read some of the others in the weeks to come. There's something about her style of writing that makes it so easy to read. Overall, great job!

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  5. This was interesting retelling of Krishna vs Kansa. I liked how you shortened the story by having Devaki have octuplets. One thing I wondered was if Krishna’s brother also survived in this version of the story or did he perish in the fall. It was a nice touch at the end of the story when Krishna defeated Kansa he then resurrected all the innocent people and freed his parents.

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