http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumitra
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Mother of twins
- Lakshmana and
- Shatrughna.
Brihadratha was the king of Magadha (Nalanda Bihar Presently). His ancestor Uparichara Vasu had taken over the Chedi Kingdom and Brihadratha had taken over Maghada. His wives were the twin princesses of Varanasi. While he led a contented life and was a famed king, he was unable to have children for a very long time. Frustrated over his inability to have children, he retreated to the forest and eventually ended up serving a sage named Chanda kaushika.
The sage took pity on him and on finding the actual cause for his sorrow, gave him a fruit and told him to give it to his wife who in turn will soon become pregnant. But the sage did not know that he had two wives. Not wishing to displease either wife, Brihadratha cut the fruit in half and gave it to both of them. Soon both the wives became pregnant and gave birth to two halves of a human body. These two lifeless halves were very horrifying to view. So, Brihadratha ordered these to be thrown in the forest. A Rakshasi (demoness) named Jara found these two pieces and held each of these in her two palms. Incidentally, when she brought both of her palms together, the two pieces joined together giving rise to a living child. The child cried loudly which created panic for Jara. Not having the heart to eat a living child, the demoness gave it to the king and explained him all that happened. The father was overjoyed to see him who later became Jarasandh.
Jarasandha became the king of Magdha (Bihar). He was a descendant of the king of his ancestor and father Brihadratha, the founder of the Barhadratha dynasty of Magadha. He was also a great devotee of the Of Lord Shiva. But he was generally held in negative light owing to his enmity with the Yadava clan in the Mahabharata.
Jarasandh prevailed over many kings, and was crowned emperor in Magadha. Many powerful kings, like Narkasura, Pundru Vasedev, Shishupal, of Chedi, Shalva of Shuva and Vishmak became his allies. Even while Jarasandha's power continued to grow, he had concerns over his future & that of the empires, as he had no heirs. Therefore, on the advice of his close friend king Banasur, Jarasandh decided to get his two daughters Asti and Prapti married to the heir apparent of Mathura King Kansa. Jarasandha had also lent his army and his personal advise to Kamsa to create a coup d'état in Mathura.
When Sri Krishna killed his mama Kamsa in Mathura, Jarasandha become enraged because of Sri Krishna and the entire Yadava clan on seeing his two daughters being widowed. So, Jarasandha attacked Mathura and the Yadavas 17 times. Sri Krishna finished all his army in the battle 17 times and each time Lord Krishna fled away from the battle and so he was named as "Ranchod". Due to the blessing of Lord Shiva Sri Krishna could have not killed Jarasandh directly, so he would fled away from the war. Once his army included the Panchalas and the Kurus among other kings of India. While Sri Krishna and the Yadavas survived the attacks, sensing danger Lord Krishna had to relocated his capital city to Dwarka, Gujrat. Dwaraka was an island and it was not possible for anyone to attack it at all. Jarasandh was not able to attack Dwarka any more as it was in the mid of ocean also.
Lord Krishna began a campaign to diminish the power of Jarasandha, one by one eliminating his powerful allies like Kalyavana, Naraksura, Hansha, Dimbaka. Jarasandha participated in the Swaymvara of Draupadi , and after being unable to lift the bow, left the place.
To attain the capacity to invade Dwaraka, Jarasandha planned to conduct a Yagna to please the Lord Shiva. For this Yagna, He had imprisoned 95 kings and was in need of 5 more kings, after which he was planning to perform the Yagna, sacrificing all the 100 kings. Jarasandha thought that this Yagna will make him win the powerful Yadava Army.
The kings captured by Jarasandha wrote a secret missive to Sri Krishna to rescue them from clutches of mighty Jarasandha. Sri Krishna, not wanting to go for an all out war with Jarasandha to rescue the captured kings, in order to avoid a major loss of lives, devised a plan to eliminate Jarasandha.
The Pandava king Yudhisthira was planning to make a Rajasuya Yagna in order to become the emperor. Lord Krishna convinced his cousin Yudhisthira that Jarasandha was the only obstacle to oppose Yudhisthira from becoming an emperor. Sri Krishna planned a clever scheme to eliminate Jarasandha by making Yudhisthira's brother Bhima wrestle with the Jarasandha in a duel.
Jarasandha was also a great Daani. After performing his Lord Shiva pooja, every morning, he used to give whatever the Brahmins and poor asked for. On one such occasion Lord Krishna, Arjuna, Bhima in the guise of Brahmins met Jarasandha. Lord Krishna asked Jarasandha to choose any one of them for a wrestling match. Jarasandha did not recognize them first but when they asked for yudh, Jarasandh knew them easily and chose Bhima, the strongman, to wrestle.
Both of them fought for 14 days. Bhima lost hope to win the battle and sought help of Sri Krishna. Lord Krishna,who then knew of the secret of Jarasandha's weakness so he took a blade of grass or twig and spit it into two. Bhima understood the clue and split Jarasandha's body into two, slaying the king.
After his death, the Pandavas released all the 95 kings imprisoned by Jarasandha and crowned his son, Sahadeva as the king of Magadh . Thus, these 95 kings along with Sahadeva, the new ruler of Magadha became an ally of Pandavas who took part in the Mahabharata war later.
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