KRISHNA CORIOLIS#4: Lord of Mathura (30 page)

‘So your plan is to fight me and in the process destroy Mathura as well?’

‘YES. BRILLIANT, IS IT NOT? EVEN IF YOU WIN, THE FIGHT WITH ME WILL CAUSE SO MUCH DESTRUCTION THAT I WILL HAVE TRIUMPHED BY DEFAULT. FOR I DON’T CARE A WHIT FOR THESE WRETCHED MORTALS. BUT YOU DO. SO WIN OR LOSE, THEY WILL DIE ANYWAY.’

Krishna sighed. ‘Then you leave me no choice.’

He flew directly at Kamsa. 

20

KAMSA
cried out in anger as he staggered, the backs of his heels crushing a line of heavily laden carts loaded with weapons for the Imperial Army. Spears and swords snapped and crackled under his giant feet. He snarled and slapped at his own head, swatting at Krishna like a man might swat at a troublesome mosquito. But before he could get hold of him, Krishna had taken hold of Kamsa’s hair and was flying upwards. Kamsa had expected him to attack and fight but instead, all Krishna intended was to take hold of the giant rakshasa and fly him in the one direction where nobody would be injured by Kamsa’s gargantuan size and wicked intent: upwards. 

Kamsa roared with fury as he realized what was happening. But Krishna was already lifting him bodily up in the air, rising higher and higher. Kamsa’s feet flailed as they left the ground, narrowly missing striking a building. Crowds roared below as tens of thousands of Mathurans turned their faces upwards, watching the battle with rapt attention, less afraid for their own lives as eager to witness the fight for which they had waited 23 long years. 

Kamsa continued to swat at his head. But it was near impossible for any man to strike the top of his own head while being carried upwards. Still, he struggled and flailed mightily. It was only when he was several hundred yards up in the air and still rising that he stopped flailing and froze still. 

Krishna sensed understanding flood through his giant brain. 

‘I SEE NOW WHAT YOU MEAN TO DO! BUT YOU CANNOT. YOU MUST NOT. I WILL NOT LET YOU DO IT. I WANT A FIGHT. I WANT THE BATTLE I DESERVE. I WILL NOT BE DROPPED DOWN LIKE A RAW EGG TO BREAK ON THE EARTH. I WANT MY FAIR DUE IN BATTLE. FIGHT ME, VISHNU. PUT ME BACK DOWN AND FIGHT ME FACE TO FACE.’

Krishna said grimly, ‘Uncle, you lost your right to a fair fight when you slew newborns by dashing their brains out. You lost it when you ordered the execution of thousands more innocent children. You lost the right when you committed a hundred thousand other atrocities over the past 23 years, not to mention those you had committed even before revealing your true rakshasa nature. Back on the field, there was a moment when you could have attacked me and had your chance at a fair fight. You failed to take it. Now, this is the only fight you get. It is the only one you deserve.’

‘NO, KRISHNA, NO,’
Kamsa cried, bellowing loud enough to be heard by all Mathura.
‘YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME. I AM A WARRIOR AND SO ARE YOU. FIGHT ME LIKE A WARRIOR FACE TO FACE. IT IS MY RIGHT. AND IT IS YOUR DHARMA.’

‘I am a warrior, yes,’ Krishna said sadly. ‘That is the only reason why I had to wait this long and allow so many other innocents to suffer and die before facing you today in combat. If I was not a warrior and not bound by kshatriya dharma, I would have crept into your palace as a babe and slaughtered you as you slept. But this is as far as my dharma will allow me to bring you. To this certain death. It is the only way you deserve, the only end for one such as you. Just as a mad elephant or beast must be put down instantly, without hesitation or thought, so must your life be ended now. If you have any last words, speak them now, before I release my hold on your body and let it fall to its death on the earth below.’

Kamsa made begging and pleading sounds but they were of no avail. Finally, seeing that he could negotiate no further advantage, he snarled.
‘RELEASE ME, THEN. BUT KNOW THIS BEFORE I DIE. YOUR REAL STRUGGLE ON EARTH HAS NOT EVEN BEGUN YET, VISHNU. YOU HAVE FAR MORE SUFFERING TO ENDURE AND FAR GREATER BATTLES AND STRUGGLES TO OVERCOME BEFORE YOU ACCOMPLISH YOUR TASK IN THIS INCARNATION. THIS IS NOT THE END, IT IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.’ 

Krishna said sadly, ‘This too I know.’

And then he released Kamsa, letting the giant fall. 

He took several moments, during which time all the watching tens of thousands held their breath. Krishna had been careful to carry Kamsa’s gargantuan form farther north of the city, to the wastelands where nobody resided, the sprawling wadis and ravines of uninhabited desolation where Kamsa had once come to practice the use of his newfound abilities. Where he had pounded his fists and body time and again on rocks and boulders, testing his new shakti, taking pride in it. Where he had killed animals just to vent his rage or fury. 

He fell into that wasteland. And the earth itself seemed to harden to receive him. As if Bhoodevi, Mother Prithvi, whatever you choose to call her, suffering for so long under the cruel yoke of Kamsa’s tyranny, resolved that this time, she would be harder than Kamsa’s dense muscled body and sinew and bone. And so, as the giant Kamsa struck the ground, his body was shattered into a thousand pieces, fragmented and fragmented again, until even the smallest fragment broke apart into dust. 

A wind rose from nowhere and carried this dust away into oblivion. 

And across Mathura, a million liberated souls cheered. And only one word was on their lips. 

‘KRISHNA!’

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