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| (Kamsa getting warned by a goddess.) |
On the fifth night of the winter season, Devaki gave birth to her first son. Kamsa heard of this and made his way to where she was. Devaki knew of her brother’s evil plan so she had previously made plans with her husband, Vasudeva, and arranged for her son to be taken away to a safe place. Upon his arrival, Kamsa was furious to find out what his sister had done. As punishment, he ordered for her to be locked in a prison for the rest of her life.
The caretaker of Devaki’s son, Yashoda, named him Krishna. She nursed him as if he were her own. As he grew, Yashoda came to find out that Krishna was no ordinary child. One day when she found out that Krishna had been eating mud, she immediately tried to remove it by telling him to open his mouth. However, when she looked inside, it wasn’t mud that she found. Instead, inside Krishna’s mouth, Yashoda saw the entire universe.
At the age of fifteen, the city of Mathura were well aware of who Krishna was. Everyone recognized the greatness that he offered. At this age, Krishna also came to find out from Yashoda about his evil uncle.
The city of Mathura was a beautiful one. People roamed the streets while animals grazed the grass. However, Mathura was known for its powerful earthquakes. With one shake, thousands of innocent people lost their homes. Krishna wanted a structure that could withstand these powerful quakes so he asked the divine architect, Vishwakarma, to build him one.
“I have constructed you the world’s first indestructible building. However, there is one thing that can cause this building to fall: lead. Unfortunately, I am deathly allergic to it and therefore I don’t have knowledge of the material which is why I could not protect the building from it. So as long as lead does not touch these walls, the building will continue to stand tall.”
Devaki waited ten years before conceiving her second child. She thought that surely by now her brother would have let go of the thought that one of her children would kill him. However, she was terribly mistaken. One by one, Kamsa took Devaki's children from her and killed them. Kamsa would take her child to the forest and kill it by throwing it against the wall of what looked like an abandoned building. He loved his sister dearly but he couldn’t risk giving up his position. This horrible routine continued on for years. Kamsa constantly lived in fear that Devaki’s next child would be the one to kill him. This strain caused him to become delusional.
After he gained news that Devaki had had another child, he rushed to claim it. He once again proceeded to the abandoned building in the forest and continued his routine like normal. All of a sudden, the ground started to shake and the building collapsed, trapping Kamsa inside of it. It turns out that due to his mind being destroyed by the constant fear that he would someday die, Kamsa had hallucinated. He had thought that he was carrying the baby from the prison where his sister was kept to the forest when in fact he had grabbed a small statue from his home. That statue turned out to be made of lead and the building that he would go to in order to kill the babies was the building that Vishwakarma had built for Krishna.
In the end, Kamsa died not from one of Devaki’s children, but from the fault of his own deranged mind. After the whole ordeal, Krishna was finally reunited with his mother and he became the king of Mathura. People no longer had to live in fear. The city flourished under Krishna’s rule.
Author's Note:
In the original story, Krishna is born as the eighth child. The person who told Kamsa of his fate told him that it would be the eighth child of his sister that would one day kill him. Kamsa locks up his sister and her husband as a result of that. In order to make the story flow the way I wanted it to, I made it to where Krishna would be the firstborn child. That way, it would allow for Devaki, Kamsa’s sister, to have more children that Kamsa would kill over the years. I wanted him to be continuously exposed to this in order to show why he became mentally ill. In the original story, Krishna does return to the city of Mathura and kills his uncle. This caused an uproar amongst the allies of Kamsa. They began to continuously attack the city which prompted Krishna to take action. He asked the divine architect, Vishwakarma, to build him a new city, the city of Dwarka. In my story I made it to where Vishwakarma built him a building, which was where Kamsa would go to kill Devaki's children. As you can see, I decided to focus more on Kamsa than on Krishna, as it is in the original story. I wanted to demonstrate to the audience how powerful the mind can really be. The irony in the story was that in the end Kamsa wasn’t killed by any of Devaki’s children, but by his own mind. He brought about his own demise because he wanted to keep his power.
Bibliography
Epified TV (India). Krishna. Link to videos online.
What a great rendition of the story!! I love the irony in Kamsa's death. In a sense, you kept true to the original story in that the building that collapsed was created by one of Devaki's child yet it was his own doing that led to his death. I like that there was an effect on Kamsa and that he didn't just go about life killing babies without any side effects. A lot of stories miss out on this reality and I like that you tapped into it.
ReplyDeleteThis almost reminds me of the story of Kronos in Greek mythology, though he ate children instead of just outright murdering them. It is so interesting to see narratives repeated across different mythologies and traditions... where can they be traced back to? Where did they come from? Either way, you did a really great job with this story! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI love happy endings and this was anything but. I like how you included the lead building. At first I was confused as to how you were going to relate it to your story. After reading the ending I found that it fit perfectly. I hope you continue to add your own flavor to the stories, and great job on the story.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this story. I liked how you changed him from being the 8th child born to being the first child born. Little changes like that to the story are always fun and interesting to do. I also loved the happy ending at the end of the story. The irony involved by Kamsa being killed by his own mind was rendition that I really enjoyed. Overall this was a great read and I look forward to reading more!
ReplyDeleteAh, I had wondered how the nearly-invulnerable building would come into play! What an interesting twist on the original story. Changing the birth order of Krishna and his siblings was a thoughtful touch, and it does seem appropriate that a king as mad as Kamsa would bring about his own destruction. But I'm still wondering--what's the significance of Krishna's siblings being thrown against his building? Are they still killed, or was Krishna somehow saving them?
ReplyDeleteWow what a powerful story. I really enjoyed how you stayed with the original tale and made your own ending up. The point where he died from his own-self was very interesting. I feel that your story circled around very well. Your author's notes did such a good job explaining it all. I forgot somethings that happened from the story but here it was reminded and cleared up.
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