Krishna recounts killing Kamsa and provoking Jarasandha
Kamsa, strengthened by his marriage to Jarasandha's daughters, oppresses his relatives, the Bhoja elders. They form an alliance with Krishna, who secures their support and then, with his brother Balarama, kills Kamsa. The act ends one tyranny but summons a far greater enemy.
Kamsa, the ruler of Mathura, acted with mindless folly. To strengthen his hand, he married the two daughters of Jarasandha — Asti and Prapti — making them his queens. With the backing of his powerful father-in-law, the king of Magadha, Kamsa turned on his own kin. He oppressed his relatives, the elders among the Bhoja kings, and made himself superior to them all, a act that brought him great ignominy even as it increased his power.
The oppressed Bhojas, in a desire to save their relatives, concluded a secret alliance with Krishna and the Yadavas. To cement this bond and secure a key supporter, Krishna served his relatives by arranging the marriage of Ahuka’s daughter, Sutanu, to the influential Akrura.
With the alliance secured and his brother Samkarshana — also known as Balarama or Rama — acting as his second, Krishna moved. He killed Kamsa and his minister Sunama.
The immediate danger from the tyrant was averted. Mathura was freed from Kamsa’s oppression. But the killing did not bring peace; it pulled on a thread connected to a far greater force. Kamsa’s wives were Jarasandha’s daughters. By killing his son-in-law, Krishna had provoked the king of Magadha himself.
Jarasandha rose up in arms against the Yadavas. The eighteen branches of the Yadava clan convened a council and faced a terrifying assessment. Jarasandha, they concluded, was protected by two supreme warriors, Hamsa and Dibhaka, whose power was like that of the immortals. With them at his side, Jarasandha was considered invincible across the three worlds. The killing of Kamsa had ended a local threat and unleashed a continental war.