Bhima and Jarasandha's thirteen-day duel and Krishna's counsel
Bhima and Jarasandha engage in a brutal wrestling match that lasts thirteen days and nights. On the fourteenth night, seeing the king exhausted, Krishna gives Bhima a cryptic piece of advice that reveals Jarasandha's fatal weakness.
After consultations with Krishna, the powerful Bhimasena had benedictions performed. Eager to fight, he advanced towards Jarasandha’s charge.
The two supreme warriors, tigers among men, met with only their bare arms. They were extremely eager, each desiring to defeat the other. The sounds of their combat — the grasping, holding, and releasing of arms — resounded with a terrible roar, like thunderbolts striking mountains. Both were the strongest among the strong. Desiring victory, each sought to exploit weaknesses in the other.
The source text compares the duel to that between Vasava (Indra) and Vritra. It was so terrible it sometimes drove away the crowds that had gathered near. They pulled each other forward and broke away from each other’s holds. They threw each other down and to the sides, dragging and grabbing thighs. They insulted each other in loud words. They struck each other with rock-like blows. With broad shoulders and long arms, the two skilled fighters rained blows on each other with arms that were like iron clubs.
The duel started on the first day of the month of Kartika. Ceaselessly, it went on day and night. The great-souled fighters were still engaged on the thirteenth day.
But on the night of the fourteenth day, the king of Magadha withdrew. He was exhausted.
Krishna saw that the king was tired. He spoke, as if to Bhima of the terrible deeds. “O Kounteya,” he said, using a patronymic for Bhima. “One should not press down on an enemy who is weakened in battle. If pressed down at such a time, he might completely give up his soul.” Then came the crucial instruction: “O Kounteya! Therefore, you should not press down upon the king. O bull among the Bharatas! Fight him with your arms, so that he can be an equal.”
From these words of Krishna, Bhima — the destroyer of enemy warriors — got to know Jarasandha’s weakness. He understood what had to be done and determined to kill him.
Vrikodara (the wolf-bellied one), descendant of the Kuru lineage and chief among those who are strong, then seized the unvanquished Jarasandha, with the intention of vanquishing him.