Many, many years ago, Lord Krishna ruled over Dwarka. One day, Indra, the King of the Gods, came to visit Krishna. the real purpose of his visit was to alert Lord Krishna about a demon called Narakasur, who was the king of Pragjyotishapur. In case you are wondering, Pragjyotishapur is a city in North Eastern India, in the modern day Asaam.
Narakasur was an evil ruler. He oppressed his subjects. He had stolen Varun’s umbrella from which the rains came, and the peak of Mount Mandara. In addition, he had robbed the earrings of Indra’s mother Aditi He was now threatening to steal Airavat, the mighty elephant who was the mount of Indra. Finally, he had kidnapped over 16,000 daughters of devs, asurs and other kings and imprisoned them in his house.
There are many stories about the origin of this demon King. His mother was none other than Bhumi, or the earth. Different text mention his father to be either Hiranyaksha or Varaha the boar. Hiranyaksha was the brother of Hiranyakashyapu and uncle of Prahlad, who was killed by Lord Vishnu in one of his ten avatars. Similarly, Vishnu had taken Varaha avatar to rescue the earth.In Kalika Purana and other texts, Varaha is mentioned as Naraka's father. This text also mentions that Narakasur came from Mithila region. he defeated Kirata King Ghatakasur and became the ruler of Pragjyotishpur.
Whatever are the stories about the origin of this demon king, the various texts mention
this in common: his mother, the earth, sought the boon from Vishnu for the safety of her son. Lord Vishnu had blessed that her son with a long life. But the boon had a catch, rather a loophole- as all boons tend to do. And the catch was, that Narakasur would be destroyed by a later incarnation of Vishnu.
Now that we have learnt a little bit more about Narakasur, let us get back to the story of his battle with Krishna.
When Indra visited Krishna in Dwarka, he rode on his elephant Airawat. Upon meeting Lord Krishna, he expressed a grave concern about Marakasur. In particular, he was concerned about the habit of this demon to abduct young girls and steal ornaments from women.
Krishna decided to do something about Naraksur. He thought of his ride, the mighty eagle Garud and immediately, Garud appeared. Krishna and one of his wives,
Satyabhama, mounted Garud, and they flew towards Pragjyotishapur.
Entering the Capital City of Narakasur was not an easy task. An asur called Muru had installed many sharp stakes around the city. They were as sharp as the sharpest spears. Krishna sliced off these stakes with his Sudarshanachakra. When Muru attacked him,
Krishna killed Muru and his seven thousand sons with his Chakra. He also killed two other demons, who were called Hayagriva and Panchajana. Following this, he and
Satyabhama arrived at Pragyotishapura.
Krishna had killed thousands of Asurs from Narakasur's army. Narakasur was not
pleased to see this avatar of Lord Vishnu entering this capital city. He suspected that the same God who had given him a boon had actually come to slay him. In order to defend himself, he began attacking Krishna.
A terrible war raged between the armies of Narakasur and Krishna. During the battle between Narakasur and Krishna, the demon King used several divine weapons, but
Krishna easily neutralized all those weapons using his own weapons.Narakasura used the Agney astra against Krishna, but Krishna neutralized it with the Varun astra. That is, he cooled down the Fire from Agneya Astra with water. Narakasura then used the
Nagapash against Krishna. This was the same weapon used against Ram and Laxman during the Ramayan War. Krishna neutralized the Nagapash with the Garud astra.
Eagles and snakes, that is Garud and Naga, after all, are known to be enemies.
Narakasur used the Brahmastra against Krishna, but Krishna neutralized it with his own Brahmastra. In desperation, Narakasura launched the Vaishnav astra on Krishna, but
Krishna neutralized it with another Vaishnav astra. At last, when Narakasura tried to kill Krishna with a trident. Shri Krishna pretended to faint because of the impact of the
Trident or the Trishul. Now there is a legend which states that Narakasur could only be killed by the one who gave birth to him.
Satyabhama, Krishna's wife and companion in this battle, was the incarnation of Bhumi.
Indeed, the same Bhumi who had given birth to Narakasur. Seeing Krishna faint, she became enraged. Satyabhama attacked Narakasur and beheaded him with Krishna's Sudarshana Chakra. The prophecy was thus fulfilled.