her and going through the air to Dwarka, finds him
sleeping, dreaming of Usa. She transports him to Usa's palace and on
waking. Aniruddha finds himself alone with his love. Usa conceals him, but
the news reaches her father and he surrounds the palace with his demon
army. Aniruddha routs the army but is caught by Vanasura, who then
imprisons the two young lovers. News now reaches Krishna who rushes an
army to the scene. A battle ensues during which Vanasura loses all his
arms save four. He then worships Krishna, and Aniruddha and Usa are
married.

Meanwhile Krishna is carefully maintaining relations with the Pandavas. We
have seen how immediately after the slaying of the tyrant he sends an
envoy to inquire after his aunt Kunti, the sister of his father, and
mother of the five Pandavas. We have also noticed how during a visit to
the Pandava court, he has acquired a new queen, Kalindi. He now embarks on
several courses of action, each of which is designed to cement their
relations. During a visit to his court, Arjuna, the brother whose lucky
shot won Draupadi for the Pandavas, falls in love with Subhadra, Krishna's
sister. Krishna is delighted to have him as a brother-in-law and as
already narrated in the epic, he advises Arjuna to marry her by capture. A
little later Krishna learns that Yudhisthira will shortly proclaim himself
a 'ruler of the world' and decides to visit the Pandava court to assist at
the sacrifice. He takes a vast army with him and advances on the court
with massive splendour. As he arrives, he learns that Jarasandha whose
feud is unabated has now imprisoned twenty thousand rajas, all of whom cry
to be released. Krishna decides that Jarasandha's demon activities must be
ended once for all and taking two of the Pandavas with him, Bhima and
Arjuna, he sets out to destroy him. Jarasandha elects to engage Bhima in
single-handed combat and for twenty-seven days the fight proceeds, each
wielding a club and neither securing the advantage. Krishna now learns
that Jarasandha can only be killed if he is split in two. He directs
Bhima, therefore, to throw him down, place a foot on one of his thighs and
catching the other leg with his hand, tear him asunder. Bhima does so and
in this way Jarasandha is destroyed. The captive rajas are now released
and after returning home they foregather at the Pandavas' court to assist
at the sacrifice.

As arrangements proceed an incident occurs which illustrates yet again the
com