An Invitation Built to Guarantee Two Deaths
Kamsa, having failed to kill Krishna through Putana, Trinavarta, Aghasura and every other agent sent to Gokul and Vrindavan, an escalating series of episodes covered elsewhere in this series, finally invited Krishna and Balarama to Mathura directly, under the pretext of a bow-festival and wrestling tournament, planning a layered ambush rather than relying on a single method again.
The plan had three parts: Akrura would bring the brothers to Mathura under friendly pretence, an episode covered elsewhere in this series; the enraged war elephant Kuvalayapida would be stationed at the arena's entrance to trample them before they even reached the ring; and if that failed, Kamsa's two greatest wrestlers, Chanura and Mushtika, men of professional, trained lethal skill, would finish them in the ring itself, all while Kamsa watched from a raised royal seat.
The Elephant and the Wrestlers, in Order
At the arena's gate, Kuvalayapida, deliberately maddened and set loose against the brothers, charged Krishna, who caught the elephant's tusks, wrenched them off, and used them as weapons to kill both the elephant and its mahout, an act witnessed by the assembled crowd and reported instantly to a Kamsa now watching his first line of defence fail in full public view.
In the ring, Chanura and Mushtika, professional wrestlers under royal patronage, faced Krishna and Balarama respectively. The crowd, according to the text, was uneasy about the evident mismatch, cowherd boys against trained killers, but Krishna and Balarama fought with a combination of raw strength and precise technique that overwhelmed both opponents, eventually killing Chanura and Mushtika in full view of the assembled court, ending the second line of Kamsa's plan in the same public space he had chosen to display it.
Krishna Reaches Kamsa Directly
With both his elephant and his champion wrestlers dead, Kamsa, according to the text, ordered guards to kill Krishna and Balarama directly, along with Vasudeva and Ugrasena, and to have Nanda and other cowherds forcibly expelled and their property seized, abandoning any pretence of a fair contest.
Krishna, before those orders could be carried out, leapt onto the raised platform where Kamsa sat, seized him by the hair, dragged him down into the arena, and killed him there, ending in direct combat the tyranny that had begun with the prophecy of Devaki's eighth child and driven the killing of her first six children, an episode covered elsewhere in this series.
With Kamsa dead, Ugrasena, Kamsa's own father whom he had earlier imprisoned to seize the throne, was restored as king of Mathura, and Krishna and Balarama were formally recognised as Vasudeva and Devaki's sons in public, closing the chapter of Krishna's childhood in hiding and opening his adult role as a political and military figure across the wider region.
Quick Answers
Why did Kamsa specifically choose a wrestling tournament as his method?+
It gave him a public, seemingly legitimate occasion to bring Krishna and Balarama to Mathura and to stage their deaths as an accident of combat or wrestling mishap rather than an obvious assassination.
What happened to Kamsa's own allies and remaining family after his death?+
His father-in-law Jarasandha, king of Magadha, whose two daughters had been married to Kamsa, took his death as a personal grievance and subsequently launched repeated attacks on Mathura, an episode covered elsewhere in this series.
Did Krishna and Balarama know their true royal identity before this event?+
Yes, Akrura revealed their true parentage to them during the journey to Mathura, though the wider public recognition and restoration to their family only occurred after Kamsa's death.
About the author
Anjali Mehta · Editor, M.A. Religious Studies
Anjali is the managing editor for Vandnaa and oversees the festival and vrat coverage. She holds an M.A. in Religious Studies and reviews every published article for accuracy, accessibility, and tradition-fidelity.
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