Krṣṇa Erects the Dvārakā Fort
331
ashamed, and he decided that he would no longer live as a king, but would resign from his position in the royal order and go to the forest to practice meditation under severe austerities and penances.
As he was returning home with other royal friends, however, they advised him not to retire, but to regain strength to fight again with Krṣṇa in the near future. The princely friends of Jarāsandha began to instruct him that ordinarily it would not have been possible for him to have been defeated by the strength of the Yadu kings, but the defeat which he had experienced was simply due to his ill luck. The princely order encouraged King Jarāsandha. His fighting, they said, was certainly heroic; therefore, he should not take his defeat very seriously, as it was due only to his past mistakes. After all, there was no fault in his fighting.
In this way, Jarāsandha, the King of Magadha Province, having lost all his strength and having been insulted by his arrest and subsequent release, could do nothing but return to his kingdom. Thus Lord Krṣṇa conquered the soldiers of Jarāsandha. Although Krṣṇa's army was tiny in comparison to Jarāsandha's, not a pinch of His strength was lost, whereas all of Jarāsandha's men were killed.
At that time the denizens of heaven became very pleased and began to offer their respects by chanting in glorification of the Lord and by showering Him with flowers. They accepted the victory with great appreciation. Jarāsandha returned to his kingdom, and Mathurā City was made safe from the danger of an imminent attack. The citizens of Mathurā organized the combined services of a circus of professional singers, like  sūtas ,  māgadhas , and poets who could compose nice songs, and they began to chant the victory glorification of Lord Krṣṇa. When Lord Krṣṇa entered the city after the victory, many bugles, conches and kettledrums were sounded, and the vibrations of various musical instruments, like  bherya ,  tūrya ,  vīṇā , flute and  mṛdaṅga —all joined together to make a beautiful reception. While Krṣṇa was entering, the whole city was very much cleansed, all the different streets and roads were sprinkled with water, and the inhabitants, being joyous, decorated their respective houses, roads and shops with flags and festoons. The  brāhmaṇas  chanted Vedic  mantras  at numerous places. The people constructed road crossings, entrances, lanes and streets. When Lord Krṣṇa was entering the nicely decorated city of Mathurā in a festive attitude, the ladies and girls of Mathurā prepared different kinds of flower garlands to make the ceremony more auspicious. In accordance with the Vedic custom, they took yogurt mixed with freshly grown green grass and began to strew it here and there to make the victory jubilation even more auspicious. As Krṣṇa passed through the