Ran Chod Rai of Dakor

KRISHNA WHO RAN AWAY FROM BATTLE!

When I joined service in Gujarat I worked near a famous pilgrimage town- Dakor. The God there was called Rana-Chod-rai, meaning: the king who ran away from battle field. The idol was of Krishna. I was wondering why this name to Krishna who taught Geeta to Arjuna to dissuade him from running away from the battle field!

A photo of the Deity of Ranchor Raya, a form of Lord Krishna who left the battlefield. This famous Deity is located in the town of Dakor, Gujarat.

We all know that Bhagawat Geeta begins with Krishna telling Arjuna not to run away from Kurukshetra battle field during Mahabharata war. I wondered how and when he himself ran away from battlefield.

I got an interesting reply to this from a TV Program which I wish to share with you.

As you know, Krishna fought with his uncle Kamsa the wicked king of Mathura,and killed him  to punish him for his cruel deeds. The mighty Jaraasandha, another wicked king became very angry on Krishna when his daughters who had married Kamsa became widows .Jaraasandha vowed to avenge the death of his son-in law,Kamsa and came with a huge army and sieged Mathura. He vowed that he would punish Krishna by defeating him in battle. But Krishna wanted to avoid bloodshed and killing of a number of innocent soldiers in the battle. So he hid himself inside the fort. After a long wait Jarasandha had to go back as no war could take place. This siege of Mathura was repeated 17 times. People of Mathura were put to a lot of difficulty because of this frequent siege as they could not go out of their town.

Now, who is this Jaraasandha?

 Brihadratha was a king of Maghada kingdom. He had two wives. He ruled his kingdom for a number of years, and was getting old, yet he had no children. So, he went to the forest and served a sage. The sage was pleased and asked if he had any wish. When the king told of his desire to have a child, the sage crated a fruit with his magical powers and gave him the fruit ,telling that on eating the fruit his wife would give birth to a strong boy. The king could not favour either of his two wives .So he cut the fruit into two and gave one half to each. After a period of eager expectation, both the queens gave birth, but to their horror, two separate halves of a child, each with one hand one leg and half head and body. The king was very sad and reluctantly abandoned the two halves in a forest. There, a daemon called Jaraa, wanted to eat the two pieces of meat, She took the two halves and put them together to eat. Immediately the two halves joined together and a strong boy emerged. She had no heart to eat such a nice boy, and took him to the king. The king was overjoyed to get back his son and named the child Jaraa-sandha i.e. joined by Jaraa .The boy grew to become a very strong but wicked king of Maghada. Jarasandha captured a number of kings and put them in prison,

Krishna sent word that since Jarasandha’s enmity was with Sri Krishn he could settle the issue by personal combat and thus avoid the loss of innocent lives during war. Jarasandha could select any one of three, Bheema, Arjuna, and Krishna Himself to fight in personal combat. Jarasandha said it was below his dignity to fight with a cowherd (Krishna), Arjuna was too frail and only Bheema could be a match. A combat between Bheema and Jarasandha took place. Krishna and Arjuna were standing below a tree and watching the combat. During the fight several times Bheema grabbed Jarasandha by legs and pulled them apart so that he was split in two. But each time, the two halves would spring back to unite and Jarasandha came back to life. At last, Krishna who was watching, wanted to give a clue. He plucked a leaf from the tree, split it to two halves and put top of one half with bottom of another. Bheema took the hint and next time, tore Jarasandha in two and put leg of one half with head of other half. Jarasandha could not come back to life this time. Thus Jarasandha was killed, and all the kings he had imprisoned were freed.

But in the meanwhile, another cruel king’Kaala Yavana’, an ally of Jarasandha, attacked Mathura with a formidable army.  This time Krishna decided that people of Mathura were put to a lot of in convenience of frequent attacks because of His presence and hence he should leave Mathura and settle at a far off place. He left Mathura secretly and headed towards a new Fort in the west coast-Dwaraka. When Kaala Yavana learnt of this, he abandoned the siege of Mathura and went in pursuit of Krishna. That is how Krishna left a battlefield!

Kaala Yavna caught up with Krishna at a lake called Gomati, a little south of present day Ahmedabad. Seeing the Yavana pursuing him, Krishna entered a deep and dark cave and hid himself.

Tired after his assisting Gods in their war with Asuras, Muchukunda a prince of Ikshwaku dynasty had been taking rest sleeping in this dark cave. Kaalia yavana, pursuing Krishna, rushed into the cave and stumbled on the sleeping Muchukunda. When Muchukunda opened his eyes in anger and saw the Yavana king, Kaala Yavana was burnt to ashes. Thus another cruel king was also eliminated.

People of nearby Dakor village saw Lord Krishna emerging out of the cave.They pleaded that He should remain with them. Krishna stayed there for some time before proceeding to the new kingdom-Dwaraka. Because they heard that Krishna was coming away from the besieged city- Mathura, they called him ‘Ran-Chod-Rai.!

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This is the Temple of Ran Chod Rai at Dakor on the bank of Gomati lake.

Let me add an anecdote related to Dakor –suggested by a lady of Andhra who had lived in Gujarat!

There was a poor couple at Dakor,-Bodana and his wife, who were great devotees of Lord Krishna of Dwaraka. They used to go by foot to Dwaraka every poornima day (full-moon day) for Darshan of Krishna. But, now they had become old and it was becoming very  difficult to undertake the journey.Lord Krishna came in Bodana’s dream and asked him to bring a bullock-cart during his next visit to Dwaraka, so that He would come with them to Dakor.! You can imagine their Joy and devotion.

Accordingly, Bodana  family went with bullock cart to Dwaraka.and prayed to Lord Krishna with great devotion.When the Temple Priest asked why he had brought a cart,this time, Bodana blurted out that Lord Krishna would be accompanying him to Dakor!

As usual, the priest closed, locked and sealed, the temple doors for the night. Badana and his wife started out to Dakor, in their cart during the night, but to their great joy they found Lord Krishns’s idol was already in the cart! . Next morning when the priest opened the temple, he found the Idol missing though the lock and seal were intact. He suspected that the idol could be with Bodana and pursued him to Dakor.

The Priest demanded that Bodana should give back the idol. When Bodana and the entire village pleaded that Lord Krishna had willingly come to Dakor, there was no question of returning, he insisted that Boda should give gold of the Idol’s weight.A  Scale with two pans was set up,and Dwaraka Krishna’s Idol was kept in one pan .

 Bodana was very poor and except for a tiny nose-ring of his wife they had no gold to offer. A nose-ring is a precious and sacred jewel for a lady, and normally no lady would be willing to part with it.But to retain the Idol for Dakor where they could worship  daily, Bodana’s wife came forward to give all that they had- her nose-ring.   The moment the nose-ring was dropped into the pan, the scale tilted towards that pan! The priest and all the devotees were greatly surprised at the miracle- Lord Krishna of Dwaraka had indicated His will to be at Dakor!!   It is said that some time later, the Priest of Dwaraka.. found another idol of Krishna in the temple pond which was installed in Dwaraka temple, for worship.

This proves that God is obliging ( Bhakta-Adheena) to his devotees!