Jalandhara Katha: Story of demon Jalandhar, battle of Lord Shiva & Jalandhar

Story of demon Jalandhar, battle of Lord Shiva & Jalandhar. What is the story of Lord Vishnu and Jalandhara. Jalandhara’s war against Lord Shiva. His boon from Lord Vishnu.

Jalandhar was the powerful demon born out of the brilliant radiance of Lord Shiva. He was the King of demons who lived in the sea and created havoc among the Gods. Lord Shiva sometimes also known as Jalandharavatamurthi as he destroyed the demon.

The Birth of Jalandhar :

Lord Indra was on his way to Kailash parvat to meet Lord Shiva. He was accompanied by Sage Brihaspati. Lord Shiva wanted to test his devotion and disguised himself as a hermit. Indra was not able to recognise Shiva and started enquiring about him. When the hermit did not reply even after repeated questioning, he got angry and tried to hit him with his Vajrayudha.

Upon seeing this Lord Shiva got angry and paralysed the hands of Indra and Brihaspati immediately realised that it was Shiva in disguise. He prayed to Shiva to pardon Indra. Then Lord Shiva diverted the power of his radiant eyes onto the sea which led to the birth of Jalandhar.

Brahma meets the baby Jalandhar :

The baby which was born out of Shiva’s radiant eyes was crying loudly in the sea and the deities got worried about this and informed Brahma. Then Brahma went to the sea and took the child in his lap. The baby was so strong that when it pressed Lord Brahma’s nek, it was so painful that tears rolled down from his eyes. So he was named Jalandhar. Then Brahma said to the sea that the child will become the King of demons and no one other than Lord Shiva will be able to defeat him.

Jalandhar grows up to become a powerful demon :

Later Jalandhar married Vrinda who was the daughter of Kalnemi and became the King of demons. Once he met Sage Bhrigu and wanted to know about the demons. Bhrigu told him all about Hiranyakashipu and how the churning of ocean happened and how the demons were not given the celestial nectar.

On listening to this story, Jalandhar became very angry and sent one of his messengers Ghasmar to Indra and asked him to return all the wealth taken from sea during the churning of ocean. Lord Indra did not reply positively and Jalandhar became furious at this.

Jalandhar attacks the Gods :

Jalandhar attacked the Gods and Shukracharya took the side of demons and Brihaspati took the side of Gods. Both these sages were experts in bringing back the dead to life and hence the battle became very fierce.

Then Shukracharya instructed Jalandhar to submerge the Drongiri mountain into sea because that is where Brihaspati got all the medicinal herbs for bringing back the dead to life. Then Brihaspati could not help the Gods and they were defeated. Jalandhar had captured the Heavens.

Jalandhar gets a boon from Vishnu :

The Gods after being defeated approached Lord Vishnu for help to which he agreed. But Goddess Lakshmi was not happy as she considered Jalandhar as her brother for being originated from Sea and requested Vishnu not to kill him. Vishnu agreed to fight Jalandhar but assured that he will not be killed.

After a fierce battle, Vishnu was pleased with Jalandhar’s power and blessed him. Jalandhar requested Vishnu to make Ksheera Sagar which is the sea of milk as his home along with his sister Goddess Lakshmi. Vishnu agreed to this and thereafter lived in the sea of milk along with Lakshmi.

Narada tricks Jalandhar :

The deities met Narada and sought his help. He went to meet Jalandhar and provoked him to have Parvati as his consort. Jalandhar fell into the trap and sent Rahu to Lord Shiva asking for Parvati’s hand. Shiva got furious and was about to destroy Rahu but Rahu begged for pardon and was left.

The final Battle with Lord Shiva :

Rahu then went to Jalandhar and narrated the story. Jalandhar attacked Shiva with his army and a fierce battle was fought. When Jalandhar was not able to gain upper hand , he created an illusion and many apsaras started dancing. The army of Shiva got enchanted with this and their mind got deviated.

During this period, Jalandhar tried to disguise himself as Lord Shiva and went to Parvati, but she recognised him. Parvati sought the help of Vishnu and Vishnu did the same trick with Jalandhar’s wife. But Jalandhar’s wife could not recognise Vishnu and she stayed with him.

Later when she came to know the truth, she cursed Vishnu and jumped into fire. Meanwhile, Shiva and his army got over the illusion and defeated Jalandhar. Jalandhar merged with Lord Shiva.

Then Shiva came to know about the plight of Vishnu after the death of Jalandhar’s wife . Parvati came to their help and with the help of Lakshmi and Saraswati she gave some seeds to the Gods. They put those seeds on the pyre in which Vrinda gave her life and from it sprang three holy plants Amla, Tulsi and Malti.