JARASANDHA, a warrior king of Magadha, of a Turanian dynasty, to whom various deeds and dates are assigned ; perhaps several rulers bore this name. He twice waged war against Mathura, the Behar of the present day. Krishna repulsed the first invasion, but after the second invasion Krishna and the Yadava retired to Dwaraka. Jarasandha and Sahadeva, according to Professor Wilson, were contemporaries, B.C. 1400. Jarasandha is supposed by Sir William Jones to have been a contemporary of Krishna and Yudishthra, n.e. 3101. Jarasandha, king of Magadha, is the historical personage amongst the heroic kings of the Mahabharata. It was his wars and conquests which occasioned the great popular movement that took place im mediately before the era of the five Pandava kings. He drove the Yadava from their settle ments on the Jumna, and brought 86 kings prisoners to his capital. He held imperial sway. It was he who opposed Semiramis, B.c. 1230, defeated and drove her back to the Indus with immense loss. He was son of Brihadratha and grandson
of Vasu. He was of the dynasty of the Barhad ratha, which Bunsen estimates, B.C. 986, was followed by the following dynasties :—Pradotya, B.C. 646.; Bimbisara, B.C. 578. In this dynasty Buddha appeared as a teacher, and died B.C. 543. Sesliunaga, B.C. 446; Nand, 378; Maurya, whose first was Chandragupta, 312. , After Jarasandha's death, his kingdom fell to pieces, and it was followed by the murderous war amongst the princes of the Kaurava and Pandava.—Jara sandha ka Baithak, a Buddhist tower near Sarnath, 28 feet in diameter and 21 feet high, with a basement 14 feet high. Its total height, when complete, was probably 56 feet. Fergus son says (p. 45) it is also described as• a brick st'hupa at Giryek, 7 miles E. of Rajgir ; Another at Rajgir, the ancient Rajagriha.--- Wheeler's Hist.
of India, i. pp. 164, 475 ; Bunsen, iii. pp. 547-591; Ferguson and Burgess, Care Temples of India, p. 45.