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30
JAINISM
than where they live at present?
Let us turn our attention to the traces of distant past of the Asuras on the territories which are of interest to us in this context.
In Mahabharat, the description of the unjust rule of the ruler of ancient Magadha, Jarasandha, and the manner in which Pandavas, incensed by his wicked acts, killed him with the support of their colleague Krishna, occupies significant place.
This Jarasandha, according to the epic, was born in the form of two halves of a child, from two wives of his father, who abandoned these halves. But a she-demon (rakshasi) found those parts, composed them together and the child came •to life. That is why, in the epic, Jarasandha is called the son of rakshasi, which explains his wicked nature (read Anti-Aryan Tendency).
Jarasandha is portrayed as an Asura in many works of Vedic literature.21
The other legend (contained in the Puranas) says that at one time an Asura-giant named Gaya lived on this earth, who was a zealous bhagwat. He was an adherent of God Vishnu. Vishnu endowed him with great sanctity. Then the gods turned to Gaya with a request to be allowed to perform sacrificial offerings on his body. Gaya agreed and the gods, placing his head to the north and feet to the south started to perform the sacrificial ceremony. But Gaya's head began to shake and this disturbed them. Then all of them climbed on his head but until Vishnu himself appeared, it continued to shake. After this, Gaya requested that gods should alw his head, and since then, that place, where according to the legend, lay his head, and now called Gaya, is considered one of the very holy places in India. It is situated in the southern part of Bihar.22
The other Sanskrit names of this place are Gayashiras (head of Gaya) and Munda-prishtha (the hind part of the head, back of the head). It is possible to assume also another inter
21. Bihar Through the Ages, p. 114. The famous German indologist Walter Ruben ascribes Asuras to the Munda peoples (W. Ruben, Eisenschmiede und Dämonen in Indien).
22. Legend renarrated from the book by J. H. Dave, Immortal India, Vol. I, pp. 33-35.
