The unknown love story of Lord Krishna's grandson!
In our Puranas, there is a mention about a King who had given the responsibility of his palace’s security to Lord Shiva and then had even fought abattle with Lord Krishna. We are talking about King Banasur after whose name Barsur of Chhattisgarh was named.King Banasur was extremely powerful and was a dedicated devotee of Lord Shiva. So, what happened that the King who fought with Lord Krishna gave him the entire palace to guard?Banasur was a dedicated devotee of Lord Shiva. He had done intense meditation for years to please the God.
Pleased with his tapasya, Lord Shiva appeared before him and asked him his wish. Banasur expressed a desire that the Lord Shiva himself take the task of protecting his kingdom.Initially, Lord Shiva found it to be a little weird, but he still agreed. Then Banasur expressed another desire of fighting with a King who is as powerful as him. Lord Shiva granted his wish but asked him to wait for a sign to begin the battle. Healso warned him that the king he will fight will be too powerful.Banasur had a daughter, Usha.
She was very beautiful. She had a friend, Chitralekha who was the daughter of her father’s minister.Banasur even built a Ganesha temple for both the girls. Since then both Usha and Chitralekhs used to visit the temple every day and worship Lord Ganesha.One day Usha was sleeping and she dreamt of a handsome prince and she fell in love with him. But when she woke up, the prince was not there. She got really upset about this fact and started crying that she won’t be able to live without the prince that she dreamt of.Chitralekha heard Usha carefully and came up with a plan. As per her plan, Chitralekha drew the picturs of all the Gods and asked Usha to indentify if any one of these Gods had come in herdream.
When Usha saw the picture of Anirudh, grandson of Lord Krishna, she became very happy and said that he is the man whom she wants to spend the rest of her life.That night when everybody went to sleep, Chitralekha used her magical powers and brought Prince Anirudh from his palace to Banasur’s palace. When Anirudh woke up in the morning, he was shocked to see himself in a strange place, but when he saw Usha, he got attracted towards her. He asked Usha to marry him. However, when Banasur came to know about it, he got very angry.He put Anirudh in the jail. When Krishna discovered this, he realized that there was only one way to release Anirudh. That was war with Banasur. Krishna prepared his army and reachedBanasur’s territory and declared war.
Banasur was happy that he finally got the opportunity to fight a king who is mighty equivalent.The battle between Banasur and Krishna began. When Krishna was about to slaughter Banasur, Lord Shiva appeared there to protect his devotee and requested Krishna to not kill him. Krishna agreed, but on a condition that Banasur first should apologize for his mistake and then releaseAnirudh.Banasur realized his mistake and apologized. He also approved the proposal for Usha and Anirudh’s marriage.
Courtesy:Dailybhaskar.com
