Tale of the Syamantaka gem

In the city of Dwarka, there lived a nobleman, Satrâjit. He was a devotee of Sûrya, the sun God, who pleased with Satrâjit gifted him the Syamantaka gem. The gem’s specialty was that it could magically produce eight measures of gold everyday. Satrâjit soon became wealthy and the envy of every man in the kingdom. Kṛṣṇa who created Dwarka, requested Satrâjit to donate the gemstone to the kingdom, so that all the citizen could benefit. Satrâjit declined as he wanted to keep the gemstone within his family.

Listen to the tale of Krishna and the Syamantaka gem

Prasena

One day, his brother Prasena went out to hunt wearing the Syamantaka gem on his neck. He sat crouched on a tree, waiting to lure a lion which was known to inhabit those parts. However, when the lion came, Prasena got distracted by a snake hissing nearby, slipped and fell down from the tree. His leg got caught on a branch and his necklace on another branch and he hung to death.

When days passed and Prasena did not return, people started to gossip that Kṛṣṇa must have gotten rid of him to posses the symantaka gemstone. Kṛṣṇa, in order to prove his innocence, gathered a search party of soldiers and went into the forest. He found Prasena’s body and a dead lion a few feet away. The lion’s corpse had bear claw marks on it. Kṛṣṇa realised that the necklace must have fallen from Prasena’s body and carried away by whoever killed the lion. He had guessed right, as it was Jāmbavān, the king of bears who had killed the lion, found the necklace and gifted it to his son.

Jāmbavān

The soldiers traced the bear paw marks to Jāmbavān’s cave. Kṛṣṇa ordered the soldiers to stay outside and entered the cave. He found Jāmbavān’s son playing with the Syamantaka gem. As Kṛṣṇa reached to take the gem, Jāmbavān’s son cried. Jāmbavān pounced upon Kṛṣṇa who fought back. Since both were great warriors, the fight lasted for 21 days, after which Jāmbavān realised that who Kṛṣṇa was and surrendered to him. The soldiers who were tired of waiting broke into the cave only to find a bloodied Kṛṣṇa and they cried war. Jāmbavān pacified them all and offered Kṛṣṇa his daughter Jâmbavatî’s hand in marriage.

Satyabhāmā

On his return to Dwarka, Kṛṣṇa returned the gem to Satrâjit, who apologised for accusing Kṛṣṇa. As a sign of repentance, Satrâjit offered both the Syamantaka gem and his daughter SSatyabhāmā (in marriage) to Kṛṣṇa. He married her but did not accept the gem. Now, Satyabhāmā already had three suitors – Akrura, Kritavarma and Shatadhanwa who felt cheated by this marriage. In an uncontrollable rage, Shatadhanwa killed Satrâjit and stole the gemstone, gave it to Akrura and fled from Dwarka.

Satyabhāmā was distraught. Kṛṣṇa chased after Shatadhanwa and killed him to bring justice. He then approached Akrura, with a request that both he and the stone, stay in the city and serve the city forever. Akrura accepted this and narrated the incident to people of the city so that they know the truth.

References and Further reading

Srimad Bhagavata. Canto 10, chapter 56.
Iyer, Jaishree. 2012. “Narayaneeyam Dasakam: 80 The Story of Syamantaka Jewel.” Narayaneeyam Dasakam: 80 — The Story of Syamantaka Jewel. April 1, 2012. http://onlynarayaneeyam.blogspot.com/2012/04/narayaneeyam-dasakam-80-story-of.html.

All stories have been collected from various sources, including oral histories and temple histories and compiled to form one narrative. Hence, there may be differences from the master narrative. The project hopes only to be a curator of stories and not an expert on history, religion and iconography.