Story of Sri Krishna’s marriage with Jambavati is very interesting. We very well known about Radha Krishna’s divine love story. Here we tells about how Lord Krishna’s marriage took place with Daughter of Jambavan. The name Jambavati is a patronymic which means the daughter of Jambavan. The story of Jambavan appears with slight differences in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavatapurana, Vishnupurana and Devibhagavata.
The story of Krishna’s marriage with Jambavati is closely linked with the well- known story of Shyamanthaka. Shyamanthaka was a precious diamond which belonged to the Sun God. A nobleman named Sathrajit, belonging to the Yadavas community, prayed to Lord Soorya Deva to obtain this beautiful diamond. Pleased by the prayer of his devotee, Soorya Deva presented Shyamanthaka. Satrajit returned along with that to Dwaraka, the capital of the Yadava kingdom. Sri Krishna requested him to present the jewel to Ugrasena, the supreme leader of the Yadavas. Satrajit did not agreed the Krishna’s decision.
Satrajit presented Shyamanthaka to his brother Prasena, who was the ruler of a Yadava province. Once Prasena went for hunting in the forest wearing the diamond. He was attacked by a lion and was killed. The lion fled with the jewel. It entered into the mountain cave of Jambavan. The lion was attacked by Jambavan. He killed it and took the diamond. Jambavan gifted it to his young son who used to play with it.
Following the incident, there escalated a rumour that Shri Krishna who had an eye on the Shyamanthaka jewel, murdered Prasena and stole the jewel. Krishna felt annoyed by this false allegation and decided to find out the truth. Lord Krishna, his brother Balarama and other kinsmen set out in search of Prasena. They followed the same trail that Prasena had taken and discovered the corpses of Prasena and his horse. In the mouth of the horse, pieces of teeth and nails of a lion were seen. They then followed the trail of the lion and reached the cave, where the dead lion was lying. Shri Krishna entered the cave alone. He saw a child playing with the priceless jewel. The child was Jambavantha’s son. As Shri Krishna was nearing the child cried aloud which alerted Jambavantha. There took place a fierce combat for several days between Krishna and Jambavan.
Jambavantha finally realised that Krishna with whom he was fighting was none other than Lord Vishnu, who was his benefactor Shirama in the Tretayuga. Jambavantha gave up his fight and returned the jewel to Shrikrishna. As a token of gratitude and devotion to Shrikrishna, Jambavantha offered his maiden daughter Jambavati in marriage to him along with the Shyamanthaka jewel. Shrikrishna accepted both and went back to Dwaraka along with his brother and kinsmen.