You might have known all the stories of our Puranas. Here is the love story of Lord Krishna’s grandson, Aniruddha son of Pradyumna which you did not know.
King Banasura, who is the dedicated devotee of Lord shiva had given the responsibility of his palace’s security to Lord Shiva and then had even fought a battle with Lord Krishna. Did the king give Krishna the entire palace to guard? Here is the story.
Once Banasura was done intense meditation for many years to please Lord Shiva. Shiva, pleased with this and appeared in front of him and asked him for his wish. Then Banasur expressed his two desires. One of which is that Lord Shiva himself take the task of protecting his kingdom and the other os that the desire of fighting with a King who is as powerful as him. However, Lord shiva, at first, was little weird, but he still agreed. Lord Shiva granted his wishes and asked him to wait for a sign to begin the battle. He also warned him that the king he will fight will be too powerful.
Banasura had a very beautiful daughter, Usha. She had a friend Chitralekha who was the daughter of Kumbhanda, Minister of Banasura. Chitralekha was a talented artist and had some supernatural powers.
Banasur even built a Ganesha temple for both the girls and these girls used to visit the temple every day and worship Lord Ganesha. One day, Usha saw a young man in her dream and fell in love with him. When she was awake, she then realized that it was a dream and felt upset.
She told the same to Chitralekha. After hearing to this Chitralekha got an idea to identify the person. As she was a very good artist decided to sketch various portraits of all the gods and asked Usha to identify among them. 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.
Chitralekha, through supernatural powers, abducted Aniruddha from the palace of Krishna and brought him to Usha. When Anirudh woke up, he was shocked to see himself in a strange place. However, when she saw Usha he got attracted towards her. He asked Usha to marry him.
When Banasura came to know about it, he got very angry and kept Anirudha in jail. On discovering that Aniruddha had been carried away, Krishna, Balarama, and Pradyumna went to rescue him.
After some months, Krishna came to know where his grandson was and launched an attack on Banasura with a big army. Banasur was happy that he finally got the opportunity to fight a king who is mighty equivalent. Thus, a great battle was fought. When the army laid siege to his city, Banasura staged a fierce counter-attack. At this point, Lord Shiva joined the battle against Krishna because he had promised protection to Banasura and requested Krishna to not to kill him. Krishna agreed, but on a condition that Banasur first should apologize for his mistake and then release Anirudh.
Gratefully, Banasura prostrated before Krishna and then had Aniruddha and his bride, Usha, brought to Krishna in a regal chariot. All then returned to Dwarka, where Krishna’s victory in the combat with Bana was celebrated with festivity.