Śiśupāla's Hundred Offenses — a promise kept, or a countdown to a killing

The Mahābhārata's Sabhā Parvan records that Kṛṣṇa's aunt — Śiśupāla's mother, named Śrutaśravā in most tellings, though sources vary on the exact name — asked Kṛṣṇa in advance to spare her son whatever provocation he gave. Kṛṣṇa agreed, promising (Ganguli's translation, Section XLII) to forgive Śiśupāla a hundred offenses before acting against him, even granting that Śiśupāla might eventually deserve death. The promise itself establishes the terms well before the events at Yudhiṣṭhira's sacrifice that would test it.

At Yudhiṣṭhira's Rājasūya sacrifice, the assembly debates who should receive the ceremony's first honor (agrapūjā). Bhīṣma argues for Kṛṣṇa. Śiśupāla objects publicly, disputing Kṛṣṇa's claim to precedence over the assembled kings of Bhāratavarṣa and escalating into direct, repeated insults of Kṛṣṇa in front of the full court — not a private grievance, but a status dispute staged before witnesses who each had their own stake in how it was resolved.

The Sabhā Parvan (Section XLV in Ganguli's numbering, though chapter division varies between editions and translations) records Kṛṣṇa declaring that Śiśupāla's offenses have reached the agreed limit, and killing him with his discus in front of the assembly. The killing is immediate upon the declared count, with no further escalation given between that statement and the act itself.

The confrontation does not begin as a personal grievance between Kṛṣṇa and Śiśupāla alone — it begins with Bhīṣma's own public argument for why Kṛṣṇa deserved the sacrifice's first honor, which is what draws Śiśupāla's objection in the first place. The status dispute Bhīṣma opened is part of what the killing settles; Śiśupāla's death closes a court argument about precedence as much as it closes a private account of insults.

• Mahābhārata, Sabhā Parvan. The vow to forgive a hundred offenses: Ganguli's translation, Section XLII. Śiśupāla's objection to Kṛṣṇa's agrapūjā and his escalating insults, and the killing itself: Section XLV (chapter numbering varies between the Ganguli translation and the critical edition — this essay cites by parvan and section rather than a single contested chapter number, matching the convention used elsewhere on this site).
• Note on a discrepancy. Śiśupāla's mother's name is given variously as Śrutaśravā, Śrutaśravas, or Śrutakīrti across different tellings; this essay uses Śrutaśravā, the most commonly attested form, and flags the variance rather than silently picking one.
• Ganguli, K. M. (Trans.), The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Sabhā Parvan — public-domain translation, consulted directly for the sequence above.