Jara is called the Daughter of Death and Goddess of Old Age. Man was very much in tune with nature when he made humble beginnings alongside rivers and villages. He migrated to bigger settlements and discovered that more of nature can be mastered but this needed to be fixed up. Mother Goddess Devi came in her manifested form Goddess Jara who raised her rank to a goddess from a blood thirsty goddess. She is also called Goddess of prosperity, happiness, domestic health and household. Goddess Jara is identified with Goddess of Midwifery and Goddess Jivantika.
As per Hindu mythology, the king Brihadratha of Magadha after severe tapas attained a boon in the form of a fruit from sage Chandakaushika in the forest to help his wife get pregnant and give birth to a child. However the sage didn’t know that the king had 2 wives. King Brihadratha cut the fruit into two halves and gave each of his wives to eat. However the 2 newborns were just a bundle of bones and meat which Brihadranatha discarded in the forest. Motherly instincts arose in the otherwise rakshashi – blood meat eating Jara. She merged the two pieces, breastfed the living child and summoned Brihadratha from his palace grounds. The new born was named as Jarasandha – which means ‘joined by Jara’. As ordered by Brihadranatha, she became guardian of all newborns and to be worshipped by all mothers. It is believed that Goddess Jara shed tears when Bhima killed Jarasandha in a battle.
