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According to the Mahabharata, when Sisupala was born with three eyes and four hands, it was proclaimed that the person who caused them to disappear would be Sisupala's slayer. Since his mother Shrutashravas was Krsna's aunt, Krsna and Balarama too came to see their cousin. But as soon as Krsna placed Sisupala on his lap, the third eye and extra two hands disappeared. This must have happened when Krsna was twelve years or older.

Now later on, (in Srimad Bhagavatam), after constructing Dvaraka, Krsna marries Rukmini, who was betrothed to Sisupala. Here, unless the seventeen battles of Jarasandha took more than a decade, Sisupala couldn't have been more than ten years old. How then could he marry Rukmini? And if Rukmini was younger than Sisupala what was the age gap between Krsna and Rukmini?

To summarize: How older was Krsna to Rukmini and Sisupala and at what age did her marry Rukmini?

Surya
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    First of all, where does it say that the battles with Jarasandha started as soon as Krishna killed Kamsa? Second of all, what reason do you have to believe that the 17 battles happened within a decade? In any case, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Krishna and Rukmini had a big age difference. In those days men could marry relatively late in life, but girls usually married right when they hit puberty. – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 14 '15 at 15:32
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    @Keshav It need not be immediately after Kamsa's death. It could have been a while since he had to ammass his armies. But then maybe he would have begun his sieges when Krsna was 15 years max. So by that logic it does seem to stretch for more than a decade. – Surya Dec 14 '15 at 15:52
  • @Keshav But how is it that Krsna wasn't married before this time? Like as soon as he was 15 Vasudeva would have begun bride hunting right? – Surya Dec 14 '15 at 15:53
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    Well, in the Vedic period men would often wait until relatively late in life before getting married. Arjuna was 37 when he married Draupadi; see my answer here: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5172/36 And he was 56 when Abhimanyu was born. – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 15 '15 at 00:36
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    By the way, both the Manu Smriti and the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata suggest a rule of thumb that the groom be about three times the age of the bride. – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 15 '15 at 00:42
  • @Keshav Is there any information about how older Krsna was to Shishupala? Because if Krsna was eleven when he came to Mathura and around eleven-twelve when he visited Shishupala, would it mean that Shishupala was a baby or around four or five years of age? – Surya Mar 23 '16 at 17:36
  • I'm not sure if Hindu scripture mentions their age difference, but one relevant piece of information is that this chapter of the Sabha Parva says that Krishna and Balarama came from Dwaraka when they visited Shishupala as a baby: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02042.htm Note that the Srimad Bhagavatam doesn't say that Krishna married Rukmini immediately after the creation of Dwaraka, it just lists Balarama's marriage to Revati and Krishna's marriage to Rukmini as events that happened after they moved to Dwaraka. – Keshav Srinivasan Mar 23 '16 at 17:57
  • @Keshav Since it says that Shrutashrava placed Sisupala on Krsna's lap, is it safe to assume that he was approximately two to three years of age at the most? Because that's when children begin to walk on their own (and mothers stop carrying them). – Surya Mar 23 '16 at 18:02
  • Yeah, that's definitely a fair assumption, in fact I always assumed he was a new-born baby. – Keshav Srinivasan Mar 23 '16 at 18:44
  • @Keshav But then you are making Krsna very old at the time if his marriage - he would have been some thirty something if Shishu was a Shishu... – Surya Mar 24 '16 at 05:51
  • Like I said, males back then often waited until relatively late in life before getting married. – Keshav Srinivasan Mar 24 '16 at 12:47
  • @Keshav Ahem, Rama. Ahem, Nappinnai and Krsna. :) – Surya Mar 24 '16 at 13:58
  • Yeah, some people did marry early, but a lot of people didn't. And I'm still unsure of what the deal is with the whole Nappinnai thing. – Keshav Srinivasan Mar 24 '16 at 14:26
  • @KeshavSrinivasan Skanda Purana says Krishna married Rukmini when she was 8 years old. –  Jun 22 '17 at 18:16
  • @Ajay Where does the Skanda Purana say that? You should post that as an answer. In any case, that wouldn't be entirely surprising; child marriage was a well-established practice back then. – Keshav Srinivasan Jun 22 '17 at 22:35
  • @KeshavSrinivasan see the 14th line here. http://www.indianscriptures.com/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-xv/chapter-142/topic-1 –  Jun 23 '17 at 03:58

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