Many years ago, King Muchukunda had taken part in a fight between the devas and the asuras. After killing many asuras Muchukunda was tired. He craved a boon from the gods that he might sleep for along period of time. The devas granted the boon and also said that whoever woke up Muchukunda would be burnt into ashes by the flames that would come out of the king’s body.

Having burnt up Kalayavana, King Muchukunda came out of the cave and found that people were now much shorter than they used to be. He realised that the Kali era much have arrived and went off to do tapasya on Mount Gandhamadana.

Kalayavana’s soldiers were defected by Krishna.