śiśu—pāla m. ‘child-protector’, N. of the king of the Cedis inhabiting a country in central India, probably the same as Bundelkhand (see cedi; he was son of Dama-ghoṣa, and is also called Sunītha; his impiety in opposing the worship of Kṛṣṇa is described in the Sabhā-parvan of the Mahā-bhārata; when Yudhiṣṭhira was about to perform a Rājasūya sacrifice, numerous princes attended, and Bhīṣma proposed that especial honour should be paid to Kṛṣṇa, who was also present, but Śiśu-pāla objected, and after denouncing Kṛṣṇa as a contemptible person challenged him to fight, whereupon Kṛṣṇa struck off his head with his discus; the Viṣṇu-Purāṇa identifies this impious monarch with the demons Hiraṇya-kaśipu and Rāvaṇa; his death forms the subject of Māgha's celebrated poem called Śiśupāla-vadha)