Mahā kāvya and the traits of the characters in that epic used to follow a certain set of rules during the period of Māgha and he adopted all these pre-existing patterns in his work religiously.
Māgha’s work consists of 20 sarga and 1645 verses. Kṛṣṇa is the protagonist of Śiśupālavadha and this work mainly consists of “Vīra” (heroic) rasa (emotion). Though he has used several other types of Rasa in his work, “Vīra '' rasa can be predominantly seen in this epic.
There is a vast array of poetic descriptions of mountains, seasons, and all the other things which are considered important by Rhetoricians. Māgha has also profusely used different Śabda alaṅkaras in various meters throughout the composition. Exercising Śabda alaṅkaras was widely practiced by the poets during the time of Māgha to showcase their ability in employing Śabda alaṅkaras and it was considered as an exercise of intellect by the Rhetoricians.
Throughout this epic poem, Māgha has unleashed a learned discussion on the principles of Polity, especially in the second sarga.
Māgha selected the poem ‘Śiśupālavadha’ from an episode of the great Indian epic Mahābhārata. Śiśupāla’s episode can be seen in Mahābhārata during the Yudhiṣṭhira’s rājasūya yāga. Śiśupāla was Kṛṣṇa’s cousin and when he was born he had extra limbs. An “Aśarīravāṇi” (divine voice) declared that the extra limbs would fall away when the child is placed on the lap of a particular person. It further declared that the same person will be responsible for the death of Śiśupāla as well.
Thus, Śiśupāla’s mother used to place her child on the lap of everyone who visits their house and once when Kṛṣṇa came to their house, she placed Śiśupāla on Kṛṣṇa’s lap. As said in the Aśarīra vāṇi as soon as Śiśupāla was placed on Kṛṣṇa’s lap the extra limbs fell down and the child became normal. Meanwhile, she realized that Kṛṣṇa would be responsible for his death as well, thus she prayed to Kṛṣṇa to spare her child. Kṛṣṇa agrees to her request and warns her that he would forgive the 100 faults of Śiśupāla but would kill him if he exceeds that limit.
Many Kings who accepted the sovereignty of Yudhiṣṭhira were present at the Rājasūya yajña conducted by Yudhiṣṭhira. Offering “Agrapūja”, and honoring and worshiping a great man is a customary practice of this Pūjā. Bhīṣma advises Yudhiṣṭhira to offer “Agrapūja” only to Kṛṣṇa as he was the reincarnation of Vishnu. Everyone agreed, except Śiśupāla who was full of jealousy and could not accept Kṛṣṇa being honored with “Agrapūja”. So he objected, denounced Kṛṣṇa, and insulted him calling him a cowherd. Śiśupāla starts to list many more cases of abuse on Kṛṣṇa and thus exceeded his limit. As a result, Kṛṣṇa was compelled to behead Śiśupāla with his Chakra (disc). Śiśupāla’s death is the core theme of Māgha’s famous Sanskrit epic Śiśupāla Vadha.
Māgha is normally compared with another great contemporary poet Bhāravi. It is believed that Māgha’s Śiśupāla Vadha’ was inspired by the Kirātārjunīya of Bhāravi and Māgha has tried to surpass it in his own way.
There is a popular Sanskrit verse about Māgha that says,
upamā kālidāsasya, bhāraverarthagauravam
daṇḍinaḥ padalālityaṃ māghe santi trayo guṇāḥ ॥
The meaning is -
The similes of Kāḷidāsa, Bhāravi's profundity in meaning, Daṇḍin’s mellifluous words —all three qualities are found in Māgha. However, there is a very pertinent doubt here. The above sentence says, māghe santi trayo guṇāḥ”. Guṇa means quality or merits and “Upamā '' is not a quality. So, it is understood that Māgha’s work had all three Guṇas that were considered important by Rhetoricians and they are 1. Mādhurya – Melody of words, 2. Ojas – powerful statement and 3. Prasāda – lucidity of words.
This Mahākāvya is recognized as one of the five prime representatives of this prestigious mode of poetic composition. This is because of the poetry, form structure, approach, and the use of Sanskrit language exhibiting the malleability that is unique to this language. The exquisite descriptions and the wordplay used here are considered to be very elegant thus giving this Kāvya the distinction of being called the Sanskrit dictionary.