Bhagavatapurana 10.77
English (machine translation) 10.77
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Contents
10.77.1
Śrī Śuka said: / Having touched water, clad in armor, and taking up his bow, / he said to the charioteer: 'Take me to the side of that hero Dyumān!'
10.77.2
Confronting Dyumān, who was decimating his own troops, / the son of Rukmiṇī checked him and, smiling, pierced him with eight steel shafts.
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With four he struck down his four horses, with one his charioteer, / with two his bow and flagpole, and with yet another arrow his head.
10.77.4
Gada, Sātyaki, Sāmba, and the others slaughtered the force of the Saubha's master; / all the Saubha warriors fell into the ocean with their necks severed.
10.77.5
Thus, as the Yadus and the Śālvas slew one another, / that battle raged, tumultuous and fierce, for thrice nine nights.
10.77.6
Kṛṣṇa had gone to Indraprastha, invited by the son of Dharma [Yudhiṣṭhira]; / then, when the Rājasūya sacrifice was concluded and Śiśupāla was slain,
10.77.7
taking leave of the Kuru elders, the sages, and Pṛthā with her sons, / he departed for Dvāravatī, observing exceedingly terrible omens.
10.77.8
And he said: 'Since I have come here in the company of the noble elders, / the kings allied with the king of Cedi [Śiśupāla] must surely be attacking my city.'
10.77.9
Seeing that destruction of his kin, arranging for the city's defense, / and seeing the Saubha and the king of Śālva, Keśava said to Dāruka:
10.77.10
'O charioteer, take my chariot swiftly to Śālva's presence; / you must not be bewildered, for this lord of the Saubha is a master of illusions.'
10.77.11
Thus addressed, Dāruka mounted the chariot and drove it forward; / all, both his own men and the enemies, saw the younger brother of Aruṇa's elder brother [Kṛṣṇa] entering.
10.77.12
And Śālva, seeing Kṛṣṇa when his own army's leaders were mostly slain, / hurled in battle a spear of terrible sound at Kṛṣṇa's charioteer.
10.77.13
As it was hurtling through the sky with great speed like a huge meteor, / illuminating the quarters, Śauri cut it into a hundred pieces with his arrows.
10.77.14
Having pierced him with sixteen arrows and the Saubha as it wandered in the sky, / he pierced the sky with multitudes of arrows, like the sun with its rays.
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Śālva, however, pierced the left arm of Śauri, bearer of the Śārṅga bow, / along with the Śārṅga bow; the Śārṅga fell from his hand, and that was astonishing.
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A great cry of woe arose from the creatures watching there; / roaring loudly, the lord of the Saubha spoke these words to Janārdana:
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'Since by you, O fool, the wife of our friend and brother [Rukmiṇī] was abducted before our eyes, / and that friend [Śiśupāla], while off his guard in the assembly, was slain by you,
10.77.18
therefore you, who think yourself undefeated, I will today / dispatch to the realm of no return with sharp arrows, if you stand before me!'
10.77.19
The Lord said: / 'In vain do you boast, fool; you do not see death near at hand. / Heroes demonstrate their valor; they do not speak much.'
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Having spoken thus, the Lord furiously struck Śālva upon the collarbone
with his mace of frightful velocity; he trembled, vomiting blood.
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When the mace was withdrawn, Śālva vanished from sight.
Then, after an instant, a man arrived, bowing his head to Acyuta;
saying, "I have been sent by Devakī," he spoke these words, weeping:
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"Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, mighty-armed one! You who love your father—
your father has been bound and carried off by Śālva, like an animal by a butcher!"
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Hearing this distressing news, Kṛṣṇa assumed a human nature,
and downcast, tender out of affection, he spoke like an ordinary man:
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"How could my father be taken by the petty Śālva,
after conquering the unconfounded Rāma, unconquerable by gods and demons? Truly, fate is powerful!"
10.77.25
While Govinda was speaking thus, the lord of the Saubha [craft] appeared,
bringing what seemed to be Vasudeva, and said to Kṛṣṇa:
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"Here is your father who begot you, for whose sake you live here in this world.
I shall slay him while you look on; foolish boy, protect him if you are Lord!"
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Having reviled him thus, the master of illusions severed the head
of Ānakadundubhi with a sword, and taking it, entered the Saubha stationed in the sky.
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Then, for a moment, he remained overwhelmed in human nature, his self-awareness clouded by attachment to his kin;
but the exalted Lord soon realized it was a demoniac trick spread by Śālva, devised by Maya.
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en:
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So some sages declare, O royal sage, but they are not consistent;
surely they do not remember that this contradicts their own words.
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Where are grief, delusion, attachment, or fear, which arise from ignorance,
and where is he of undivided wisdom, knowledge, and unbroken sovereignty?
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By knowledge of the self, invigorated through service to his feet, [sages] cast off beginningless misconception of the self
and attain their own endless sovereign nature; whence, then, could delusion come to the Supreme, the refuge of virtuous devotees?
10.77.32.p1
While Śālva was striking with masses of weapons with all his might, Śauri of unfailing valor,
10.77.33
pierced him with arrows, severed his armor, bow, and crest-jewel, and shattered the enemy's Saubha with his mace.
10.77.33.p1
[…]
10.77.34
Pulverized by the mace hurled from Kṛṣṇa’s hand, it fell into the water in a thousand pieces.
Abandoning it and standing on the ground, Śālva raised his mace and rushed swiftly upon Acyuta.
10.77.35
As he charged forward, [the Lord] severed his arm, mace and all, with a crescent-tipped arrow; then, to slay Śālva, he held his wondrous discus,
resembling the sun at the dissolution of the world, and shone like the eastern mountain with the rising sun.
10.77.36
With that very weapon, Hari struck off the head, adorned with earrings and a diadem, of that great illusionist,
just as Purandara severed the head of Vṛtra with his thunderbolt; then a cry of "Alas, alas!" rose from the people.
10.77.37
When that wicked one had fallen and the Saubha was destroyed by the mace,
kettledrums sounded in the heavens, O king, beaten by the hosts of gods.
Then, to repay the debt of his friends, Dantavakra rushed forward in fury.
Translations (1)
- The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English
Linked texts (1)
- Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit